Factory Farming

The quality of diet is being questioned as never before, as public attention focuses on additives, irradiation, drug and persticide residues and the threat of food--borne infections such as salmonella and listeriosis. In this book, Andrew Johnson subjects modern farming methods to a scrutiny which reveals them to be not only responsible for a decline in food quality but highly questionable on environmental and humanitarian grounds. Factory Farming is the most comprehensive survey to date of the implications of modern livestock farming for food quality and safety, for the animals themselves and the environment as a whole. As well as covering the more familiar issues of battery egg production and the use of hormone growth promoters, the author discusses the rapid rise of fish farming, the capabilities of genetic engineering and the hidden envirnmental costs of high--tech livestock production systems. Illustrated throughout, Factory Farming is a compelling examination of modern farming techniques and the disastrous conseuqences their continued use might have.