Chickenizing Farms and Food explores the limits of some popular alternatives to industrial farming, including organic production, nonmeat diets, locavorism, and small-scale agriculture. Silbergeld’s provocative but pragmatic call to action is tempered by real challenges: how can we ensure a safe and accessible food system that can feed everyone, including consumers in developing countries with new tastes for western diets, without hurting workers, sickening consumers, and undermining some of our most powerful medicines?

In this eye-opening exposé, acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributor Maryn McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity—and human health threat—uncovering the ways we can make America's favorite meat safer again. What you eat matters—for your health, for the environment, and for future generations. In this riveting investigative narrative, McKenna dives deep into the world of modern agriculture by way of chicken: from the farm where it's raised directly to your dinner table. Consumed more than any other meat in the United States, chicken is emblematic of today's mass food-processing practices and their profound influence on our lives and health. Tracing its meteoric rise from scarce treat to ubiquitous global commodity, McKenna reveals the astounding role of antibiotics in industrial farming, documenting how and why "wonder drugs" revolutionized the way the world eats—and not necessarily for the better. Rich with scientific, historical, and cultural insights, this spellbinding cautionary tale shines a light on one of America's favorite foods—and shows us the way to safer, healthier eating for ourselves and our children. In August 2019 this book will be published in paperback with the title Plucked: Chicken, Antibiotics, and How Big Business Changed the Way the World Eats.

Discusses how poultry is raised and processed before being eaten.

'An animal activist's journey to the "other side"' Joanna Lumley This is the story of what happens when we cross enemy lines to look for solutions. Leah Garcés has dedicated her career to fighting for the rights of the animals that end up on our plates. As the former US Executive Director of Compassion in World Farming and the current President of the non-profit group Mercy for Animals, she has led the fight against the sprawling chicken industry that raises billions of birds in cruel conditions – all to satisfy our appetite for meat. Grilled is Leah's story of working alongside the food and farming industry for animal welfare and ethical food. Instead of fighting and protesting and shaming – approaches that simply haven't worked previously – Garcés has instead tried to find common ground with producers. She has worked alongside owners of the megafarms, befriending them, having frank conversations with them, and ultimately encouraging change through dialogue and discussion. Leah is helping to directly improve the lives of millions of farm animals, and pushing alternatives such as plant-based substitutes and lab-grown meats to the top of the agenda, with some of the mega-farm conglomerates joining forces with her to explore these avenues. When she started her journey, Leah Garcés did not have much empathy to spare for the contract chicken farmer –until she actually met one and tried to understand the difficulties they faced. This is the story of giving in to discomfort for the sake of progress. It's a story of the power of human connection, and what happens when we practice empathy toward our enemies.

If you are raising chickens, turkeys, or other poultry for meat and lack easy access to a humane, localÊslaughterhouse, this guide shows you how to put together a slaughtering and processing unit that will accommodate any type of poultry and can be moved from farm to farm. These units can be funded, built, and used by a community of small farmers, or you can develop one by yourself and use it as part of a business. This book covers the mechanics of constructing the unit, government regulations, the permitting process, sanitation, safety, and much more.

Factory farms produce 99.9 percent of chickens, 95 percent of pigs, and 78 percent of cattle sold in the United States. This book contains essays that offer a variety of perspectives on the issue of factory farming, debating whether factory farming is economically beneficial, ethical, or harmful to human health or the environment, and considering the future of the industry.

"In The Meat Racket, investigative reporter Christopher Leonard delivers the first-ever account of how a handful of companies have seized the nation's meat supply. He shows how they built a system that puts farmers on the edge of bankruptcy, charges high prices to consumers, and returns the industry to the shape it had in the 1900s before the meat monopolists were broken up. At the dawn of the 21st century, the greatest capitalist country in the world has an oligarchy controlling much of the food we eat and a high-tech sharecropping system to make that possible. These companies are even able to raise meat prices for consumers while pushing down the price they pay to farmers. We know that it takes big companies to bring meat to the American table. What The Meat Racket shows is that this industrial system is rigged against all of us."--Publisher information.