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Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy Of Industrial Agriculture
Fatal Harvest takes an unprecedented look at our current ecologically destructive agricultural system and offers a compelling vision for an organic and environmentally safer way of producing the food we eat. It includes more than 250 profound and startling photographs and gathers together more than 40 essays by leading ecological thinkers including Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, David Ehrenfeld, Helena Norberg-Hodge, Vandana Shiva, and Gary Nabhan. Its scope and photo-driven approach provide a unique and invaluable antidote to the efforts by agribusiness to obscure and disconnect us from the truth about industrialized foods. The book's many photographs and essays offer graphic testimony to the tragic consequences of how our food is produced. Readers will come to see that industrial food production is indeed a "fatal harvest" - fatal to consumers, as pesticide residues and new disease vectors such as E. coli and "mad cow disease" find their way into our food supply; fatal to our landscapes, as chemical runoff from factory farms poison our rivers and groundwater; fatal to genetic diversity, as farmers rely increasingly on high-yield monocultures and genetically engineered crops; and fatal to our farm communities, which are wiped out by huge corporate farms. As it exposes the ecological and social impacts of industrial agriculture's fatal harvest, the book also details a new ecological and humane vision for agriculture. It shows how millions of people are engaged in the new politics of food as they work to develop a better alternative to the current chemically fed and biotechnology-driven system. Designed to aid the movement to reform industrial agriculture, Fatal Harvest will inform and influence the activists, farmers, policymakers, and consumers who are seeking a safer and more sustainable food future.
384 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 13, 2019
The agrarian position
The central message of this rather large book (put some legs on it and it could serve as a coffee table itself) is that industrial agriculture is unnatural, inhumane, dangerous; that big farms and big chemical multinationals are destroying the land and causing massive hardship for not only the ecology of the planet but for humans as well.
One of the arguments is that industrial agriculture actually leads to hunger and starvation for millions because it forces people off the land, land that is then used to produce foods or other products that are exported to the developed nations. The poor farmer cannot compete with the industrial farms and so has to go out of business. In the underdeveloped countries, land that once supported a variety of food plants that fed the local people has been turned into land that supports only a single crop destined for export, the profits going to middle men and the large land owners.
Clearly then, this is a polemic against industrial agriculture and in favor of a return to an agrarian life style. It is a tract against the use of pesticides and herbicides and in favor of organic farming. It is against monoculture farming and in favor of biodiversity and crop rotation. It is against genetic modified foods and Round Up ready seeds and in favor of the slightly blemished but flavorful produce from fields tended by hand and hoe. It is beautifully illustrated with breath-taking photos of farms, farmers, farm equipment and especially fields of verdant crops.
I am in substantial sympathy with the message of this book, but I do not appreciate facile or phony arguments in support of even the most agreeable message. I think unsubstantiated claims and superficial understandings do not help a worthy cause. Unfortunately there are a few of those in these pages.
On page 62, for example, the text suggests that "if biotech corporations really wanted to feed the hungry, they would...push for wealth redistribution, which would allow the poor to buy food." Obviously corporations don't work that way, and agrarian reform is not going to be helped by reviving delusive Marxist economics. On page 71 it is written, "...75 types of vegetables, or approximately 97 percent of the varieties available in 1900, [in the US] are now extinct." I am not sure what was left out here or misstated, but obviously more than about 2.34 vegetables (the 3% still extant) are still available. Worse yet is this from page 102: "In 1996...the fungal disease known as Karnal Bunt swept through the U.S. wheat belt, ruining over half of that year's crop and forcing the quarantine of more than 290,000 acres." However on page 100 it is reported that wheat fields take up "a total of 60-70 million acres" of land in the continental US. So how can a infestation that resulted in a quarantine of 290,000 acres (less than one-half of one percent of the total acreage devoted to wheat) ruin "over half of that year's crop"? Such slips tend to cast doubt on the credibility of the other figures in the book.
