Farmageddon Book Summary - Farmageddon Book explained in key points

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Farmageddon summary

Name: Farmageddon
Rating: 4.6 (18 reviews)
Author: Philip Lymbery with Isabel Oakeshott

Philip Lymbery with Isabel Oakeshott

The True Cost of Cheap Meat

4.6 (18 ratings)

31 mins

Brief summary

'Farmageddon' by Philip Lymbery with Isabel Oakeshott uncovers the disturbing reality of how industrial farming is damaging our health, environment, and animal welfare.

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Diets Animals

Table of Contents

Farmageddon
Summary of 13 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 13

What’s in it for me? Discover the grim consequences of factory farming.

We have come a long way since the very beginning of agriculture thousands of years ago – a very long way. Even the simpler forms of advanced agriculture that our grandparents witnessed seem to be vanishing at a steady pace. What has taken their place? Farming on an industrial scale.

Just think, when you escape the urban jungle into what should be a rural idyll, what do you see? Gigantic, ugly farms. Places where animals are born, live and die in a horrific, albeit efficient, manner. These places ensure we have enough meat, milk and eggs, but at what cost?

These blinks show you how grimly the techniques of agriculture have evolved, and the consequences our planet, and its people, now face.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

how many bathtubs of water you’ll need to produce one kilo of beef;
why so many children in California’s Central Valley suffer from asthma; and
what you can do to counterbalance the unfortunate popularity of factory farms.

Factory-like, “mega” farming of meat, milk and eggs is replacing traditional methods.

When you think of a farm, it’s easy to imagine a pastoral wonderland full of lots of different types of animals that joyously roam around in the sunshine and grass. But nowadays, such traditional, diverse farms are practically extinct, replaced by industrial agriculture.

That’s because agricultural techniques have experienced a massive revolution over the last several decades. Human labor has been almost entirely replaced by machinery and traditional farms that employ farmhands are mostly a thing of the past. What’s more, just 8 percent of England’s farms raise more than one type of animal.

But the disappearance of these farms isn’t as scary as what’s replaced them: factory farming. This refers to farms that grow only one type of animal and lots of them, cramming them into tight spaces, overloading them with drugs and using machines to handle them just to maximize profits. At this point, a whopping two-thirds of the world’s 70 million farm animals are raised in such conditions.

And factory farming isn’t just for meat; it’s increasingly being used for milk production as well. In mega-dairies, vast quantities of cows are stabled together and milked with industrial methods. A big one can contain up to 10,000 cows in a single space.

Not just that, but they’re popping up all over. The first mega-dairy was built in California in 1994. Now there are 1,620 dairy farms in the state, collectively housing a total of 1.75 million cows and producing six million dollars' worth of milk a year.

And our eggs?

The vast majority are from factory-raised hens. Unsurprisingly, these chickens are stuffed into overcrowded factory farms to produce more eggs with the lowest possible cost. So 60 percent of the world’s eggs are laid by caged hens.

Factory farms pollute both the water and the air.

While factory farming is a relatively new form of food production, its devastating environmental effects have already been laid bare. For starters, it pollutes the water. That’s because industrial animal farms churn out tons of animal waste – that is, excrement – and all into one area.

For instance, a mega-dairy of 10,000 cows produces about as much fecal matter as a city the size of Miami, which contains 400,000 people. To put it another way, the mega-dairies of California, altogether produce as much waste as the entire population of the United Kingdom. That’s about 70 million people.

Factory farming is killing off the birds and the bees.

Now you know how factory farming is destroying the quality of our air and water, but you’re probably wondering what effect it has on local wildlife. Well, the destruction of animal habitats is another major consequence of industrial farming.

That’s because hedges and unplowed borders, which formerly divided fields in smaller farms and offered habitats for birds and bees, are obsolete in factory farms. As a result, between 1980 and 1994, 100,000 km of UK hedges vanished, along with the birds and insects that used to reside in them.

Fish farming is wreaking havoc on the oceans.

Our planet is largely composed of water and that water is home to millions of fish. But not all of them can be found in the wild depths of the ocean. In fact, many fish are farmed and live truly miserable lives.

