Michael Pollan's An Animal Place By Michael Pollan

In Michael Pollan’s “An Animal’s Place,” he wavers between the idea of if it is right to eat animals. Pollan first begins to think about the issue after reading “Animal Liberation” by Peter Singer. In this narrative, Singer argues why it is wrong to eat animals. Singer states that animals deserve rights because they are able to suffer just like humans. While Pollan reads it, he tries to understand Singer’s views and counteract his arguments. Throughout Pollan’s work, he appears to not make a definite stance on the issue until later on in the text. Towards the end of the text, he provides evidence based on evolution to show it is ethical to eat animals. Pollan believes it is ethical to consume animals and animal products due to the concept of

According to Pollan, “predation is not matter of morality or politics; it, also, is a matter of symbiosis” (Pg 691). Pollan describes the relationship between the wolf and the deer. While it may seem quaint, the deer needs to be hunted by the wolf in order to control the population and overall well being of the species. Without wolves, the deer population will spiral out of control until there is not enough resources available to sustain the whole population. In this case, the deer will begin to starve and will stop producing young as a result of the lack of resources. While the wolf is depended upon in nature to preserve a balance, so is man. Pollan believes that humans have taken over the predator’s ecological role in many areas, and it is because of the need for balance that it is ethical to eat animals. There are also other learned behaviors and traits humans have that Pollan uses to express his

Pollan writes that while humans do not necessarily need to eat meat for survival, the desire to eat meat is “reflected in the design of our teeth and the structure of our digestion”(Pg 693). Much like wolves and other predatory animals, humans have canine and incisor teeth to tear off meat, along with molars to chew and break down food. If humans were not meant to consume other animals, than our front teeth would be less sharp and our molars more flat in order to adequately breakdown vegetation. The act of hunting other animals has also affected humans. Pollan states that, “Under the pressure of the hunt, the human brain grew in size and complexity, and around the fire where the meat was cooked, human culture first flourished” (Pg 693). Hunting has allowed humans to become complex thinkers as a result of having to create tools in order to successfully hunt prey. Pollan believes hunting has evolutionarily and socially created humans to be the way we are