The CAFO Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories (Contemporary Issues)

I'm an academic, and I picked this up based on some now-forgotten recommendation to consider for a class on food issues that I'll be teaching during Spring 2012. I was especially attracted by a number of prominent names listed in the table of contents: Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Anna Lappé. These are great writers on our contemporary food system, and it would be great to able to assign one anthology to my class with selections from all of them. Also, I've been vegetarian for nearly 13 years, so I was quite sympathetic to the overall aims of the book. However, there are enough problems with this book that I will not be using it for my class, though I may assign some particular chapters; and in any case I would hesitate before recommending it to anyone.First, let me note that this book does a few things well: It includes both vegetarians and locavores in its discussion, instead of focusing on just one and alienating (or demonizing) the other. It includes several chapters on fish and the status of workers in our industrialized food system; too often we focus on the suffering of non-human mammals. Other chapters consider CAFOs from more scientific or technical points of view: the economics of food; biodiversity and natural selection. Again, these are issues that are often overlooked. And the pieces by the prominent names are well-done, though they're mostly reprinted.On the other hand, roughly half of the chapters in this book are simply horrible, with overwrought emotional writing, little to no evidence, and tissue-thin arguments. If I gave this to a class of bright college students, they'd tear it to shreds -- and no doubt lose respect for me for assigning it. Several times, I nearly put the book down for good after grudgingly finishing an especially bad chapter. In the case of the piece by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., I almost threw the book across the room in disgust. Eventually I learned to just skip over those chapters that promised, in their first few pages, to be more polemic than analysis. This large part of the book is the sort of thing that encourage the stereotype of vegetarians and environmentalists as irrational, science-hating fanatics. If we want to convince people of the justice of our cause, we need to do so by offering them intellectually powerful reasons and incontrovertible evidence for our beliefs, not by tossing around `corporate' as though it were a four-letter word.To be sure, some of the chapters are quite good; let me stress that only about half of this book has the problem I identified in the last paragraph. But how do you rate a book that's one-half horrible, one-third decent, and one-sixth great? I rate it three stars.

Excellent book for those who take their responsibility to the animals they eat and the planet they inhabit seriously: this book contains many important photos that may soon be, or are already, illegal to take in some states, they show the inside of CAFOs. If you eat animals, you should know what you hire people to do for you and how these animals are treated and prepared for your consumption. The book also addresses loss of diversity and hidden costs as well as other consequences of our every day decisions to buy and consume products for sale from CAFO productions.I first bought this book 5 years ago and it started my journey from happy consumer of anything cheap to customer at the local butcher shop, where I could ask questions about the animals used for meat production, and herd-share owner to get raw milk from a local producer who allowed me to visit the farm o finally, this year trying a vegan diet and being quite happy with my new ethical and healthier life style. The least we can do is to buy local and ask questions about how the animals, workers, and waste are treated and refuse to buy animals products produced in horrific conditions. In my opinion, you can still eat meat and eggs and dairy if you like, but you are responsible for how it is produced since you are paying someone to do it for you. This book shows rare (from what I have seen) and valuable photos that expose the truth. They may be hard to see, but they are important to see to make informed decisions.

I became an advocate for animals when I clicked on the humane society's undercover work on an industrial pig farm. Although I "knew" factory farming was bad I was both afraid of seeing the images and unaware of how terrible it really is. My eyes have now been opened and I will never turn back from adding my voice and donations to stop this terrible evil of our times. I have read many books on factory farming and other animal issues. This is the best book I have read to date on this subject. It is a compilation of essays by a whole range of concerned people in many fields. It is incredibly interesting and hard to put down, does not over-do the emotionalism which is inherent in such a subject, while laying out all the facts in a very well researched and complete way. Just read this book - it will give you the whole picture.In addition to the cruelty aspect this book lays out the incredible environmental cost of industrial agriculture, and gives extremely viable alternatives. We have all been fed a huge lie just to keep increasing the profits of big agra business at the expense of the planet. This is a completely unsustainable model kept going by corporate greed and government turning a blind eye to the excesses and downright criminality of their corporate buddies. The bio-diversity and climate of our planet is being affected. I feel much more educated on the subject now that I know the facts and figures of where factory farming is taking us.I thank everyone who contributed to this wonderful book.

This book is one of the best books I have ever read, it gives great insight into whats going in terms of livestock production and how the US environment is being eroded. If you don't wish to know where your supermarket meat comes from then don't read this book, but awareness is everything so I highly recommend this book. A great work of art

Beautifully heartbreaking book. Perfect as a coffee table book for when you’re nonvegan friends and family come over (post-covid).

This book and several others were published years ago, yet the atrocities and the eco-terrorism on our rivers and land continues. Not to mention the horrors inflicted upon the animals in factory farms.

This book which accompanies the larger (and very heavy!) fully illustrated book on intensive animal husbandry should be on all school curriculums. It is an excellent expose of a dreadful industry. It should be made widely available in libraries but as it is a touchy subject peple often do not want to know about the detail of how their food is produced. I am a vegan anyhow but if anyone reads this - very much recommended to be done in conjunction with the large version - they are likely to give serious thought to their diet and how the food they eat is actually produced. The reader - which this review is about - is a side book to the large one - presumably produced in this manner for ease of reading but it loses in translation without the illustrations forming the major element of its big companion. I would recommend it but preferably read in conjunction with the "big guy" if you can, at all, afford to do so. The big one is expensive and this, little one, is a very supportive "easier to handle - physically" useful adjunct. Not so useful on its own but hugely helpful for study of the big brother version.

Was a bit alarmed at the way the introduction seemed to offer a paid job for life if I wanted to become an animal rights campaigner - or perhaps that was a misunderstanding on my part. Have found that I was right to be suspicious about the lack of milking cows visible in the fields - and the lack of traffic problems nowadays when they go for milking - but, it still hasn't completely solved my query as cow milking COFAs, at least, are apparently not going on it our UK at present - only in places like America. So still, why the lack of milking cows round here? I saw loads of pasture land on the way to Scarborough the other day, but not one milking cow there...Does anyone know how this DOES all work in our country?