Dead Zone

May 15, 2017

Lymbery, the CEO of the international animal welfare organization Compassion in World Farming and an articulate critic of industrialized farming methods, won awards for his previous book Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat. He now examines how crucial ecosystems and wildlife (everything from elephants to bumblebees) have either disappeared or are in decline because of big agriculture. While visiting farming operations all over the world, the author observed how the Sumatran elephant and the Brazilian jaguar struggle to survive as huge swaths of their respective rain forest habitats are appropriated for palm oil plantations and vast soy and corn fields. He also visited some "renegade" farmers in his native England who are returning to more wildlife-friendly farming practices: grazing livestock, growing a mix of crops with few chemicals, and rotating crops and livestock. Though such farms are few and far between, Lymbery considers them a model for how we can produce food in a more humane and ecologically sound way. VERDICT This sobering but well-written critique will interest Michael Pollan fans and anyone curious about the environmental impact of modern agribusiness.--Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ

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