However, the central shortcoming of this otherwise laudable effort is the disinclination of the editor and the contributors to point to overpopulation as the root cause of hunger and starvation. Such a studied avoidance is disingenuous to say the least. The periodic starvations due to droughts that plague such places as Africa are due to too many people living on land that cannot reliably support them. In times of feast, the populations shoot up only to crash when the weather changes, as it must, as it has for millions of years. Furthermore to suggest (as the text on pages 50 and 51 does) that agriculture can keep pace with human population growth is mistaken. Fortunately, the essay, "The Impossible Race: Population Growth and the Fallacies of Agricultural Hope," by Hugh H. Iltis, which begins on page 35, presents a more realistic view.
Nonetheless, I applaud this effort by director Douglas Tompkins and those who contributed to the project. I was particularly taken with the photography and art design by Daniella Goff-Sklan who carefully avoids any "scare" photography. We are spared the sight of the bloated bellies of the starving poor. There are no photos of the horrendous conditions inside the poultry and meat packing industries. Clearly, the editors didn't want this book to be purely a propaganda piece. They wanted to get their message across without controversy; they wanted to be effective.
I am also in substantial sympathy with the agrarian movement itself. However whether it is possible or even desirable to return to an agrarian existence is in great doubt. Perhaps one might wax even more romantic and suggest a return to a hunting and gathering existence. Such nostalgic fantasies are just that, fantasies, like the notion of the noble savage or of an unspoiled garden of Eden. Humans have and will continue to alter the landscape. What I hope is that we find a balance between human needs and the needs of the planet's ecosystems before it is too late. Yes, a return to an agrarian culture (especially without the feudalism and warlord economies that existed concomitantly) would be a step away from the abyss that we are now approaching. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon. The surest way to save the planet from ourselves is to reduce our numbers. Until that message gets across, the planet will continue to be decimated by our insatiable desire to exploit and control. My vision of the future includes a large number of small farming communities with single family farms aplenty. But it also includes great tracts of forest and savannah, desert and tundra, unspoiled by human habitation. From my point of view the planet already contains too many humans. And that is why my vision and the agrarian vision so beloved by contributor Wendell Berry cannot yet become a reality.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
The central message of this rather large book (put some legs on it and it could serve as a coffee table itself) is that industrial agriculture is unnatural, inhumane, dangerous; that big farms and big chemical multinationals are destroying the land and causing massive hardship for not only the ecology of the planet but for humans as well.
One of the arguments is that industrial agriculture actually leads to hunger and starvation for millions because it forces people off the land, land that is then used to produce foods or other products that are exported to the developed nations. The poor farmer cannot compete with the industrial farms and so has to go out of business. In the underdeveloped countries, land that once supported a variety of food plants that fed the local people has been turned into land that supports only a single crop destined for export, the profits going to middle men and the large land owners.
Clearly then, this is a polemic against industrial agriculture and in favor of a return to an agrarian life style. It is a tract against the use of pesticides and herbicides and in favor of organic farming. It is against monoculture farming and in favor of biodiversity and crop rotation. It is against genetic modified foods and Round Up ready seeds and in favor of the slightly blemished but flavorful produce from fields tended by hand and hoe. It is beautifully illustrated with breath-taking photos of farms, farmers, farm equipment and especially fields of verdant crops.
I am in substantial sympathy with the message of this book, but I do not appreciate facile or phony arguments in support of even the most agreeable message. I think unsubstantiated claims and superficial understandings do not help a worthy cause. Unfortunately there are a few of those in these pages.
On page 62, for example, the text suggests that "if biotech corporations really wanted to feed the hungry, they would...push for wealth redistribution, which would allow the poor to buy food." Obviously corporations don't work that way, and agrarian reform is not going to be helped by reviving delusive Marxist economics. On page 71 it is written, "...75 types of vegetables, or approximately 97 percent of the varieties available in 1900, [in the US] are now extinct." I am not sure what was left out here or misstated, but obviously more than about 2.34 vegetables (the 3% still extant) are still available. Worse yet is this from page 102: "In 1996...the fungal disease known as Karnal Bunt swept through the U.S. wheat belt, ruining over half of that year's crop and forcing the quarantine of more than 290,000 acres." However on page 100 it is reported that wheat fields take up "a total of 60-70 million acres" of land in the continental US. So how can a infestation that resulted in a quarantine of 290,000 acres (less than one-half of one percent of the total acreage devoted to wheat) ruin "over half of that year's crop"? Such slips tend to cast doubt on the credibility of the other figures in the book.
