Farmageddon (eBook)

Farm animals have been disappearing from our fields as the production of food has become a global industry. We no longer know for certain what is entering the food chain and what we are eating – as the UK horsemeat scandal demonstrated. We are reaching a tipping point as the farming revolution threatens our countryside, health and the quality of our food wherever we live in the world. Our health is under threat: half of all antibiotics used worldwide (rising to 80 per cent in US) are routinely given to industrially farmed animals, contributing to the emergence of deadly antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Wildlife is being systematically destroyed: bees are now trucked across the States (and even airfreighted from Australia) to pollinate the fruit trees in the vast orchards of California, where a chemical assault has decimated the wild insect population. Fresh fish are being hoovered from the oceans: fish that could feed local populations are being turned into fishmeal for farmed fish, chickens and pigs thousands of miles away. Cereals that could feed billions of people are being given to animals: soya and grain that could nourish the world's poorest, are now grown increasingly as animal fodder. Epidemic waste underpins the mega-farming model: while food prices rocket, surplus food is thrown away
Farmageddon is a fascinating and terrifying investigative journey behind the closed doors of a runaway industry across the world – from the UK, Europe and the USA, to China, Argentina, Peru and Mexico. It is both a wake-up call to change our current food production and eating practices and an attempt to find a way to a better farming future.

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The quiet revolution of mega-farming that is threatening our countryside, farms and food.'This eye-opening book . . . deserves global recognition' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall'Devastating . . . demands reading and deserves the widest possible audience' Joanna Lumley'He is informed enough to be appalled, and moderate enough to persuade us to take responsibility for the system that feeds us' Guardian: Book of the WeekFarm animals have been disappearing from our fields as the production of food has become a global industry. We no longer know for certain what is entering the food chain and what we are eating. We are reaching a tipping point as the farming revolution threatens our countryside, health and the quality of our food wherever we live in the world.From the antibiotics routinely given to industrially farmed animals to the chemicals that are killing our insect populations, Farmageddon is a fascinating and terrifying investigative journey behind the closed doors of a runaway industry across the world from Europe to the USA, from China to Latin America. It is both a wake-up call to change our current food production and eating practices, and an attempt to find a way to a better farming future.