What’s the Matter with Meat? By Katy Keiffer (Reaktion Books, $29.99, available now) According to former food service professional and British radio podcast ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’ host Katy Keiffer, there’s something seriously wrong with industrialised meat production. Billed as a salutary, hard-hitting critique of the meat-producing industry in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Australia and Asia, the book “draws back the curtain that obscures the true costs of industrialised meat production.” Keiffer is not apologetic for her concerns over cheap meat, even though she acknowledges the benefits good quality meat has for humans and congratulates the worldwide industry for its extraordinary ingenuity in producing billions of kilograms of meat on less feed and land than any farmer of yesteryear could ever have envisaged. Instead, she talks about how the meat industry has increasingly disconnected itself from traditional agriculture, “and now poses a very real threat to the population it claims to be so anxious to serve, if not save. It is the author’s hope that it will inspire Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret By Kip Andersen and Keegan Kuhn (Newsouth Books, $34.99, available now) A complement to the award-winning documentary of several years ago, this book expands upon its cinematic sister as its authors “discover one shocking statistic after another” about the effects of animal agriculture on the planet. Unlike ‘What’s the Matter with Meat?’, these authors are ethical vegans and far more aggressive than its author Katy Keiffer. Blaming a host of problems on the meat industry – such as deforestation, greenhouse gas, water use, species extinction, ocean dead-zones and a host of other ills – the authors say animal agriculture is a major threat to the future of all species, including us. Written as a series of interviews and quoting expert businesses, environmental organisations and political groups, the book also includes tips on becoming vegan and suggests comprehensive reading lists. Easy to read and written in plain English, this book offers an alternative angle on an industry poised for ongoing criticism over its future. consumers to send a clear signal to corporate leaders that the current system is no longer acceptable and will not be supported. Like any other business, the meat industry is profit-driven. Meat companies can and will change their practices as the market demands. It is up to all of us to alert them to what we require as consumers and as world citizens.” The book is extremely thought-provoking in its spotlight on the huge companies gaining massive profits by producing cheap meat that has an “outsized and often negative impact on surrounding communities,” and it covers topics such as labour, genetics, animal welfare and environmental degradation. Keiffer is blunt when she says the current industry model is not feasible for the future, as the earth will soon run out of the resources required to raise animals on such a scale. “I do not pretend to know what that (new) system would look like,” she says, “but I do know that food production as it is practised now, particularly in the livestock sector, is doomed. Our future depends on the willingness of the agro-industrial complex to address the failures of the current model and move into new practices that will ensure the survival of our species and our planet.” Cherry Hu from Dairy Goat Co-operative in Hamilton is the lucky book winner for July 46 JULY 2017
FT-Jul17-eMag-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above