However, the central shortcoming of this otherwise laudable effort is the disinclination of the editor and the contributors to point to overpopulation as the root cause of hunger and starvation. Such a studied avoidance is disingenuous to say the least. The periodic starvations due to droughts that plague such places as Africa are due to too many people living on land that cannot reliably support them. In times of feast, the populations shoot up only to crash when the weather changes, as it must, as it has for millions of years. Furthermore to suggest (as the text on pages 50 and 51 does) that agriculture can keep pace with human population growth is mistaken. Fortunately, the essay, "The Impossible Race: Population Growth and the Fallacies of Agricultural Hope," by Hugh H. Iltis, which begins on page 35, presents a more realistic view.
Nonetheless, I applaud this effort by director Douglas Tompkins and those who contributed to the project. I was particularly taken with the photography and art design by Daniella Goff-Sklan who carefully avoids any "scare" photography. We are spared the sight of the bloated bellies of the starving poor. There are no photos of the horrendous conditions inside the poultry and meat packing industries. Clearly, the editors didn't want this book to be purely a propaganda piece. They wanted to get their message across without controversy; they wanted to be effective.
I am also in substantial sympathy with the agrarian movement itself. However whether it is possible or even desirable to return to an agrarian existence is in great doubt. Perhaps one might wax even more romantic and suggest a return to a hunting and gathering existence. Such nostalgic fantasies are just that, fantasies, like the notion of the noble savage or of an unspoiled garden of Eden. Humans have and will continue to alter the landscape. What I hope is that we find a balance between human needs and the needs of the planet's ecosystems before it is too late. Yes, a return to an agrarian culture (especially without the feudalism and warlord economies that existed concomitantly) would be a step away from the abyss that we are now approaching. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon. The surest way to save the planet from ourselves is to reduce our numbers. Until that message gets across, the planet will continue to be decimated by our insatiable desire to exploit and control. My vision of the future includes a large number of small farming communities with single family farms aplenty. But it also includes great tracts of forest and savannah, desert and tundra, unspoiled by human habitation. From my point of view the planet already contains too many humans. And that is why my vision and the agrarian vision so beloved by contributor Wendell Berry cannot yet become a reality.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
November 9, 2022
It's heavy on supposition, innuendo, sensationalism, and conspiracy theories. It's also heavily reliant on correlation rather than causation. The science wasn't very evident in the 50 pages I made it through.
September 26, 2025
I am very sympathetic to the goals of the book, creating a comprehensive environmental critique of industrial agriculture. I'll even defend it's polemical frame of writing, it's ok to care about and feel strongly about things! At it's core, the book is good and worthwhile. Every author is very sincerely arguing against a very true problem with modern corporatized capitalist agriculture and issuing an honest call to arms against it. Many articles provide candid and valuable background to a range of issues facing contemporary agriculture.
Unfortunately, it has a serious lack of genuine academic rigor that leaves many authors spiraling into unfounded conspiracy theories or vibes based analysis. Some of the history and law sections hold up but the science is very touch and go. Some articles rested their entire claim on a single citation!!! On the side of economics/politics it is even worse, one article tries to blame vast structural issues on kids not having dinner with their parents anymore!
Some of it can be chalked up to issues with editing, but mostly there is a need for the environmentalist movement to set aside conspiracies, Malthusian fear mongering, and nonsense vibes based nonsense like the farmer's "natural love for God" or the fetishization of the "natural" or whatever. At many points arguments were meant to be accepted solely on the grounds that industrial agriculture is bad because it's ugly, where my beautiful cottage core agriculture is good because it looks pretty.
The fetishization of an idealized rural area as an escape from modernity is a concerning conservative impulse. Capitalism is just as much present on some twee organic farm as it is in the big city. The fetishization of the purity of the "natural" and the condemnation of GMOs as playing "God" is the same strand of thought that gives us homophobia and transphobia. We do a disservice to the movement by elevating these arguments over the myriad valid, empirically grounded critiques available.
Unfortunately, it has a serious lack of genuine academic rigor that leaves many authors spiraling into unfounded conspiracy theories or vibes based analysis. Some of the history and law sections hold up but the science is very touch and go. Some articles rested their entire claim on a single citation!!! On the side of economics/politics it is even worse, one article tries to blame vast structural issues on kids not having dinner with their parents anymore!
