Ms. Faruqi, a former Wall Streeter, decided to volunteer at a Canadian organic dairy farm and that started an international journey to explore animal agriculture. Her up-close and personal experiences – from Canada to Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai, Mexico, Belize, and finally the US – are interspersed with relevant facts and figures about animal farming.
A focused, topic-specific memoir (with extensive references) as opposed to a traditional investigative reporting piece, it is nevertheless a compelling read. The distressing, horrendous descriptions of a world gone horribly awry are lightened by a very few rays of hope.
Ms. Faruqi concludes with the following solutions (which she has demonstrated throughout the book):
- Large pastoral farms – reflecting crucial economies of scale – are the future ideal.
- Genetic selection has created animals that are unable to function properly promulgating unnatural behaviors.
- Gender diversity among farmers needs to increase – more women!!
- Agribusiness needs to police itself, recognize the obvious problems, and create solutions.
- Farm inspections need to be done by independent third parties.
- Farm animals need regulations that recognize they are sentient beings and treat them as such (see #5).
- Labels have to make sense and be enforced – for instance, the label “organic” (theoretically the most specific and meaningful term) is often achieved with lip service, blatant abuse, and loopholes (see #5).