A Book Review

This book is written from a local author. I agree that farmers are not true farmers anymore. I am not happy that we have a farmer growing GMO soybeans about 50 feet from our back door. He sprays his crops a couple of times a year with chemicals. I find it very strange, that my family is always sick too. Is it from the weather, the chemicals, or pollen that is making us sick? I even think it could be the water. My children were hardly sick when we lived in California.

This is written on the back of the book.

Ken Midkiff exposes the corporations responsible for the risks they are taking with the health of people, animals, the environment, and the quality of rural life through the mass production of meat, milk, eggs and fish. With too little concern for health and safety, these companies are endangering the lives of consumers and the quality of our food supply in the name of productivity and profit.

Midkiff argues that a return to sustainable agriculture is the solution to the environmental, medical, moral, and financial problems introduced by agribusiness. By supporting local farms, and demanding that supermarkets and restaurants offer free-range or organic products, we can send a financial message to the companies that have created industrial agriculture.

These topics and more are explored in the timely and much needed book.

What is a sustainable and socially just food system?

• Produce abundant, healthful food;
• provide just conditions and fair compensation for farmers and workers;
• strengthen local economies and communities;
• protect the natural resource base; and
• remain viable over the long term.

I enjoyed reading this book and found it educational. No, we will not stop eating meat. We just try to eat meat from local organic farmers. Our plan is to raise our own beef someday.