Jonathan Safran Foer (Photo: David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons)

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Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer made his name young and powerfully.

In two startlingly fresh books — “Everything Is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” — he brought a new generation’s eye to the Holocaust and to the shock of 9/11.

Now, the young novelist has gone non-fiction to look at the most elemental of human habits: what we eat. Specifically, the factory-farmed meat Americans consume in titanic volumes.

He thinks it’s wrong. He may persuade you.

This hour, On Point: A conversation with Jonathan Safran Foer on his new book, “Eating Animals.”

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Jonathan Safran Foer joins us from New York. He’s the author of the acclaimed novels “Everything is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” His new book,  “Eating Animals,” is a  nonfiction appeal for a moral reconsideration of meat eating.

You can read an excerpt from “Eating Animals” at the book’s website.

A deer is seen in the South Mountain Reservation in West Orange, N.J., near private homes, on Jan. 25, 2008. (AP)

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North America was once a brimming landscape of abundant wildlife — animals great and small, coast to coast, all over. Then human populations, and hunting, ground wildlife down to a desperate nub.

Now, key wildlife populations are making a comeback, maybe into your backyard. Deer, coyote, moose, bear, wild turkey. Cougar. Wolf.

They’re rubbing up against a lot of people. On the street. On the golf course. And hunting is way down. Some say it’s time to bring hunting back, to strike the balance. Others say no more playing God with guns.

This hour, On Point: Thinking again about hunting.

You can join the conversation. Are animals crowding humans, or is it the other way around? Is hunting the way to solve problems between people and animals?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

From Fairhope, Alabama, we’re joined by Matthew Teague, a journalist whose work has appeared in National Geographic, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. His article in the Nov. 24 issue of Sports Illustrated is “A More Dangerous Game: How the decline of hunting is changing the natural order of predator and prey.”

From Washington, D.C., we’re joined by Doug Inkley. He’s a wildlife biologist for the National Wildlife Federation, specializing in ecology and wildlife management.

Joining us from Long Island, New York, is John Rocchetta, a land steward who manages properties on Long Island.

And from Vancouver, British Columbia, is Brian Vincent, founder of Big Wildlife, an Oregon-based conservation group. 

He’s been called “the Indiana Jones of conservation.” Alan Rabinowitz, a wildlife biologist and big-cat expert, has traveled the world from Belize to Borneo, Thailand to Laos, and risked his life to save jaguars, clouded leopards, and tigers.

Now, in Myanmar, he’s established the world’s largest tiger preserve, in an effort to save the world’s dwindling tiger population. But it was no walk in the park. He had to gain the trust of the military junta, negotiate with native tribes and an insurgent group.

This hour, On Point: Man and tiger in Myanmar’s Hukawng Valley.

-James Hattori

Guest:

Alan Rabinowitz, Executive Director of the Science and Exploration Division for the Wildlife Conservation Society and author of, “Life in the Valley of Death: The Fight to Save Tigers in a Land of Guns, Gold, and Greed.”

Since before history, man and bear have shared hunting grounds and homes: in the caves of Europe, the bamboo forests of China, the mountains and woods of North America. Bears are woven deep in human mythology. Bears as friends, enemies, gods, entertainers, even lovers.

Now, with human populations and appetites so vast and climate change rolling on, the bears are in trouble. Polar bears, grizzlies, the sun bear. By the end of this century, says Robert Bieder, author of “Bear,” only black bears may remain.

This hour, On Point: the bear in myth and history, and bear rescue right now.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Victor Watkins, WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) Wildlife Advisor.

Robert Bieder, author of “Bear” and retired visiting Professor in the Department of History and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, Bloomington.