Farmageddon

In 1967, dairy farmer Peter Roberts founded Compassion in World Farming, of which Philip Lymbery is currently chief executive. The more one knows about conditions in which most meat and poultry are raised, the less inclined one is to eat it. This book, as the title suggests, is about the true cost of cheap meat and takes a tour round the world to inspect various production facilities and the consequences for the ways in which they factory farm their animals, which in turn has implications for nature in general and our health in particular. Written in a journalistic style with vivid descriptions of the characters involved, the book provides an engaging and worrying insight into modern methods based on treating animals as production machines and putting profit before feeding people healthily.

Amounts of feed and antibiotics are scientifically calculated so as to maximise rates of growth. The reader learns that cows could not possibly produce the amount of milk they now do if they were only fed on grass. Beef cows naturally produce around 1,000 litres of milk a year while the UK dairy cow reached 5,000 litres 30 years ago and the average dairy cow now yields 7,000 litres and some up to 10,000 litres a year. This stretching nature beyond the limits necessarily shortens their life from around fifteen years to less than five. The cows are disposable and replaceable. The same logic applies to chickens, farmed fish and pigs. One section of the book deals with the implications of the vast amounts of waste produced by giant feedlots. These sometimes sit in stagnant, toxic pools that are in danger of overflowing and give off a terrible stench. In Brittany, for instance, pig slurry is dumped in fields and then runs off into waterways into the sea, creating algal dead zones. There are simply too many pigs for the landscape to support.

A further implication impacts on health as a result both of the crowding of animals, poultry or fish into tight spaces, especially when combined with the administration of antibiotics - partly for reasons of growth mentioned above. We are effectively incubating both antibiotic resistance and potentially lethal epidemics. Antibiotic resistance spills over into hospitals, as we have already seen. The authors cite one case of a swine flu outbreak directly traceable to the local pig farm and also increased cases of asthma among children resulting from air pollution.

One prominent theme is the lack of systemic thinking within this mechanical outlook. We have already seen how this applies to the generation of disease, but other examples are given. For instance, Mao ordered the mass slaughter of sparrows on a single day, which led to a serious explosion in insect populations that had previously been eaten by the sparrows. Monoculture invites disease through its very lack of biodiversity. One signal example is the growth of 80% of the world almond crop from 60 million trees in a huge and sterile area of California. Producers have to spend $250 million a year for bee pollination – 3,000 trucks drive across the United States carrying around 40 billion bees. For the authors, colony collapse disorder is a reminder of the extent to which we depend on ecosystem services. The very scale of operation here makes it vulnerable to a major disaster.

The chapter on GM asks if it is feeding people or factory farms. The major crops used in animal feed (30% of global cereal output, which could feed 3 billion people directly) are mostly genetically engineered: heavily subsidised corn, soya and rapeseed (also cotton, responsible for tens of thousands of deaths in India). Contrary to the hype, GM actually increases the use of chemicals. In 1990, before the arrival of GM, Argentina used 35 million litres of chemicals. By 1996, this has rocketed to 98 million and 145 million by 2000, rising to an incredible 300 million by 2010 - all to produce the same amount of crop and the direct consequence of weed resistance. This is elementary natural selection, and another example of the dangers of linear thinking in a systemic world.

As has been recently publicised, up to one third of the world's food is wasted at a time when 1 billion people are on the verge of starvation. One chart suggests that this may amount to 11.6 billion chickens, 270 million pigs and 59 million cattle - a sobering thought, especially when combined with the use of cereals for animal feed, which also comes from the unsustainable and highly polluting production of fishmeal. There are, however, solutions to these practices, part of which involves eating less meat (although reduction in the US and Europe is likely to be more than offset by growth in Asia). If we eat less meat, then more cereal can be eaten directly. We also need to think much more long-term about the sustainable health of the soil. As consumers, our collective choices can make a real difference. We can buy organic and free-range products from animals reared on the land, favour local producers and retailers, reduce our food waste and avoid overeating meat, as I imagine many readers already do. It is important to remember that there is a story behind everything we eat, which is so graphically illustrated in this eye-opening book. We also need a change in our thinking and consequently in our practice away from mechanistic and exploitative approach to our animals, although the intense level of competition and current scale of operations makes this difficult to achieve in the short term. It will require pressure from below and sensible regulation from governments to create a level playing field internationally. Readers can also think of joining the Food Revolution Network or supporting Compassion in World Farming.