:00:00. > :00:00.OK, and again, Neil, well done. Eddie grateful for you taking the
:00:00. > :00:00.time to come in. No on BBC News, it's time for Meet the Author, with
:00:07. > :00:11.Nick Higham. Philip Lymbery is the chief
:00:12. > :00:15.executive of Compassion in World Farming, which campaigns against the
:00:16. > :00:20.factory farming of animals. He has written a book with Isabel
:00:21. > :00:24.Oakeshott, called Farmageddon, The True Cost of Cheap Meat, about the
:00:25. > :00:28.impact of factory farming, not just on animals themselves, but the
:00:29. > :00:37.environment and on human health. As you can probably tell, it is the
:00:38. > :00:42.work of a passionate crusader. Philip Lymbery, this seems to be a
:00:43. > :00:46.pretty angry book, you look at the harm that factory farming does do
:00:47. > :00:50.animals, the environmental degradation, threats to health, the
:00:51. > :00:57.waste, which of these things makes you most angry? As a passionate
:00:58. > :01:01.bird-watcher, personally, it is the countryside, what we're doing to the
:01:02. > :01:06.countryside. Looking at what is happening in this country, once
:01:07. > :01:15.common farmland birds have declined over recent decades by up to 90%, we
:01:16. > :01:18.can see that the roll-out of industrial agriculture in Britain
:01:19. > :01:25.has had a profound effect on green and pleasant land. With the book, we
:01:26. > :01:30.wanted to show that things could, if we let it, get so much worse. And
:01:31. > :01:35.you did that by travelling the world, going with Isabel Oakeshott,
:01:36. > :01:44.and a camera crew, and interviewed and filmed farmers, local people,
:01:45. > :01:48.all around the world. This is a dead zone, it has been completely
:01:49. > :01:57.contaminated by pollution coming from the fish meal industry.
:01:58. > :02:01.We wanted to show people what industrial agriculture, factory
:02:02. > :02:06.farming, means, not just to the countryside, or the animals that are
:02:07. > :02:12.imprisoned in these institutions, but also what happens to people's
:02:13. > :02:20.health and the neighbours of factory farms. Let us speak about China, you
:02:21. > :02:24.look at pig farms, and there is a lot of increasing pig farming going
:02:25. > :02:31.on in China, because the Chinese are growing richer, want more meat, and
:02:32. > :02:34.this is the solution. You can see the Chinese point of view here.
:02:35. > :02:42.Highly else will be feed this growing burgeoning wealthy
:02:43. > :02:46.population? Sadly, they have been sold this morale is that mega farms
:02:47. > :02:55.are the way forward, eye-poppingly huge farms where animals are kept in
:02:56. > :03:02.these things, and it is very hungry for green, for cereals that could be
:03:03. > :03:08.fed directly to people. -- hungry for grain. You went to California,
:03:09. > :03:12.where fruit trees and almond trees are grown, with mega dairies,
:03:13. > :03:21.thousands of cows, and having terrible trouble disposing of
:03:22. > :03:24.waste. Yes, causing great pollution. When we went up about that
:03:25. > :03:30.landscape, in a small aeroplane, what we saw was this mammoth
:03:31. > :03:37.patchwork quilt of crops peppered with what looked like fishes scars
:03:38. > :03:43.on the landscape. They were mega dairies, thousands of cattle in
:03:44. > :03:50.single muddy paddocks, and each one accompanied by an Olympic-sized
:03:51. > :03:56.swimming pool, which was holding the map. And it it -- holding the Mac.
:03:57. > :04:02.And just one of those is likely to be having the effluent equivalent to
:04:03. > :04:08.deal with of a small city. But the pressure is partly on land. Organic
:04:09. > :04:11.farming is wonderful, but if you keep livestock organically, you need
:04:12. > :04:17.to give them space, and we do not have enough, do we? There is plenty
:04:18. > :04:22.of space in Britain and in Europe. What is often overlooked is 70% of
:04:23. > :04:30.the British land surface is agricultural, 66% is part, lots of
:04:31. > :04:37.space to put animal. -- pasture. Taking animals of the land is a
:04:38. > :04:41.mistake. And feeding animal on grain instead of grass makes the food and
:04:42. > :04:46.healthy. It increases the level of saturated fat, decrease as the
:04:47. > :04:57.levels of mega freeze and other health giving benefits. -- omega 3s.
:04:58. > :05:04.Some people see factory farming as necessary evil to feed people. But
:05:05. > :05:08.maybe even a necessary good? why should we expect people on low
:05:09. > :05:15.incomes to feed their children on unhealthy food from factory farms?
:05:16. > :05:18.That cannot be right. Organic farming may produce better food,
:05:19. > :05:24.healthier food, but it is expensive, and Prince Charles runs an organic
:05:25. > :05:29.farm at Highgrove, which often does not make money. The trouble is, for
:05:30. > :05:37.60 years in Europe and the USA, policy regulation and subsidies, the
:05:38. > :05:40.whole regime has been lined up behind this push towards industrial
:05:41. > :05:45.agriculture. Thankfully, in Britain, our farmers are relative
:05:46. > :05:51.novices, but the impetus from the US is to get even more intensive, using
:05:52. > :05:59.seductive language like sustainable intensification, an oxymoron if ever
:06:00. > :06:02.there was one. I believe this is so serious, threatening the health of
:06:03. > :06:08.our food, to decimate again countryside, that government needs
:06:09. > :06:15.to intervene, it needs to get involved and make sure that policy
:06:16. > :06:19.and subsidies go behind the better way of producing food and farming,
:06:20. > :06:25.making it financially favourable to buy good food, to produce food in an
:06:26. > :06:32.animal friendly environment, environment friendly, healthy way,
:06:33. > :06:38.rather than as it is making it more attuned to intensive agriculture.
:06:39. > :06:47.Villa Limerick, thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much. --
:06:48. > :06:50.Philip Lymbery. Coming up, more on the special day of coverage of the
:06:51. > :06:54.terrible weather. We hear from a drainage expert about what needs to
:06:55. > :06:59.be done in Somerset. And the latest from Italy where a court is said to
:07:00. > :07:00.be about to give its verdict in the Meredith Kercher murder