Volume 39, Number 7 · April 9, 1992
Bandit and Friends
By Peter Singer
Beyond Beef:The Rise and Fall of the Cattle Industry
by Jeremy Rifkin
Dutton, 353 pp., $21.00
Taking Stock: Animal Farming and the Environment
by Alan B. Durning, by Holly B. Brough
Worldwatch Paper 103, Worldwatch Institute, 62 pp., $5.00
Against Liberation: Putting Animals in Perspective
by Michael P.T. Leahy
Routledge, 273 pp., $59.95
Bandit: Dossier of a Dangerous Dog
by Vicki Hearne
HarperCollins/Aaron Asher Books, 304 pp., $22.00
Animals and Society: The Humanity of Animal Rights
by Keith Tester
Routledge, 218 pp., $15.95 (paper)
In describing Beyond Beef as 'the most disturbing indictment of the beef industry' since Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, the publisher in fact understates the importance of Jeremy Rifkin's new book. Eighty-five years ago Upton Sinclair disclosed that the meat Americans were eating could be disease-ridden, and that its unhealthy condition was often shielded from inspection by widespread corruption. Sinclair also revealed the inhuman working conditions and appalling animal suffering pervasive in the meat industry. Rifkin too tells us of health risks, corruption, and the ruthless exploitation of animals. But he goes beyond Sinclair in showing the injustices produced by the beef industry on an international scale and its ruinous effect on the environment. That is why Beyond Beef should be compared not with The Jungle, but rather with Silent Spring, The Fate of the Earth, or the book that is its nearest predecessor, Diet for a Small Planet. Like those books, Beyond Beef draws our attention to a threat to what we most value.
Review, 5565 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |