Overview

Swine flu. Bird flu. Massive fish kills and filthy river systems. Recalls of spinach, lettuce, and other vegetables because of E-coli bacteria contamination. 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 neighbouring animal farms. These farms (known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs), confine thousands upon thousands of pigs, dairy cattle, and poultry in small spaces, and generate enormous volumes of faecal and biological waste as well as other pollution to the air, land, and water. 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.

Full Product Details

9780312671747

Table of Contents

Reviews

<p> Kirby combines the narrative urgency of The Jungle with the investigative reporting of Fast Food Nation . Like Sinclair's and Schlosser's work, it has the potential to change the collective American mind about contemporary food issues. --National Public Radio, Books We Like <p> Thanks to Kirby's extraordinary journalism, we have the most relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable testimony yet to the hazards of industrial animal farming. -- Booklist <p> The writing is brilliant, the people profiled are inspirational in their activism, and the topic is one that so many people remain blissfully ignorant of. Everyone would benefit from reading this book. -- San Francisco Book Review

Kirby combines the narrative urgency of The Jungle with the investigative reporting of Fast Food Nation . Like Sinclair's and Schlosser's work, it has the potential to change the collective American mind about contemporary food issues. --National Public Radio, Books We Like Thanks to Kirby's extraordinary journalism, we have the most relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable testimony yet to the hazards of industrial animal farming. -- Booklist The writing is brilliant, the people profiled are inspirational in their activism, and the topic is one that so many people remain blissfully ignorant of. Everyone would benefit from reading this book. -- San Francisco Book Review

Author Information

David Kirby is the author of the New York Times bestseller Evidence of Harm, a finalist for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available