The astonishing story of how a movement’s quest for rural simplicity drifted into a formula for mass death By George Monbiot, published on monbiot.com, 4th October 2023 Tourism sells to you the story of what it has taken away. It markets the “traditional” and “unchanging” and, in doing so, changes it. As the old joke […]
farming
Why do we put up with daily assaults on our health? It has everything to do with corporate power. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 22nd September 2023 There are some things we rightly find intolerable, such as the possession of poorly trained, aggressive dogs. There are other things, whose impacts are many thousands […]
The spectacular implosion of a popular delusion about livestock farming. By George Monbiot, published on monbiot.com, 2nd August 2023 Every industry has its apparatus of justification. The more damaging the industry, the greater the effort spent constructing it. Few if any industries are as damaging as meat production, especially meat production from ruminant animals, such […]
Bucolic fairytales are a threat to life on Earth. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 26th May 2023 No issue is more important, and none so shrouded in myth and wishful thinking. The way we feed ourselves is the key determinant of whether we survive this century, as no other sector is as damaging. […]
Sewage pollution by the water companies is just one of the deadly attacks on our rivers. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 3rd May 2023 I can’t help feeling a small surge of gratitude every time an environmental issue breaks the surface. That the state of England’s rivers seems at last to have become […]
Claims that cattle ranching sequesters carbon and restores ecosystems have been used in highly effective marketing campaigns by the livestock industry. Just one problem: they’re greenwash. By George Monbiot. This is an extract from my book Regenesis: feeding the world without devouring the planet. I’ve been prompted to publish it here by a new phase […]
A gulf in public understanding prevents us from seeing how and why our food supply is at risk. By George Monbiot. This is my written submission to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on Environmental Change and Food Security, 3rd March 2023 References are numbered and appended to the bottom of the document. 1. Food security […]
There’s a legal means of creating a pandemic that could kill millions. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 8th February 2023 If you wanted to kill as many people as possible, deniably and with no criminal consequences, what would you do? You’d do well to start with a bird flu. Bird flus are responsible […]
Those who dismiss this solution to the greatest threat to Earth systems have a duty to propose a better one. So where is it? By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 1st February 2023 Do you hate the idea of animal-free meat? Many people do. Unsurprisingly, livestock farmers are often furiously opposed. More surprisingly, so […]
The world’s most damaging farm products? Organic pasture-fed beef and lamb. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 16th August 2022 Perhaps the most important of all environmental issues is land use. Every hectare of land we use for extractive industries is a hectare that can’t support wild forests, savannahs, wetlands, natural grasslands and other […]