Contemporary Issues in Animal Agriculture (3rd Edition)

This book, previously titled Impacts of Livestock Production, objectively deals with a number of important issues that are affecting livestock production and the public perception of animal production on a global basis. Some of these issues include consumption of animal products and human health, global warming, biotechnology and animal rights. The volume examines domestication of animals and their contributions to human welfare, animal products in the human diet, principles of animal nutrition and the scientific feeding of livestock, feed additives and growth promotants in animal production, environmental concerns involving livestock production, livestock grazing and rangelands issues, industrialization and globalization of animal agriculture, food quality and safety issues, bioethics, animal welfare, animal rights, and biotechnology issues, and livestock integration into sustainable resource utilization. For anyone involved with animal and poultry science.

Peter R. Cheeke is Professor Emeritus of Animal Nutrition at Oregon State University. He grew up on a small family farm in British Columbia, Canada. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with a BS in Agriculture (19 G3) and MS in animal nutrition (1965). He completed his academic training at Oregon State University with his PhD in animal nutrition (1968), under the supervision of Dr. James Oldfield. His PhD research was on interrelationships between vitamin E and selenium. Since 1969, he has been assistant associate and full professor at Oregon State University, with a teaching and research program in animal nutrition. He retired from OSU in 2000. One of his major research interests has been the study of natural toxicants in feeds and poisonous plants, particularly alkaloids in poisonous pasture weeds and toxins in potential new feedstuffs. He has written a book Natural Toxicants in Feeds, Forages, and Poisonous Plants (Prentice-Hall, 1998). He has worked with a variety of animal species, including ruminants, rabbits and poultry. He was a founder of the Oregon State University Rabbit Research Center, and is coauthor of Rabbit Production (Prentice Hall, 2000) and Rabbit Feeding and Nutrition, (Academic Press, 1987). He was honored by the western section of American Society of Animal Science with the Young Scientist Award in 1979 and the Distinguished Service Award in 2001. In 1990, he was named Distinguished Professor of Agriculture at Oregon State University. He has served on the editorial boards of the journal of Animal Science, and Animal Feed Science and Technology. He has operated a small farm near Corvallis, Oregon—raising various types of livestock and poultry, including a small herd of beef cattle. He and his wife Karen now live on a small farm, with an equine facility for breeding and therapeutic riding instruction. He has had a life-long interest in the interrelationships of plants and animals, and in the survival and strengthening of the family farm.