by Jeremy Rifkin

About the author: Jeremy Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., and a frequent critic of biotechnology. His books include The Biotech Century (Tarcher/Putnam, 1998), in which this viewpoint appeared in a somewhat different form.

The 9 billion animals raised each year by America’s meat and dairy industries might be the most forgotten creatures in the nation. Intensively confined, physically deformed, and genetically manipulated, the majority of farm animals feed a nation that is too uncomfortable with their plight to focus on it. In 2000 and beyond, assembly-line treatment promises to worsen, the number of animals promises to grow, and the animal-protection community will face a heightened struggle to reform the way animals are reared and raised for human consumption. . . .

On the eve of the Biotech Century...