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5th out of 62 books
—
18 voters
Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment
by
David Kirby (Goodreads Author)
Swine flu. Bird flu. Unusual concentrations of cancer and other diseases. Massive fish kills from flesh-eating parasites. Recalls of meats, vegetables, and fruits because of deadly E-coli bacterial contamination.
Recent public health crises raise urgent questions about how our animal-derived food is raised and brought to market. In Animal Factory, bestselling investigative...more
Recent public health crises raise urgent questions about how our animal-derived food is raised and brought to market. In Animal Factory, bestselling investigative...more
Hardcover, 512 pages
Published
March 2nd 2010
by St. Martin's Press
(first published March 1st 2010)
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57th out of 143 books
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218 voters
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From my blog:[return]Animal Factory by David Kirby is a well written, researched and documented book regarding the potential damages of industrial pig, dairy and poultry farms to not only humans but also to the environment. He writes a passionate and compelling novel, and it is one sided and fairly narrow in focus even with him following three communities. A more balanced book would have gone farther with me than just a personal narrative about the evils of Industrial animal farming. However, Ki...more
Sometimes it seems that the only people who truly support CAFOs, or animal factory farms, are those who stand to profit from them. This is made brilliantly clear in "Animal Factory," David Kirby’s exposé into the business. To most people, especially those who are forced to live in their vicinity, CAFOs are a major source of environmental pollution. "Animal Factor" follows the stories of three people trying to fight against big dairy and pork operations. These stories are deeply disturbing and mi...more
It is difficult for me to express just how zealous a carnivore I am, but let me try: whenever I go to a diner for breakfast, I order a bacon and cheese omelet with a side order of sausage. My friends and family are crazy about a black bean dish I make because it includes three kinds of pork. Of all things adorable about my wife, perhaps the thing I love most is that she never, ever finishes her steak, no matter how small, thus allowing me to chase my ribeye with half of hers. Therefore, it's pre...more
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Animal Factory exposes the shocking and ugly ways large scale animal processors are impacting our environment. Before reading this eye opening book, I had no idea of the pollution coming out of today’s large scale pork farms, dairies, and cattle operations. I always thought of farming as a fairly benign activity. Cows poop in the fields, and farmers plow the manure in for fertilizer. Seems harmless and natural, right? It is, in a traditional farm.
But today’s mega-farms concentrate thousands of a...more
But today’s mega-farms concentrate thousands of a...more
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This is a book that has been done before, and been done better.I learned some interesting things from this book, so I can't completely reject its worth. However, the style was irritating, in my opinion. Essentially, there are three stories framing the book, about three people who have suffered and stood up to these Animal Factories. I could tell the man was a journalist by his style, and unfortunately, while he is clearly a good writer, I found his handling of the case studies (apologies for the...more
It takes a lot for me to put a book down before finishing it. In fact, this may be only the third tme I've ever done so. And I know this book has received many plaudits, but I just can't do it anymore. It's too boring. Nothing is sourced. The conversations and dialogue are trite.
It's basically a book about how three separate groups fight off factory farms. (I made it 70 percent through) but there is no continuity and honestly not enough of a difference between the three groups to warrant three s...more
It's basically a book about how three separate groups fight off factory farms. (I made it 70 percent through) but there is no continuity and honestly not enough of a difference between the three groups to warrant three s...more
Nov 16, 2010
Deena Scintilla
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who breathes, drinks water, and eats.
Shelves:
animals,
non-fiction
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
David Kirby’s look at factory farming. I was initially put off by the book because of its narrative. I did not really want to get into the people’s lives and what they thought, I just wanted all the straight facts and figures. I stuck with it and found it to be worthwhile. There are some people who will always champion for what’s right and I’m glad to know these people better. I’m pretty sure we can’t go back to the old ways of producing food b/c big govt. won’t allow us to, but I’m glad to know...more
Excellent book to read if you care about how your pork, beef and chicken is raised prior to reaching your table. The book focues on the formation of citizen groups in different regions around the country that were formed to battle environmental issues caused by Confined Animal Feedling Operations (CAFOs). CAFOs are just what the term implies, farming operations where animals (sometimes in the thousands) are packed so tightly into confined feeding areas that many cannot even turn around. Problems...more
pThis book should be required reading for EVERYONE! Animal Factory tells the story of CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) from the personal perspective of 3 ordinary citizens turned activists. Rick Dove in New Bern, NC retired from the Marine Corps with plans to run a fishing boat business with his son, but their dream only lasted 2 years before the Neuse river was so polluted that they couldn't fish it anymore. Rick decided to try to figure out what was causing such horrific pollutio...more
The only reason I'm giving this book four stars is because of the importance of the information it contains. I understand the author's purpose in writing it the way he did, but it was hard to get through at times. This is one of those books that everyone should read so they are aware of where the bulk of our food comes from and how much that needs to change. It was nice that this book didn't focus on the animal welfare aspect of factory farming, but on the environmental, economical and health co...more
Very informative on how animals are currently produced for human consumption, and its effects on the lives of people living around the "farms". It could have been shorter, and it tended to be a bit repetitive, but it was still written well and hard to put down. The author is not a vegetarian, and it doesn't cover animal cruelty issues much at all. Its focus is the impact on the communities and the potential effects on our entire food supply (meat as well as everything else). It doesn't beat you...more
I expected to be disappointed by this book, so I can't twit it for any bait-and-switching. David Kirby's "Animal Factory" is "Animal Liberation" for a new generation- people who care enough about animals to push for marginal improvements in their treatment, but not enough to liberate them from their status as chattel property. Typical of books that take this approach, it dabbles in the mainstream of animal advocacy without so much as paying lip service to an abolitionist perspective of the issue...more
Most people who pay attention to food production in America realize that our cheap meals have come with some very troubling hidden costs. However, no book I've found has outlined the human casualties of factory farming in such a thorough and devastating manner.
