Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat

Abstract

Food systems include many issues interconnected through complex relationships. Some writers examine one part of the food system in depth but—from my perspective as a management student—a strength of Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat is that it examines food systems by systematically connecting a broad set of issues in its analysis of the widespread adoption of the industrial farming model. This model, the authors argue, requires vast tracts of arable land, makes broad and lifelong use of antibiotics in farm animals to minimize disease and encourage rapid growth, and promotes an increasing use of grain for animal feed rather than for human consumption. Throughout the book, the authors share evidence in an effort to encourage consumers to reflect on the implications of the system we support when purchasing our meat cheaply. The authors have written this book from their experiences as animal welfare activists for a broad audience, but focus their attention on costs that have been unaccounted for in the industrial food system.