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Animal Factories: What Agribusiness is doing to the family farm, the environment and your health
This book raised a storm of controversy upon its original publication in 1980. Now authors Mason and Singer have updated their animal rights classic for the 1990s. More than 50 black-and-white photographs.
- GenresAnimals
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
About the author
Jim Mason
5 books9 followersJames Bryan Mason is an author and attorney who focuses on human/animal concerns.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 14, 2024
A CHILLING, MOVING ACCOUNT OF ANIMAL LIFE IN "FACTORY FARMS”
Jim Mason is an attorney who focuses on human/animal concerns, and also the author of An Unnatural Order: Roots of Our Destruction of Nature. Peter Singer is a philosopher, and also the author of the influential book 'Animal Liberation.' They also co-wrote 'The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter.'
In the Introduction to this 1980 book (revised in 1990), Jim Mason wrote, "this book is not intended to be an attack on farmers and the people who run factory farms. They are as much victims of factory technology... as are the animals... I am familiar with farm people and the feelings they have about making a living from their land. They are buffeted by economic developments that force them to try to push their animals to greater and greater productivity. It is a double tragedy that many farmers wind up losing their farm livelihood because the present trend culminates in a way of farming beyond their financial reach. This book, then, is about a dominant trend in perhaps our most basic economic activity."
They note that male chicks are destroyed "as soon as they crawled out of their shells and revealed their sex." (Pg. 5) The overcrowded pigs show their neurotic condition by biting each others' tails (Pg. 22), so the farmers "dock" (i.e., cut off) pigs' tails at birth; likewise, chickens are "debeaked" to prevent them from pecking each other (Pg. 39). They observe that heads, feet, and other inedibles of slaughtered animals are turned into fertilizer, soap, protein supplements, etc. "The meat industry tells us that nothing is wasted at the slaughterhouse, but all this really means is that they make extra money selling all of the nonedibles." (Pg. 113)
The hormones such as BGH given to dairy cows to increase their production may cause problems (such as premature growth in infants, or breast cancer in adults) when the milk is consumed by humans. (Pg. 103) Furthermore, the amounts of fecal and other waste produced attracts sparrows, starlings, and insects (particularly flies) and rodents, which can be a "major cause of litigation between factory farmers and their neighbors." (Pg. 123)
They note that the huge investment of capital and time required by the modern factory farms prevent farmers from running a "genuinely diversified, resource-balanced, ecologically integrated farming operation," and "those with small numbers of animals in labor-intensive systems find that they are making too little money for the effort and they sell off their animals. Thus the specialized operations proliferate and take over markets from small, diversified producers." (Pg. 145)
The most important issue for the authors, of course, is that "no good reason can be given for regarding animals as things. They are not things. They can feel pain. They can suffer frustration and boredom... Do we have the right to make animals live miserable lives just to satisfy our taste for a diet so rich in animal products that it is bad for our own health?" (Pg. 172)
This is a heartfelt, well-illustrated, and moving account of what really goes on behind the walls of factory farms...
Jim Mason is an attorney who focuses on human/animal concerns, and also the author of An Unnatural Order: Roots of Our Destruction of Nature. Peter Singer is a philosopher, and also the author of the influential book 'Animal Liberation.' They also co-wrote 'The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter.'
In the Introduction to this 1980 book (revised in 1990), Jim Mason wrote, "this book is not intended to be an attack on farmers and the people who run factory farms. They are as much victims of factory technology... as are the animals... I am familiar with farm people and the feelings they have about making a living from their land. They are buffeted by economic developments that force them to try to push their animals to greater and greater productivity. It is a double tragedy that many farmers wind up losing their farm livelihood because the present trend culminates in a way of farming beyond their financial reach. This book, then, is about a dominant trend in perhaps our most basic economic activity."
They note that male chicks are destroyed "as soon as they crawled out of their shells and revealed their sex." (Pg. 5) The overcrowded pigs show their neurotic condition by biting each others' tails (Pg. 22), so the farmers "dock" (i.e., cut off) pigs' tails at birth; likewise, chickens are "debeaked" to prevent them from pecking each other (Pg. 39). They observe that heads, feet, and other inedibles of slaughtered animals are turned into fertilizer, soap, protein supplements, etc. "The meat industry tells us that nothing is wasted at the slaughterhouse, but all this really means is that they make extra money selling all of the nonedibles." (Pg. 113)
The hormones such as BGH given to dairy cows to increase their production may cause problems (such as premature growth in infants, or breast cancer in adults) when the milk is consumed by humans. (Pg. 103) Furthermore, the amounts of fecal and other waste produced attracts sparrows, starlings, and insects (particularly flies) and rodents, which can be a "major cause of litigation between factory farmers and their neighbors." (Pg. 123)
They note that the huge investment of capital and time required by the modern factory farms prevent farmers from running a "genuinely diversified, resource-balanced, ecologically integrated farming operation," and "those with small numbers of animals in labor-intensive systems find that they are making too little money for the effort and they sell off their animals. Thus the specialized operations proliferate and take over markets from small, diversified producers." (Pg. 145)
The most important issue for the authors, of course, is that "no good reason can be given for regarding animals as things. They are not things. They can feel pain. They can suffer frustration and boredom... Do we have the right to make animals live miserable lives just to satisfy our taste for a diet so rich in animal products that it is bad for our own health?" (Pg. 172)
This is a heartfelt, well-illustrated, and moving account of what really goes on behind the walls of factory farms...
November 3, 2008
This was a good book in it's time. This and a few others were instrumental in turning me vegetarian for a few years. Unfortunately, I didn't know what I was doing and ended up with a bunch of defeciencies. DUH. Probably would have helped had I been able to eat more of the grains. Anyway... good book, worth a read.
April 10, 2008
This book reveals the truth about the mass- produced meat market. Vegetarianism is definitely the way to live.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews