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The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment
by David Kirby
Eric Schlosser's classic Fast Food Nation revealed how our meat is bred, raised, and brought to market. Now, in Animal Factory, bestselling journalist David Kirby takes the next step, exposing the devastating health and environmental impact of large-scale factory farms.
In this thoroughly researched book, Kirby follows three American families and communities—one in North Carolina, one in Illinois, and one in Washington state—whose lives are utterly changed by immense neighboring animal farms. Weaving complex science, politics, business, and the lives of everyday people, Kirby accompanies a fisherman who fights to preserve his family’s life and home; watches as a Midwestern community pushes back against a local farmer with grand ambitions; and interviews an unlikely activist, who takes on a powerful alliance of corporate and political entities when her home is covered with toxic soot and her water supply is compromised by runoff from lagoons of animal waste.
"Starred Review. Thanks to Kirby’s extraordinary journalism, we have the most relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable testimony yet to the hazards of industrial animal farming." - Booklist
"His narrative is immensely readable and should be required reading for anybody concerned with how CAFOs are changing the nature of livestock farming in the United States." - Library Journal
"The time has come to end the greedy and destructive
practices of animal factories. As the readers of Kirby's book will learn,
nature's clock is ticking and much is at stake for the planet and all of its
inhabitants. Each page of this book is filled with powerful information. It
has all the makings of a number one best seller."--Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
"Nature did not intend for animals to live and die in a factory assembly
line. In David Kirby's startling investigation Animal Factory, he
gives a human face to the terrible cost our health and environment pays for
this so-called 'cheap food'. This is a story that is seldom told and rarely
with such force and eloquence." - Alice Waters
"The industrial production of farm animals is a grim saga of pollution,
health risks, and animal misery. Yet in Animal Factory David
Kirby has put together an ingenious book that is highly readable and
engaging. The heroes of his book are fighting for a better America --
one in which waters are safe to drink, air is safe to breathe,
and traditional family farmers are the sources of our food. Anyone who
reads this book will be drawn into their cause." - Bill Niman (Founder,
Niman Ranch) and Nicolette Hahn Niman (Author, Righteous Porkchop:
Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms)
"This book puts a human face on a well hidden national scandal: the
effects of large-scale raising of animals on the health and well being of
farm workers and their families, local communities, the animals themselves,
and the environment which we all share. By examining how CAFOs affect the
lives of real people, Kirby makes clear why we must find healthier and more
sustainable ways to produce meat in America." - Marion Nestle, Professor of
Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, and
member of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production
"Hurray to David Kirby for exposing the horrific conditions that are so
prevalent at America's factory farms. When I first confronted the realities
of factory farming some ten years ago, I knew that I did not want Chipotle's
success to be based on the exploitation that I saw. While few people
actually have the chance to see firsthand where their food comes from,
Animal Factory provides a vivid account of the system and the harm that
it causes." - Steve Ells, Founder, Chairman & Co-CEO, Chipotle Mexican
Grill
This information about Animal Factory was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
David Kirby is the author of Evidence of Harm, which was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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