What can we do to help stop global warming, feed the hungry, prevent 聽cruelty to animals, avoid genetically modified foods, be healthier and 聽live longer?

Noting the massive changes in the environment, food-production methods, 聽and technology over the last two decades, he lambastes (in a manner less 聽tough-mindedly restrained than Frances Moore Lapp's classic Diet for a 聽Small Planet) contemporary factory-farming methods and demonstrates that 聽individual dietary choices can be both empowering and have a broader 聽impact. Robbins, heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice-cream empire (he 聽rejected it to live according to his values), takes on fad diets, the 聽meat industry, food irradiation, hormone and antibiotic use in animals, 聽cruel animal husbandry practices, the economics of meat consumption, 聽biotechnology and the prevalence of salmonella and E. Coli. Some details 聽are downright revolting (euthanized dogs and cats often are made into 聽cattle feed), horrific (some 90% of cows, pigs and poultry are still 聽conscious when butchered) and mind-boggling (it takes 5,214 gallons of 聽water to produce one pound of beef). Despite all this and more 聽distressing information, Robbins ends on a hopeful note, detailing 聽growth in organic farming, public awareness and consumer activism 聽worldwide, as well as policy changes, especially in Europe. Well 聽researched and lucidly written, this book is sure to spark discussion 聽and incite readers to examine their food choices.