Beyond Beef - the rise and fall of the cattle culture

Beyond Beef - the rise and fall of the cattle culture

By Jeremy Rifkin.

Taking us from ancient Sumer to the Dickensian disassembly lines of Chicago's stockyards, Jeremy Rifkin interweaves anthropology, sociology, economics and ecology in a brilliant and scathing examination and indictment of the cattle culture that has come to shape and warp our world.

He cuts through the myth of the cowboy to illumine the international intrigue, political giveaways, and sheer avarice that transformed the great American frontier into a huge cattle breeding ground.

And he adds up the staggering cost of this beef addiction:

• Millions of deaths from heart disease, cancer and strokes
• Environmental devastation, with rain forests burned and fertile plains turned to desert
• The gross injustice of a world in which the poorest peoples have been starved to support the appetites of a handful of wealthy nations

Australians like Americans have a love affair with beef. Have a read of this passionate important book. It's an urgent warning to everyone who cares about the Earth and its sentient inhabitants.