Links: The industrialization of agriculture

Michael Pollan's article "This Steer's Life" appeared in The New York Times Magazine on March 31, 2002. To learn how the meat industry really works, the author bought a calf and followed it through the process. Pollan manages to provide the perspectives of both cow and farmer with equal sympathy but without idealizing either and without blinking from the ugly realities of feedlots and industrialized meat production. The article is available in the Times online archive, but you will have to pay $0.80 for access.
The week after his article appeared, Pollan was interviewed on NPR's program Fresh Air. The interview covers the major points of the article. Complete audio of the interview is available free of charge on the Web.
Pollan is also the author of "The Organic-Industrial Complex," about how organic food production and distribution has become an industry. The article appeared in The New York Times Magazine on May 13, 2001, and is also available for a fee in the Times' online archive.