April 1981 RAIN Page 3 ACCESS AGRIBUSINESS Animal Factories, by Jim Mason and Peter Singer, 1980, 174 pp., $10.95 from: Crown Publishers One Park Avenue New York, NY 10016 If Gandhi was correct in his belief that " the greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated" then we are in real trouble. Consider: • veal calves are kept as anemic as possible so their flesh will have the desirable pale color. Their desperate craving for iron drives them to lick at nails or any other metal around them; • cement dust may soon be used as an additive in cattle feed since tests have shown it to produce fast weight gains; • several American universities are working to produce a truly global industrial chieken- one without any troublesome feathers; • total confinement systems fo r pigs produce such stress that the animals are frequently driven to bite each other's tails off Frances Moore Lappe showed the absurdity of a food system which pushes many pounds of vegetable protein through an animal to produce one pound (If meat protein. Jim Mason and Peter Singer take matters one step further by showing the absurdity (and misery) from the point of view of the animal which ~ustgo through a " total factory system" which completely alters its normal life cycle in a topsy-turvy technocratic quest for " efficient" food production . It stands to reason that animals raised in such an environment will not be as healthy as animals raised naturally-and they're not. It also stands to reason that agribusiness logic will dictate that such animals will be pumped full of antibiotics to compensate for this deficiencyand they are. Anyone for a vege-burger1 -JF COOPERATIVES "Futures" for Energy Cooperatives by the U.S. DOE, 1980, 104 pp., free from: Ms. Kathleen M. Healy DOE Conservation and Solar Energy Forrestal Bldg., Rm. 6B-205 Washington, DC 20585 For those who have been looking for more information on how to fund and develop an energy co-op, here's the book for you. " Futu res" is a collection of both funding and technical sources with profiles of energy coop projects across the country. There are 26 federal programs listed, some of which you may already be familiar with, and others (like the Small Hydroelectric Cooperative Program of the Idaho Dept. of Energy) which may be less familiar. The I1sting for each program is accompanied by current budget From Animal Factories information, descriptions of purpose, and applications procedures. The 38 cooperatives mentioned, all new or in the planning stages, include consumer and worker co-ops in aIcohal production, wood cutting and purchasing, solar greenhouse and solar hot water system installations, weatherization materials and bulk oil distribution. A brief summary report on the status of energy co-op development and a listing of U.S. Dept. of Energy Regional Offices concludes the booklet. The upcoming " how-to" manual from the Confer.ence on Alternative State and Local Policies, should be a useful complement to the information here. -LS History of Work Cooperatives in America by John Curl, 1981, 64 pp., $3.75 (plus $.50 postage) available from: Homeward Press P.O. Box 2307 Berkeley, CA 94702 Two years ago, when a fellow co-op worker and I were struggling to co-author a column on co-op history in our monthly newsletter, I would have loved to see this book. John Curl has succeeded in pulling loose the thread of cooperative history from the larger tapestry , not losing sight of its twists and turns. History of Work Cooperatives in America begins by painting a picture of 18th century society influenced by the financial greed of the Old World, Native American traditions in the New World, and the religious colonialism of the pilgrims. It continues with an examination of distinct periods of American history, focusing on cooperatives and collectives. Reference is made to a number of well-known cooperative organizations such as the National Grange, the New Harmony Commune led by Robert Owen and the Farmers Alliance (Populist Movement, late 1800s, see review this issue). Alongside these are some lesser known though intriguing groups such as the Nashoba Community, organized by suffragette Frances Wright ; a commune of blacks and whites committed to the liberation of black people; and Upton Sinclair's E.P.N.I.C. plan (End Poverty Now In California) that would have created self-sufficient "land colonies" for the unemployed (193J) . History of Work Cooperatives is a valuable historical document. The dear repetitions of history- the dream of a grassroots social change movement and the tension between those who advocate change from within and those who seek change from without-are patterns to observe and learn from . In sum, this history provides a powerful affirmation of the goals of the movement alongside a strong dose of caution for the struggles we will undoubtedly face 888m . - LS "Silo-type" egg factory, New Mexico.
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