Kevin Choi C1010.53 Exercise 1.1 1.

While the issue of animal rights is on the rise, Pollan tries to refute Singer's argument, which presents equal consideration of humans and animals interests in avoiding pain and the concept of capacity for pain in a retarded-infant-versus-normal-ape situation. Pollan, however, does not want to succumb to speciesism, which can be linked to racism, or to the natural order, which can justify murder and rape. Then he asserts, with the example of the animal-friendly Polyface Farm, that animal welfare, not animal rights, and transparency of slaughtering should be advocated while acknowledging that predation is inevitable evolutionarily. 2. a. From everything I've read, egg and hog operations are the worst. The paragraph that starts with this sentence puzzled me for a moment - though later he admits he sounds like an animal rightist. Providing the argument of animal rightists portraying the reality of factory farms, Pollan does not intentionally lead readers in an unilateral way, but actually strengthens his points. b. Steve Davis, an animal scientist at Oregon State University, has estimated that if America were to adopt a strictly vegetarian diet, the total number of animals killed every year would actually increase, as animal pasture gave way to row crops. It is always good to consider Plan B. With this specific example of research demonstrating unexpected result, Pollan succeeds in conveying well-your-way-doesn't-work-at-all-either. c. What this suggests to me is that people who care should be working not for animal rights but animal welfare - to ensure that farm animals don't suffer and that their deaths are swift and painless. This questions the fundamental view of animal rightists. If they are really worried about animals suffering, it does make more sense that they advocate for animal welfare as it is undeniable that we are on top of the ecological food chain. Posing a more realistic viewpoint, Pollan makes a strong case as he further suggests transparency of slaughtering that would in turn promote animal welfare. 3. As I mentioned above regarding the first passage, I was in fact troubled by Pollan's detailed description of egg and hog operations. The imageries he used as well as emphases on negative words, such as pain, suffering, and madness, to describe the reality, were indeed disgusting. However, the passage not only woke me up as a reader, but also gave more depth to Pollan's arguments by laying out the counterview truthfully. With this, I could see that Pollan tried to make his arguments well-rounded in order not to be one-sided. Taking his chance, he then went on describing the exception of the Polyface Farm, an "animal-friendly" farm. Upon this shedding of a new light on the issue, he elaborated on the concept of mutualistic domestication, how killing of animals is inevitable, and how animal rightists should work for animal welfare, all of these points in spontaneous succession. It was a smart turning point, overall.