The Meat Racket: The Secret Takeover of America’s Food Business by Christopher Leonard Journalist Christopher Leonard delivers the first comprehensive look inside the industrial meat system, exposing how a handful of companies executed an audacious corporate takeover of the nation’s meat supply.
CAFO: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories by Daniel Imhoff An unprecedented view of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations where an increasing percentage of the world’s meat, milk, eggs, and fish are produced. This book helps to illuminate how industrial livestock production is now a leading source of climate changing emissions, a source of water pollution, and a significant contributor to diet-related diseases, and the spread of food-borne illnesses.
Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment by David Kirby Bestselling investigative journalist David Kirby exposes the powerful business and political interests behind large-scale factory farms, and tracks the far-reaching fallout that contaminates our air, land, water, and food.
Defending Beef: The Case for Sustainable Meat Production by Nicolette Hahn Niman In Defending Beef, Hahn Niman argues that dispersed, grass-fed, small-scale farms can and should become the basis for American food production, replacing the factory farms that harm animals and the environment.
Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth by Judith D. Schwartz Journalist Judith D. Schwartz looks at soil as a crucible for our many overlapping environmental, economic, and social crises. Schwartz reveals that for many of these problems―climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, wildfires, rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity―there are positive, alternative scenarios to the degradation and devastation we face.
The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food by Ted Genoways Journalist Ted Genoways uses the story of Hormel Foods and its most famous product, Spam—a recession-era staple—to probe the state of the meatpacking industry, from Minnesota to Iowa and Nebraska. Interviewing scores of line workers, union leaders, hog farmers, and local politicians and activists, Genoways reveals an industry pushed to its breaking point.
Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West by George Wuerthner and Mollie Matteson In this excellent overview of the ecological and economic consequences of ranching in the arid Western United States, natural historian and photographer Wuerthner and environmental activist Matteson present a collection of impassioned essays by scientists, conservationists, and economists.
Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat by Deborah Krasner Good Meat is a comprehensive guide to sourcing and enjoying sustainable meat. With the rising popularity of the locavore and organic food movements—and the terms “grass fed” and “free range” commonly seen on menus and in grocery stores—people across the country are turning their attention to where their meat comes from.
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer Traveling to the darkest corners of our dining habits, Foer raises the unspoken question behind every fish we eat, every chicken we fry, and every burger we grill. Eating Animals is a book that, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, places Jonathan Safran Foer “at the table with our greatest philosophers” -and a must-read for anyone who cares about building a more humane and healthy world.
Big Chicken: The Incredible Story of How Antibiotics Created Modern Agriculture and Changed the Way the World Eats by Maryn McKenna
In this eye-opening exposé, acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributor Maryn McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity—and human health threat—uncovering the ways we can make America’s favorite meat safer again.
Food for Thought: The Debate over Eating Meat (Contemporary Issues) by Steve F. Sapontzis
Written by internationally recognized scholars on both sides of the debate, the provocative articles here compiled will give vegetarians and meat-eaters a thorough grounding in all aspects of this controversial issue.
Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) by Timothy Pachirat
Political scientist Timothy Pachirat, was employed undercover for five months in a Great Plains slaughterhouse where 2,500 cattle were killed per day—one every twelve seconds. Working in the cooler as a liver hanger, in the chutes as a cattle driver, and on the kill floor as a food-safety quality-control worker, Pachirat experienced firsthand the realities of the work of killing in modern society.
Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat by Philip Lymbery
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.
Project Animal Farm: An Accidental Journey into the Secret World of Farming and the Truth About Our Food by Sonia Faruqi
Faruqi takes readers on an unforgettable adventure from top-secret egg warehouses in Canada to dairy feedlots in the United States, from farm offices in Mexico to lush pastures in Belize, from flocks of village chickens in Indonesia to factory farms in Malaysia.
Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, and Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry by Gail A. Eisnitz Slaughterhouse is the first book of its kind to explore the impact that unprecedented changes in the meatpacking industry over the last twenty-five years — particularly industry consolidation, increased line speeds, and deregulation — have had on workers, animals, and consumers.
Farm to Fable: The Fictions of Our Animal-Consuming Culture by Robert Grillo
Why do the vast majority of us continue to consume animals when we could choose otherwise? What are the cultural forces that drive our food choices? These are the fundamental questions Farm to Fable seeks to answer in two ways: by asserting that our beliefs about eating animals remain largely unexamined and therefore unchallenged and by demonstrating how the fictions of popular culture continually reinforce these beliefs and behaviors.
Cowed: The Hidden Impact of 93 Million Cows on America’s Health, Economy, Politics, Culture, and Environment by Denis Hayes and Gail Boyer Hayes
Globally recognized environmentalists Denis and Gail Boyer Hayes offer a revealing analysis of how our beneficial, centuries-old relationship with bovines has evolved into one that now endangers us. In a deeply researched, engagingly personal narrative, Denis and Gail Hayes provide a glimpse into what we can do now to provide a better future for cows, humans, and the world we inhabit.
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism by Melanie Joy and John Robbins
An investigation of factory farming, exposing how cruelly the animals are treated, the hazards that meatpacking workers face, and the environmental impact of raising 10 billion animals for food each year.
Films
Forks Over Knives (2011)
Forks Over Knives examines the profound claim that most; if not all; of the so-called “diseases of affluence” that afflict us can be controlled; or even reversed; by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods.
A Greene Generation (2014)
An inside look at a small organic family farm in rural North Carolina. This film showcases a perfect example of what humane meat production really looks like.
Sustainable (2016)
A vital investigation of the economic and environmental instability of America’s food system, from the agricultural issues we face – soil loss, water depletion, climate change, pesticide use – to the community of leaders who are determined to fix it.
Food Inc. (2008)
An unflattering look inside America’s corporate controlled food industry. In Food Inc. the horrific realities of CAFO meat production is brought into the public spotlight.
Earthlings (2005)
Earthlings is a documentary film by Nation Earth that portrays the pathetic treatment of animals. The 95-minute documentary uses hidden cameras to bring to you shocking footage of what goes on behind the closed walls of the meat industry.
Food Choices (2016)
This documentary follows filmmaker Michal Siewierski as he explores the impact that food choice has on people’s health, the health of our planet and on the lives of other species sharing our world.
Food Matters (2015)
Food Matters educates viewers on the importance of nutrition, and how many illnesses including cancer, can be prevented by the choices we make inside the kitchen. In this film the food industry comes under question in regard to what they claim to be feeding us.
