Livestock production worldwide is increasing rapidly, in part due to economic growth and demand for meat in industrializing countries. Yet there are many concerns about the sustainability of increased meat production and consumption, from perspectives including human health, animal welfare, climate change and environmental pollution. This book tackles the key issues of contemporary meat production and consumption through a lens of political ecology, which emphasizes the power relations producing particular social, economic and cultural interactions with non-human nature. Three main topics are addressed: the political ecology of global livestock production trends; changes in production systems around the world and their implications for environmental justice; and existing and emerging governance strategies for meat production and consumption systems and their implications. Case studies of different systems at varying scales are included, drawn from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe. The book includes an editorial introduction to set the context and synthesize key messages for the reader.

With the ever rising demand for meat around the world, the production of meat has changed dramatically in the past few decades. What has brought about the increasing popularity and attendant normalization of factory farms across many parts of the world? What are some of the ways to resist such broad convergences in meat production and how successful are they? This book locates the answers to these questions at the intersection between the culture, science and political economy of meat production and consumption. It details how and why techniques of production have spread across the world, albeit in a spatially uneven way. It argues that the modern meat production and consumption sphere is the outcome of a complex matrix of cultural politics, economics and technological faith. Drawing from examples across the world (including America, Europe and Asia), the tensions and repercussions of meat production and consumption are also analyzed. From a geographical perspective, food animals have been given considerably less attention compared to wild animals or pets. This book, framed conceptually by critical animal studies, governmentality and commodification, is a theoretically driven and empirically rich study that advances the study of food animals in geography as well as in the wider social sciences.

With the ever rising demand for meat around the world, the production of meat has changed dramatically in the past few decades. What has brought about the increasing popularity and attendant normalization of factory farms across many parts of the world? What are some of the ways to resist such broad convergences in meat production and how successful are they? This book locates the answers to these questions at the intersection between the culture, science and political economy of meat production and consumption. It details how and why techniques of production have spread across the world, albeit in a spatially uneven way. It argues that the modern meat production and consumption sphere is the outcome of a complex matrix of cultural politics, economics and technological faith. Drawing from examples across the world (including America, Europe and Asia), the tensions and repercussions of meat production and consumption are also analyzed. From a geographical perspective, food animals have been given considerably less attention compared to wild animals or pets. This book, framed conceptually by critical animal studies, governmentality and commodification, is a theoretically driven and empirically rich study that advances the study of food animals in geography as well as in the wider social sciences.

Livestock production worldwide is increasing rapidly, in part due to economic growth and demand for meat in industrializing countries. Yet there are many concerns about the sustainability of increased meat production and consumption, from perspectives including human health, animal welfare, climate change and environmental pollution. This book tackles the key issues of contemporary meat production and consumption through a lens of political ecology, which emphasizes the power relations producing particular social, economic and cultural interactions with non-human nature. Three main topics are addressed: the political ecology of global livestock production trends; changes in production systems around the world and their implications for environmental justice; and existing and emerging governance strategies for meat production and consumption systems and their implications. Case studies of different systems at varying scales are included, drawn from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe. The book includes an editorial introduction to set the context and synthesize key messages for the reader.

Sustainability Matters is a compilation of some of the best research papers submitted by students from the National University of Singapore's multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary graduate programme in environmental studies, as their MSc dissertations in Environmental Management [MEM]. This collection is for the period 2014/2015 to 2015/2016. Entitled Sustainability Matters: Environmental Management in the Anthropocene, this is the sixth volume in the series, and comprises 15 of the best research papers completed during this period. The papers have been edited for brevity. They analyse the many challenges to effective environmental management covering countries including China, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the EU, and USA. Issues examined include biodiversity conservation, environmental science, environmental governance and management, energy, and urban studies.The first compilation, Sustainability Matters: Environmental Management in Asia was published in 2010 and comprised the best papers from 2001/2002 to 2006/2007. The second, Sustainability Matters: Challenges and Opportunities in Environmental Management in Asia, was published in 2011, and comprised the best papers from 2007/2008 and 2008/2009. The third and fourth compilations, Sustainability Matters: Asia's Green Challenges, and Sustainability Matters: Asia's Energy Concerns, Green Policies and Environmental Advocacy, comprised the best papers from the periods 2009/2010 and 2011/2012 respectively. The fifth compilation, Sustainability Matters: Environmental and Climate Changes in the Asia-Pacific, was published in 2015 and comprised the best papers for the periods 2012/2013 and 2013/2014.The papers are edited by five staff members from different disciplines in the MEM programme: Lye Lin-Heng, Harvey Neo, Sekhar Kondepudi, Yew Wen-Shan, Judy Sng Gek-Khim.