Description:
Swine flu. Bird flu. Massive fish kills. Concentrations of cancer and other diseases. Recalls of contaminated meats, fruits, and vegetables.
Recent public health crises raise urgent questions about how our animal-derived food is raised and brought to market. In Animal Factory, bestselling investigative journalist David Kirby exposes the powerful business and political interests behind large-scale factory farms, and tracks the far-reaching fallout that contaminates our air, land, and water supply--and our food itself. In this thoroughly researched book, Kirby follows three people from small towns across America whose lives are utterly changed by immense neighboring animal farms. These farms confine thousands of pigs, dairy cattle, and poultry in small spaces, often under horrifying conditions, and generate enormous volumes of biological waste as well as other toxins. Weaving science, politics, big business, and everyday life, Kirby accompanies these citizens-turned-activists as they fight to preserve their homes and communities. Animal Factory is an important book about our American food system gone terribly wrong--and the people who are fighting to restore sustainable farming practices and safe natural resources.Brief description: DAVID KIRBY is the author of Evidence of Harm, which was a New York Times bestseller, winner of the 2005 Investigative Reporters and Editors award for best book, and a finalist for the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism; Animal Factory, an acclaimed investigation into the environmental impact of factory farms; and Death at SeaWorld, a scientific thriller about the lives of killer whales in captivity and the people who fought for their liberation. He lives in New York City.
Review Quotes:
"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