Readers will share the quiet outrage of those rural residents who have had their backyards, waterways, livelihoods and health destroyed by massive-scale pig, poultry, and cattle operations. This isn't a book about animal cruelty, but rath...more
Readers will share the quiet outrage of those rural residents who have had their backyards, waterways, livelihoods and health destroyed by massive-scale pig, poultry, and cattle operations. This isn't a book about animal cruelty, but rath...more
This is a bizarre genre blend, being less of a journalistic expose and more of a true-drama following three individuals involved in activism against factory farms in their community. Relying on newspaper articles and interviews, the book actually reconstructs dialog and comments on the character's internal states, ending up reading like a novel. Definitely effective in demonstrating the negative effects of too much animal waste in one place, but way too long -- the tales become repetitive after...more
Disturbing, really disturbing.... I'm considering becoming a VEGAN ..... or at least buying organic/free range birdies, beef and dairy products. Very nasty business - sad that food provided by sustainable farming is still so much more expensive than that produced by the CAFOs, and that so few people can afford to make the change.
This book is tough because there is so much to digest. He tells the stories of about 4 people who stood up to CAFOs in their neighborhoods and the long battles that took place. It was good, but exhausting. He is thorough in his facts and research, so I learned some new things and was able to see how the CAFOs and factory farms in the West are impacting the Pacific. I had to skim the end because I just got overwhelmed by the magnitude of agribusiness and frustrated that the only way I can fight i...more
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Great coverage of the impact of high density ag on the environment. Kirby includes a good example from Spoon River country (in Illinois) - including the work of the Baird Family (good freinds of mine).
Great coverage of the impact of high density ag on the environment. Kirby includes a good example from Spoon River country (in Illinois) - including the work of the Baird Family (good freinds of mine).
I had a hard time putting this book down. It is a non-fiction that reads like a novel. I have also lived within a reasonable driving distance to two of the three places highlighted in the book, scary.
I was already familiar with how CAFO’s affect animal welfare and food and environmental quality but this book really drove home their negative economic and personal effects on small farmers and rural residents. Most upsetting to me was the epidemiologists predict that the next pandemic will start on North Carolina Pig factories which puts it geographically a little too close for comfort for me in Virginia. The book is written in an easy journalistic style and follows how 3 different communities...more
I'm very interested in this subject so I was excited for this book however too much of the book was focus on the litigation.
Aug 17, 2011
Jessica
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone interested in the environment or animal science
Really, really good information, and as an animal science major, I find it sad that I had already learned about many of these facts, but they were distorted in a way that made me think "antibiotics in dairy cows to increase milk production, what's wrong with that, except for a few extra somatic cells." Although the book was extremely repetitive, it's chalk full of shocking (and unfortunately very true) facts. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone since it can get pretty dull, but for anyone who al...more
I really enjoyed this. Kirby packs in a ton of information but artfully attaches it to very human central characters so that it doesn't seem like too much.
His bias shows in his rhetoric but overall it was well written. I learned quite about about CAFOs and their filthy operations.
Wow, this book tells you everything you never wanted to know about confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and the pollutions associated with them. A must read for anyone concerned with the health of the world around us. Animal Factory is extremely informative and detailed, but it kept me reading by telling the story of CAFO pollution through the eyes of a bunch of normal American folks whose lives get turned upside down by CAFOs. Definitely a dense read, but full of extremely relevant stuff,...more
Excellent book. The author tended to err on the side of too much information, so the reading was occasionally overwhelming. But ultimately, I hope, a life-changing read.
Factory "agriculture" constantly horrifies me. Even when I think it can't any more.
This is a good book for animal rights activists and any person who does not support factory farming.
Read it if you dare!
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“Food-- like sex, politics, and religion-- is an intensely personal, emotional, and complicated subject.”
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