Jody Emel is Professor of Geography at Clark University, USA. 

Harvey Neo is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore.

This book tackles the key issues of contemporary meat production and consumption through a lens of political ecology, which emphasizes the power relations producing particular social, economic and cultural interactions with non-human nature.

Foreword  Alice J. Hovorka  1. Introduction  Jody Emel and Harvey Neo  Part 1: The 'Livestock Revolution': Geographies and Implications  2. Evolution of a Revolution: Meat Consumption and Livestock Production in the Developing World  Ian MacLachlan  3. Cattle ranching development in the Brazilian Amazon: Looking at Long-term Trends to Explore the Transition towards Sustainable Beef Cattle Production  Pablo Pacheco and Rene Poccard-Chapuis  4. The Political Ecology of Factory Farming in East Africa  Elizabeth Waithanji  5. A Changing Environment for Livestock in South Africa  Emma R.M. Archer van Garderen, Charles L. Davis and Mark A. Tadross  Part 2: Environmental Justice and Meat Production/Consumption  6. Meat and Inequality: Environmental Health Consequences of Livestock Agribusiness  Ryan Gunderson  7. Can't Go to the Fountain No More: Pigs, Nitrates and Spring Water Pollution in Catalonia  David Sauri and Hug March  8. Environmental Injustice in the Spatial Distribution of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations: A Case Study from Ohio, USA  Julia Lenhardt and Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger  9. Neoliberal Governance and Environmental Risk: 'Normal Accidents' in North Carolina's Hog Industry  Elizabeth Stoddard  Part 3: Biopolitics, Knowledge, and the Materialism of Meat  10. Breed Contra Beef: the Making of the Piedmontese Cattle  Annalisa Colombino and Paolo Giaccaria  11. Biopower and an Ecology of Genes: Seeing Livestock as Meat via Genetics  Lewis Holloway  12. Cows, Climate and the Media  Keith Lee, Joshua P. Newell, Jennifer R. Wolch and Pascale Joassart Marcelli  13. The Political Science of Farm Animal Welfare in the US and EU  Connie Johnston  14. Battling the Head and the Heart: Constructing Knowledgeable Narratives of Vegetarianism in Anti-meat Advocacy  Harvey Neo  Part 4: The Governance of Meat Production Systems  15. Producing Halal Meat: the Case of Halal Slaughter Practices in Wales, UK  Mara Miele and Karolina Rucinska  16. Roundtabling and the Greening of the Global Beef Industry: Lessons from the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)  Adrienne Johnson  17. Contesting Urban Agriculture: the Politics of Meat Production in the License-Buy-Back Scheme (2006-2007) in Hong Kong  Kin Wing Chan  18. Complications and Implications of Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Livestock  Chris Rosin and Mark H. Cooper  19. Domestic Farmed Fish Production: An Overview of Governance and Oversight in the US Aquaculture Industry  Paula Daniels and Colleen McKinney  20. Conclusion  Jody Emel and Harvey Neo

Livestock production worldwide is increasing rapidly, in part due to economic growth and demand for meat in industrializing countries. Yet there are many concerns about the sustainability of increased meat production and consumption, from perspectives including human health, animal welfare, climate change and environmental pollution. 

This book tackles the key issues of contemporary meat production and consumption through a lens of political ecology, which emphasizes the power relations producing particular social, economic and cultural interactions with non-human nature. Three main topics are addressed: the political ecology of global livestock production trends; changes in production systems around the world and their implications for environmental justice; and existing and emerging governance strategies for meat production and consumption systems and their implications. 

Case studies of different systems at varying scales are included, drawn from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe. The book includes an editorial introduction to set the context and synthesize key messages for the reader.