Our CEO Philip Lymbery’s book Farmageddon: the true cost of cheap meat, written with political journalist Isabel Oakeshott, has gained acclaim both in the UK and around the world.

Farmageddon exposes the myths surrounding factory farming and warns of a new wave of intensification of agriculture that could take the countryside and our health to breaking point.

Farmageddon on tour

Following a successful book launch in London hosted by Joanna Lumley, Philip has undertaken a gruelling tour in order to make sure the message of Farmageddon reaches the most people possible.

In February, he presented Farmageddon to decision-makers in Europe at a Brussels conference hosted by the Greek Presidency of the EU. At the event, called ‘Averting Farmageddon: Sustainable food for all’, he explained that the biggest cause of food waste on the planet is feeding human-edible crops to farm animals and that we need to get farm animals back on the land where they convert what people can’t eat – grass – into what we can – meat and dairy products. Philip shared a platform with Oliver De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

Literary festivals and other events

Philip has been speaking at several influential literary festivals; including: Hay Festival of Literature – one of the largest and best known literature festivals in the world. This year around 85,000 people over a ten day period came from all over the UK, Europe, the US and beyond, to listen to speakers including Jennifer Saunders and Jeremy Paxman. Philip took part in a debate with the Vice President of the NFU, Guy Smith, and followed this up with a talk on his experiences whilst writing his book the next day when he spoke in conversation with Rosie Boycott. Rosie is Boris Johnson’s food advisor and chair of London Food, an organisation aiming to improve Londoners’ access to healthy, locally produced and affordable food.

At the York Festival of Ideas, he challenged the oxymoron of ‘sustainable intensification’. He explained that we need to move away from the obsession with increasing production with industrial methods and move towards a more sustainable food model, noting that we already produce enough food to feed up to 14 billion people but waste vast quantities of it. At York, Philip shared the stage with influential speakers such as Mike Coupe, the next CEO of Sainsbury’s and Professor Tim Benton a global food security champion.

Farmageddon garners acclaim around the world