Animal Factory

Book excerpt: 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.