Some of it can be chalked up to issues with editing, but mostly there is a need for the environmentalist movement to set aside conspiracies, Malthusian fear mongering, and nonsense vibes based nonsense like the farmer's "natural love for God" or the fetishization of the "natural" or whatever. At many points arguments were meant to be accepted solely on the grounds that industrial agriculture is bad because it's ugly, where my beautiful cottage core agriculture is good because it looks pretty.
The fetishization of an idealized rural area as an escape from modernity is a concerning conservative impulse. Capitalism is just as much present on some twee organic farm as it is in the big city. The fetishization of the purity of the "natural" and the condemnation of GMOs as playing "God" is the same strand of thought that gives us homophobia and transphobia. We do a disservice to the movement by elevating these arguments over the myriad valid, empirically grounded critiques available.
October 19, 2011
Amazing.
This is a large book, the sort that you leave on the coffee table. "Fatal Harvest" shows pictures of industrial agriculture side-by-side with sustainable agriculture. The comparison can be downright shocking: on the one hand, entire fields covered in plastic tents to keep in the neurotoxic pesticide (accompanied by plenty of ominous DO NOT ENTER signs). On the other hand, a diverse beautiful field of healthy crops. Sometimes the comparison isn't that stark, depending on the crop. But either way, these pictures aren't just selective photography. Having visited fields like this personally, I can vouch that the pictures represent reality. Industrial agriculture is a terrible thing, and people need to see it with their own eyes.
This is a large book, the sort that you leave on the coffee table. "Fatal Harvest" shows pictures of industrial agriculture side-by-side with sustainable agriculture. The comparison can be downright shocking: on the one hand, entire fields covered in plastic tents to keep in the neurotoxic pesticide (accompanied by plenty of ominous DO NOT ENTER signs). On the other hand, a diverse beautiful field of healthy crops. Sometimes the comparison isn't that stark, depending on the crop. But either way, these pictures aren't just selective photography. Having visited fields like this personally, I can vouch that the pictures represent reality. Industrial agriculture is a terrible thing, and people need to see it with their own eyes.
September 12, 2007
I tok a look through this book while sitting in an office of a California farming non-profit. I was immediately enamored by this bok. It has an incredible amount of information about the current industrial food system and it's damage to our earth, our food, our people, small farmers and wildife. The photography is striking. It is out of print, so you must get it online or have it ordered through a bookstore, but I highly reccomend it.
January 3, 2009
with essays by wendell berry, vandana shiva, and other foodie activists. Absolutely remarkable - wish Tom Vilsack, incoming Agriculture Secretary, would read it. Iowa has one of the most transformed landscapes on the planet and is being sued by the state of Louisiana for its failure to regulate the overuse of fertilizer, and that is Obama's great hope for agriculture in this country?????
March 10, 2009
A bear of a book--i think it probably weighs 10 pounds and costs around $75 new. Yet, it is an epic compilation of writings (relating to food, agriculture, community, etc.) featuring the leading food/ag thinkers of our time, all in one book, together. Well worth the time and money. i have a copy if anyone wants to borrow...i "borrowed" it from the place i used to work, some 3 or 4 years ago:)
February 5, 2008
Terrible news, but extremely urgent & important news. And it ends on a positive note. One of my former teachers (Dave Hensen) wrote a terrific chapter about dismantling corporate agribusiness, which is eloquent and radical and very, very logical. If we want to continue, y'know, living on Earth.
May 6, 2008
This book is a collection of essays that really did influence my ideas about how I want to live. As a collection of independent essays, there is some repetition, but it is without a doubt worth reading.
August 22, 2008
Look past the dire title. Fatal Harvest is to books what Baraka is to films: a picture book that shows, for example, a grove of almonds, grown on a breathtakingly beautiful organic farm, contrasted with almond trees on a bleached agribusiness lot. Then corn, then strawberries...
Read
October 22, 2008this one lives at the CCAT library... so I have to go there to read this one... why buy books when you can visit them!
April 6, 2010
Worthwhile subject. Some essays better than others. Overall, hard to get through.
February 25, 2010
This book is amazing and eyeopening. Everyone who eats needs to read this book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews