Factory Farming

Gr 7 Up—This solid volume looks at the economics, ethics, environmental impact, and future of factory farming. The issues are explored through diverse pro and con articles that have been edited for brevity, highlighting various points in the discussion surrounding the large-scale production and slaughter of animals for food. The detailed table of contents (which includes an abstract for each article), chapter prefaces summarizing the arguments made within the section, a brief biography of the author, and contact information for relevant organizations make this a highly usable resource for students. The arguments made against factory farming are more diverse in theme, source, and number, but that is reflective of the debate itself. The section presenting the arguments for why the practices do not harm human health or the environment contains the only weakness in the book. All of the articles in the section that deals with the future acknowledge that changes will have to be made due to the increasing costs and does not follow the pro/con format typical of this kind of resource. This is a valuable addition to collections needing information on the state of modern food production.—Caroline Tesauro, Radford Public Library, VA