BOOK REVIEWS

Allaby, Michael, Basics of Environmental Science. London and New York:

Rutledge, 1996. xii + 297 pp. Hard cover, $65.00 U.S.; Soft cover, $17.95
U.S. ISBN 0-415-13019-0.

Just what are the basics of environmental science? This book places science
front and foremost in explaining the basis for environmental studies. It
defines ecology as a science, while acknowledging the use of the term out-
side the rigorous definition, and explores its fundamental place in under-
standing how life thrives and is affected by natural and anthropogenic
interactions.
In six chapters and 62 sections, the book proceeds in a logical framework
to build appreciation of how various scientific disciplines relate to environ-
mental studies. The first chapters set the stage through earth sciences and
physical resources. These are related not just to human perspectives, but to
the very existence and flourishing of life on earth as well. The chapter on
the biosphere explains energy and nutrient cycling and how those processes
are intimately tied to biomass and biodiversity through other basic ecosys-
temic processes, such as succession, population regulation, dispersal, and
colonization. How those processes, and the life forms involved, came to be
so diverse is elucidated in the chapter on biological resources. Again, this
chapter is a balanced exposé of those reources as they are incorporated into
planetary life and as they can be used by people. The final chapter presents
the application of the principles of earth sciences, ecology, and evolution
in rational and rigorous environmental management in conservation, pest
control, restoration ecology, bioremediation, pollution control, an the like.
The arrangement of topics allows the reader to build knowledge in a
conventional order, as noted above. However, the book is remarkable in
that users can jump in at any chapter. This does make for some redundancy
to make each chapter more or less self-contained, but back- and cross-
referencing are easy to avoid excessive repetition.
All in all, Allaby has presented us with a well-written, easily read
book which pays appropriate homage to historical writings, contexts, and
advances. It explains various complex interactions and issues well. The
chapter summaries and boxed case-histories complement the main text. The
illustrations are clear, relevant, and the captions highly explanatory. The

The Journal of Agricultural & Environmental Ethics 10: 199–200, 1998.

200 BOOK REVIEWS

book is interesting. The level is introductory. Its non-technical approach

lends it well to informed lay readership and to students concerned with
environmental issues but with primary scholarly interests in other disci-
plines, scientific or otherwise.
I recommend this book to anyone concerned with the state of the world’s
environments, to aspiring environmental students with bents to social and
“hard” sciences, as an introduction to college and university curricula in
environmental sciences, and as review and reference for advanced students,
educators, and environmental scientists.

Environmental Biology PETER G. KEVAN

University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario
N1G 2W1, Canada

Michael W. Fox, Agricide: The Hidden Farm and Food Crisis That Affects
Us All. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company, 1996, pp. 252.

Agricide is the second edition of Michael Fox’s text, first published ten
years ago. The original text, the Introduction and Chapters 1–7, remain
intact while two new chapters, an Epilogue, and supplemental and support-
ing references have been added. Aimed at a general audience, the heart
of the book is a critique of animal husbandry or factory farming and
its associated practices, mainly in the United States, but also touching
on other western industrialized nations. Chapter 8 looks a the costs of
these practices, particularly famine and poverty, from a global perspective,
while Chapter 9 examines the possible implications of genetic engineer-
ing biotechnology. The Epilogue is intended as a “handbook for social
change,” detailing how individuals, acting as both citizens and consumers,
can revolutionize the current food production system, making it healthful,
humane, ecologically sound, and equitable.
Starkly, Fox writes, “It must be apparent that we cannot go on as we
have been. We are killing the earth, killing the animals, killing ourselves –
this is the true meaning of agricide” (p. 152). The time span of “as we have
been,” refers largely to developments in industrialized agriculture since the
1960’s though Fox looks at changes which began at the turn of the century.
The “villains” of this century’s agricide are not, Fox repeats in several
places, independent farmers, animal scientists, or veterinarians; rather, the
real villain is ideological – the view promulgated by agribusiness that
bigger is better and the best way to produce wholesome and abundant

Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 10: 200–203, 1998.