Le livre noir de l’agriculture: comment on assassine nos paysans, notre santé et l’environnement by Isabelle Saporta (review)

well as theoretical concepts including his ethnographic approach to culture. It is here too that he whets our appetite by introducing two theater projects that serve as his (and our) guides and landmarks. The first is the TRAC, the Théâtre Rural d’Animation Culturelle, based in a village in the Vaucluse. This amateur group has a strong commitment to excellence and deep roots in the region and its artistic director, Vincent Siano, has an extraordinary vision of the transformative nature of theater practice and the role that theater can play in the lives of artists and audiences. For him, citizens’ theater is a model for citizenship. The second project is the urban arts center called La Friche, in the Belle de Mai neighborhood of Marseille. It, too, serves as a home for theatrical creation. Both case studies show how place influences art and interpersonal and inter-group relationships and how all of these must be cultivated in order to have democracy and active participation. Throughout the book Ingram leads us to consider a constellation of key issues affecting France today but always brings us back to the familiar domain of the two theater projects. He, like the artists he analyzes, treats questions of integration , decentralization, justice, and the importance of history, to name but a few. This dialogue between the theater and the ‘real world’ makes Ingram’s book captivating for specialists of French culture studies and theater and also renders it understandable for anyone who has an interest in better comprehending the values that guide the French. Broadening the scope of the research, Ingram also presents the complex nature of European cultural policies along with examples (Avignon and Marseille as European Capitals of Culture and tours of the TRAC to Hungary) and shows how the local and transnational are intertwined. The importance of the Mediterranean rim is emphasized through discussion of postcolonial issues, and Ingram presents a TRAC tour to North Africa and shows how respect for cultural differences is seen in theater works at the Friche. These sections raise awareness of the diverse influences touching the lives of actively engaged French citizens and make it clear that there is an interdependence in the contemporary world that enriches the individual and at the same time gives great responsibilities. The lived experience and commitment to communication inherent in theatrical performance make theater an exceptional model for civic participation in France where questions of national identity, consumerism, decentralization , immigration, communautarisme, and globalization touch everyone. This book is an excellent resource for the teaching of French culture, as it raises questions and provides examples that will allow students to draw their own conclusions . It is both engagé and engaging and a significant contribution to scholarship on contemporary France. Metropolitan State College of Denver (CO) Ann Williams SAPORTA, ISABELLE. Le livre noir de l’agriculture: comment on assassine nos paysans, notre santé et l’environnement. Paris: Fayard, 2011. ISBN 978-2-213-65603-8. Pp. 250. 17,90 a. La journaliste Isabelle Saporta livre dans son essai un panorama sans concession de l’agriculture intensive en France. Portant un sous-titre alarmiste, l’ouvrage met au jour, au fil de ses treize chapitres, les excès d’un système productiviste où le rendement et l’appât du gain priment sur la qualité des produits. Sans jeter 574 FRENCH REVIEW 85.3 l’opprobre sur des agriculteurs qu’elle décrit comme des “technicien[s], lourdement endetté[s] à la solde des industriels” (149), davantage prisonniers des puissantes industries agro-alimentaires que responsables d’une situation catastrophique, elle expose, sur un ton souvent ironique, les erreurs et horreurs de stratégies agricoles , cruelles pour les animaux, polluantes pour la nature et néfastes pour l’être humain. Le texte s’ouvre sur une description effarante de l’élevage porcin, qui incarne les aberrations d’un système devenu monstrueux. Réduits à quelques races, reproduits, non par saillies naturelles, mais grâce à une récolte de semence manuelle plus rentable, lourdement médicamentés et nourris en partie de déchets, les cochons, sevrés à six jours, privés de dents et de queue, sont confinés dans des bâtiments pestilentiels. En...