In 1980 Peter Singer and Jim Mason published Animal Factories, a landmark work on the harm factory farming inflicts on the environment, rural communities and animals. A generation later, in The Ethics of What We Eat, the pair embark on a remarkable journey to investigate the foods we eat. Their findings are both shocking and illuminating.
Their adventure begins at the dinner tables of three families with differing tastes and shopping habits. The authors scrutinise methods of production for every food group, including the factory farming of cattle and pigs, of chicken and fish, as well as the recent increase of GM foods now available from our supermarket shelves.
They also explore the burgeoning organic food movement, the fair trade movement, the pros and cons of buying locally, and how it is possible to be an ethical consumer in the twenty-first century.