This is a deeply personal piece for me. Last October, the Finnish-language edition of my third book, Sixty Harvests Left – How to Save Nature and Our Food System, was published at the Helsinki Book Fair.
The book is both hopeful and urgent. It makes clear that the industrial farming of sentient animals is not a ‘necessary evil’. On the contrary, it is the single greatest cause of animal cruelty in the world and a major driver of wildlife decline. At the same time, it threatens the future of our planet and of our children.
The book also reveals just how profoundly the food industry is undermining the health of the Earth. Its message is stark: if our global farming system continues on its current path, our soils will sustain only sixty more harvests.
Without living soil, there is no food. That means the end. And time is running out.
United Nations warns that industrial animal and crop farming is depleting soil at such a rate that we have only sixty harvests left. The title of the book therefore also serves as a metaphor for the limits of our current food system – and as a reminder of why change is essential – for animals, people and the planet.
The way to protect people and the future health and future vibrancy of society, is to protect animals too. This means moving away from intensive farming and towards a food system based on plant-rich diets, fewer farmed animals, and agricultural practices that rebuild soil rather than exhaust it. Animals should not be treated as production units, but as part of living ecosystems – and farming should restore soil instead of stripping it away.
I have met people who are already doing this work. A world in which wildlife, chickens, pigs and people can all thrive is possible if we protect the very foundation on which our civilisation depends: soil.
There is hope. For people, for animals, and for our planet. And each of us has the power to be part of the solution.
Philip Lymbery is CEO of Compassion in World Farming International, President of Eurogroup for Animals, and a board member of the UN Food Systems Advisory Board. He is an animal protection advocate and an award-winning author.
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This article originally appeared in Animalia magazine 1/2026. Are you interested in the magazine? Join Animalia here and receive the magazine as part of your membership.
Photos by Bernd Dittrich / Unsplash & Richard Dunwoody
