Dead Zone review – a call to change our way of farming

Dead Zone review – a call to change our way of farming

Philip Lymbery, head of Compassion in World Farming, argues cogently for the end of factory farming to save species on the edge of extinction

Katharine Norbury

Sun 18 Jun 2017 10.00 BST Last modified on Wed 21 Mar 2018 23.51 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jun/18/dead-zone-philip-lymbery-review-food-farming

Philip Lymbery

 Philip Lymbery, chief executive of Compassion in World Farming

“In the blink of an evolutionary eye,” Philip Lymbery writes, “one particular species has gone from newcomer to the dominant force shaping the planet: us.”

Lymbery is head of the leading animal welfare organisation Compassion in World Farming, and he approaches the conundrum of “how should we live our lives” from the perspective of food production. He picks several species teetering on the edge of extinction – elephants in Sunatra, the bison of Yellowstone Park, the jaguars of Brazil, the penguins of Robin Island and more – and asks what would happen to them if we changed our farming practices.

He believes it is a misconception that livestock need to be factory-farmed in sheds and fed one third of the world’s grain so they grow as big and fast as possible. “There’s already enough food for everybody,” he maintains, as more than half the world’s food “rots, is dumped in landfill, or feeds imprisoned animals”. Dead Zone is a vital book that makes a realistic and imperative argument for returning to the old ways of farming.

• Dead Zone by Philip Lymbery is published by Bloomsbury (£12.99). To order a copy for £11.04 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99