Industrial fish farms are nothing like a fish’s natural environment: fish are crammed into jam-packed cages, sometimes 50,000 to a single enclosure. For example, trout are generally caged at a density of 60 kg of fish per cubic meter of water. To put it another way, that’s like putting 27, 12-inch long trout in a single bathtub.

Cramming more animals into small spaces isn’t even space efficient.

So, it’s clear that factory farming is terrible for the environment, but doesn’t it at least save space?

Nope.

Factory farming, unlike organic farming, is exhausting our oil and water reserves.

Everybody knows that oil and water are precious and diminishing resources. But did you know that factory farming is greatly accelerating the loss of both?

That’s because factory farming uses way too much water. As much as one-quarter of the world’s freshwater is used to produce meat and dairy. That’s because making a single kilogram of beef requires nearly 90 bathtubs of water.

Factory farming results in more famine around the world.

OK, factory farming is wrecking the environment, taking up more space and burning precious resources. But at least it’s cheaper, right?

Well, not when you look at the big picture. Here’s why:

Factory-farmed meat breeds bacteria and obesity.

What about the effects that factory farming has on you, the consumer?

Unfortunately, factory-farmed meat is also bad for your health, because diseases flourish in the farms. After all, if you cram loads of animals into tight spaces, viruses and bacteria will thrive as they spread and evolve much more easily within a concentrated group of hosts. Not just that, but the immune systems of factory-farmed animals are also weak because of the atrocious conditions in which they live.

Genetically modified crops carry unredeemed potential.

Did you know that we’re facing a worldwide food crisis?

The UN has estimated that to meet our needs in 2050, global food supplies need to increase by 70 to 100 percent.

Modifying and cloning animals can increase profits – at the expense of animal rights.

Do you remember Dolly the Sheep? In 1996, she became the first mammal ever to be cloned from the cells of another. Now, cloning is touted as a route to producing super-animals and serious profits.

That’s because, while selective breeding can’t guarantee that the resulting offspring will be in as prime condition as their parents, cloning can. So, if you cloned a prize pig, the new hog would be just as prize-worthy.

China has adopted industrial farming techniques, and consumers are facing the health consequences.

China is home to over 1.3 billion people and they love to eat meat, especially pork – the average Chinese person eats about 34 kg of pork every year, compared to the 25 kg average for British people.

A few major Chinese food companies are seeing how profitable it is to raise pigs using industrial techniques. One of the biggest pig farmers in the country is Muyuan, based in Henan Province. Its goal is to raise 9 million pigs per year by 2017 and it’s using industrial techniques to meet it.

Reducing food waste and returning to traditional farming techniques can undo the damage wrought by factory farming.

OK, given what we know about industrial agriculture, it’s clear that our methods of food production need to be transformed. But what’s the best and most sustainable way to meet humanity’s increasing food demands?

For starters, we need to cut back on food waste. Worldwide, an enormous amount of food is wasted every day. In fact, US consumers waste about 30 percent of the food they purchase. And globally, we waste the equivalent of 11,600 million chickens, 270 million pigs and 59 million cows a year!

Consumers have the power and information necessary to make meaningful choices.

Chances are, you’re a consumer like the vast majority of people. You’re also probably not a hugely influential politician or a fairy godmother. So, can a normal person do anything to change the way food is produced?

Absolutely. In fact, as a consumer, you wield tremendous power with the decisions that you make and the products you consume. That’s because retailers only stock what turns a profit. So, the more traditionally produced products you buy, the more demand you’ll create for them. This will make traditional farming more profitable and therefore more popular.

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What is Farmageddon about?

Farmageddon (2014) is an in-depth guide to the dark reality of cheap meat. These blinks explain how industrial farming has replaced traditional methods and how it’s draining our resources, poisoning the environment and making us unhealthy.

Who should read Farmageddon?

Anybody interested in how we can sustainably meet the world’s food needs
People curious about how exactly our meat is produced
Anyone who wants to make healthier dietary choices

About the Author

Philip Lymbery is the chief executive officer of Compassion in World Farming. He is also an animal rights activist and the former communications director for the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

Isabel Oakeshott is a political journalist and nonfiction writer.

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