Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture

Book Overview

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... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559639415
• ISBN13: 9781559639415
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: Foundation for Deep Ecology
• Length: 396 Pages
• Weight: 5.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 11.8" x 12.3"

Customer Reviews

Kimbrell has done an amazing job

This book is beyond a book. It is like a movie on pages. The visuals are that powerful. What is revealed in these pages is a secret that must be exposed. Andrew Kimbrell has done a wonderful job here. His work is pioneering a new awareness for the entire world.

Every person in America should read this book.

Like other reviewers, I was unable to put this book down once I opened it. Although I understood in sort of a theoretical way that corporate agriculture was not a good thing, the pictures in this book connected all the dots for me. There is something about the photography that is simply transfixing - which seems odd given that the photos are of agriculture - but true nevertheless. After reading this book I could not bring myself to buy any more non-organic produce, so be forewarned - this is not a "coffee table book" in any ordinary sense. It should come with a warning label.

Buy one for yourself and one to share...

After reading this book, your views about agriculture will be forever altered. Presented in a high quality, high impact format, the photography offers the reader the chance to see the stark contrast between the products generated by 'power farmers' and that of the 'small farmer' - the true agrarian. Upon opening the book for the very first time, you will be completely engaged; you will be unable to put the book down until you have rummaged through all of the pages. The images will be etched on your brain with a subtle permanence and the accompanying text is just as powerful.

Congratulations to those who prepared this volume

When I received this book recently as a gift I was completely overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by the considerateness of the donor. Overwhelmed by the high quality of the production. Overwhelmed by the large number of "big names" who had contributed. Overwhelmed by the quality and meaningfulness of the photographs. Overwhelmed by the quality of the message that it gets across. Overwhelmed by the ammunition it gives me in my own personal drive for safer, more reliable food. Overwhelmed by how helpful it will be to the waverers who have not yet plucked up the courage to break their links with the chemical establishment.Let me start with the photos which are not only high quality but extremely helpful because side by side we are given a picture of crops grown under two systems which represent the two poles of producing our food. The text on the left page goes like this: "Industrial Eye: see what you are looking at: MELONS: More than half the melons sold in the U.S. are grown in California where industrial melon farms stretch for miles and miles ... Two of the most heavily used toxins in industrial melon production are ... Life is also difficult for the melon pickers ..." On the right page we have: "Agrarian Eye: See what you are looking at: MELONS: These melons are one crop among dozens at the Live Earth's 23-acre farm near Santa Cruz, CA. The melons are part of a diverse system of annual and perennial fruit and vegetable crops that rely on soil health to support the plant's natural ability to deter pests. But it's not done so easily - there are many challenges ... Coastal fog also poses potential fungal problems for melons, which Broz addresses by using fungal-resistant varieties of melons ... The melons are sold at local farmers' markets and through the farm's community supported agriculture (CSA) program, where families receive a weekly box of seasonal fruits and vegetables throughout the growing season."Next the text. "Part One: Farming as if Nature Mattered: Breaking the Industrial Paradigm" is composed of seven articles such as "Global Monoculture: The Worldwide Destruction of Diversity". Then "Part Two: Corporate Lies: Busting the Myths of Industrial Agriculture" is composed of articles each addressing one of the seven myths such as "Myth Two: Industrial Food is Safe, Healthy and Nutritious". The book continues through to "Part Seven: Organic and Beyond: Revisioning Agriculture for the 21st Century" with nine more articles such as "The Ethics of Eating: Why Environmentalism Starts at the Breakfast Table."In these 370 pages we have all the information we need to convince those sitting on the fence that we must reduce our dependence on industrial agriculture. When confronted with this volume it is difficult to imagine how all those involved in the industrial agricultural chain will be able to put up an effective argument. On the contrary, it should be convincing to the thinking service organization that this is where their future profits lie and they s

A stunning indictment of large scale industrial farming

A coffee table book about the dangerous practices of industrial agriculture might not be the most appetizing addition to your coffee break, especially if you are dining on food composed of conventionally grown ingredients. But this book does such a compelling job of cataloging the failures and hazards of traditional American agriculture - as well as the solutions - that you won't be able to put it down, despite the hard-to-swallow truths about our unsustainable food system.Fatal Harvest features impressive design, stunning photography and intriguing side-by-side comparisons of industrial versus agrarian based agriculture systems. Thoughtful essays by leading agricultural thinkers complement the commanding images. If you need one book to show you how our current food system is not only unsustainable but also hazardous to you, your family, the environment and wildlife, this is it. It should be required reading in agriculture schools, Cooperative Extension agencies, the halls of Congress and anywhere else that the seeds of future farming policy are sown, for if we don't work to change this system, we will face many more farm crises in the future.For years we have been told that American farmers must grow bigger, use more chemicals and genetically engineered organisms to `feed the world.' The current rate of soil loss, chemical damage and crop failures expose how this corporate model of farming will soon exhaust the land and water supply, poisoning the very earth that is supposed to sustain us. We will no longer be able to feed the world, and perhaps ourselves, unless farming policies and practices change. This book not only offers stark evidence of agriculture's dirty little secrets, but real world solutions to the problems industrial agriculture create.