Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat book cover

Farmageddon

The True Cost of Cheap Meat

Philip Lymbery
4.22(1092 Reviews)

Overview of Farmageddon

Farmageddon exposes the devastating truth behind cheap meat, revealing how industrial farming destroys our planet. Endorsed by Joanna Lumley, this eye-opening investigation asks: what's the real price of your burger? The answer will forever change how you shop, eat, and think about food.

Key Themes in Farmageddon

  • industrial agriculture impacts
  • factory farming ethics
  • global land grabbing
  • animal welfare standards
  • corporate food systems

Quotes from Farmageddon

  • Medical professionals document how pesticides penetrate "to genome level."

  • For these investors, African agriculture is merely "a new asset class" to exploit.

  • This isn't some dystopian fiction-it's the reality of modern industrial agriculture.

  • The chickens themselves endure miserable lives with virtually no legal protection.

  • The human cost of Argentina's soya boom is staggering.

Characters in Farmageddon

  • Philip LymberyAuthor and investigator of industrial farming
  • Janisse RayWriter who documented the decline of rural Georgia
  • Jesse JewellPioneer of the vertically integrated poultry model
  • Neil CrowderInvestment executive acquiring African farmland

About the Author

About the Author of Farmageddon

Philip Lymbery, award-winning author of Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat, is a globally recognized thought leader in sustainable agriculture and animal welfare. As CEO of Compassion in World Farming and Visiting Professor at the University of Winchester’s Centre for Animal Welfare, Lymbery combines decades of frontline activism with rigorous research to expose industrial farming’s devastating impacts on animals, ecosystems, and food systems. His critically acclaimed investigative work blends environmental advocacy with accessible storytelling, driven by 30+ years of grassroots campaigning and international policy engagement.

Beyond Farmageddon—a Times Writers’ Book of the Year translated into six languages—Lymbery authored Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were and Sixty Harvests Left, cementing his reputation for linking factory farming to biodiversity collapse and soil degradation. A United Nations Food Systems Summit Champion and frequent media commentator, his work has been endorsed by figures like Joanna Lumley and Chris Packham. Farmageddon remains a pivotal text in food ethics, praised as a “game-changing” critique of industrialized agriculture.

Download Summary of Farmageddon

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