"Animal Oppression & Human Violence"

(Domesecration, Capitalism, and Global Conflict)
-by david a. nibert
2013
A tidal wave of facts, quotes, and references that flesh out the arguments presented in his earlier book, "Animal Rights/Human Rights" (http://nakedmeadow.blogspot.com/2013/10/animal-rights-human-rights.html), which describes how humanity's exploitation of other humans is intertwined with our exploitation of other animals. Nibert argues that we'll never solve the first problem without addressing the second...and that without doing both, our time on this planet will soon be done, as corporate capitalism is an infinite escalation of suffering for undervalued humans, and raping of the Earth through pollution and desertification. He looks at how the history of capitalism has walked in lockstep with our "domestication" of other animals (he continues to restructure language to make plain the evils of speciesism - "animals" becoming "other animals", and now "domestication" becoming...). He looks at the rise of pastoralism (the enslaving of other animals for food and wealth), and how grazing requirements have created a neverending war against subsistence farmers, a one-sided war dominated by pastoralists, who kill on horseback. He analyses the rapaciousness of pastoralism ("red gold"), as over-grazing and the ever-expanding need for land have created huge deserts and disappearing rain forests. Depleting oil reserves get all the press, but diminishing water and topsoil will soon make oil problems look like a stubbed toe. Nibert looks at how european imperialism (and recent U.S. "interventions") have culminated in modern "silent" wars on indigenous people who lack the resources to fight back. He lays out capitalism's lack of conscience or long-term awareness, and the staggering power it currently wields to combat any obstacle or protest. He illuminates the ecological endtimes and wars of survival that are coming our way, unless we stop factory farming (and using american Hollywood influence to convince the rest of the world that our "hamburger culture" is neat-o).
The first eight chapters are a bulldozer of documentation - if you already have a good grasp of the problems, you can skip to chapter nine, which exposes the ineffectual, cosmetic nature of the free-range, cage-free movement - such methods only make rich, guilt-ridden consumers feel better about themselves, while deflecting attention away from calls for real systemic change. Meanwhile, the poorer consumers (meaning basically everyone) continue to prop up factory farming, the growth of which hasn't been slowed one bit by this free-range nonsense. Don't be surprised by corporations who embrace cage-free - they get to sell more expensive products to some, while simultaneously selling the illusion that something is being done. And don't kid yourself - even the best-kept free-range animals live lives that would be considered horrific by "human" standards. On top of that, there's of course not enough land to implement free-range as a comprehensive policy - it would take a pasture half the size of the U.S. just to hold our cows. If we want to stop the silent genocides of undervalued peoples, global eco-annihilation, and the holocaust we inflict on trillions of other animals every year, the only immediate solution is (everybody say it together) global veganism, and the end of capitalism.
On a personal level, i owe thanks to david for making me re-think my impulse to discard any wisdom of the past twenty thousand years as barbarically unworthy - the book's opening quote is from a writer who saw this all coming. No, not upton sinclair. Plato.
"Animal Oppression & Human Violence" is one of those rare books that you wish every person in the world could read. It's so airtight and damning, you can't imagine anyone anywhere coming up with a "yes, but..."