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Grilled: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry
This is the story of Leah Garcés's fight for better treatment of farmed animals, as she works with farmers, suppliers and restaurant chains to end factory farming for good.
Leah Garcés has committed her career to fighting for the rights of the animals that end up on our plates. As President of the nonprofit group Mercy for Animals and former US Executive Director of Compassion in World Farming, she has led the fight against the sprawling chicken industry that raises billions of birds in cruel conditions--all to satisfy the American appetite for meat.
Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry is her story of working alongside the food and farming industry for animal welfare and ethical food. Instead of fighting and protesting and shaming--approaches that simply haven't worked previously--Garcés has instead gotten to know the producers. She has worked alongside owners of the megafarms, befriending them, having frank conversations with them, and ultimately encouraging change through dialogue and discussion. Leah is changing the way America farms her animals through this bold approach, and is helping to directly improve the lives of millions of farmed animals.
When she started her journey, Leah did not have much empathy to spare for the chicken-contract farmer--until she actually met one and tried to understand the difficulties they faced. This is the story of what happens when we cross enemy lines to look for solutions. It's a story of giving in to discomfort for the sake of progress. It's a story of the power of human connection, and what happens when we practice empathy toward our enemies.
Leah Garcés has committed her career to fighting for the rights of the animals that end up on our plates. As President of the nonprofit group Mercy for Animals and former US Executive Director of Compassion in World Farming, she has led the fight against the sprawling chicken industry that raises billions of birds in cruel conditions--all to satisfy the American appetite for meat.
Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry is her story of working alongside the food and farming industry for animal welfare and ethical food. Instead of fighting and protesting and shaming--approaches that simply haven't worked previously--Garcés has instead gotten to know the producers. She has worked alongside owners of the megafarms, befriending them, having frank conversations with them, and ultimately encouraging change through dialogue and discussion. Leah is changing the way America farms her animals through this bold approach, and is helping to directly improve the lives of millions of farmed animals.
When she started her journey, Leah did not have much empathy to spare for the chicken-contract farmer--until she actually met one and tried to understand the difficulties they faced. This is the story of what happens when we cross enemy lines to look for solutions. It's a story of giving in to discomfort for the sake of progress. It's a story of the power of human connection, and what happens when we practice empathy toward our enemies.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published September 3, 2019
18 people are currently reading
994 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
October 25, 2019
I knew I had to read this book after listening to this excellent, thought-provoking interview with its author. GRILLED isn’t just another catalog of the downsides of factory farming—most of us are aware of that anyway, even if most don’t choose to act. Rather, it’s the story of a woman whose genuine desire to change things for billions of animals has forced her to get out of her comfort zone, forge friendships and alliances she’d never thought she’d make, check her assumptions and find common ground.
Early on, Garces made the commitment to focus on chickens bred for meat. Why chickens? As America’s most popular meat,
9 billion [chickens] live and die in the US. And 99 percent of US broiler chickens are raised in barren, windowless, enclosed warehouses…More than 90 percent of all factory-farmed animals are chickens. Egg-laying hens, beef cattle, dairy cattle, and pigs combined don’t even come close to the number of chickens raised and slaughtered each year in the US.
And things are getting worse for chickens. One of the earliest moves of the current administration was to allow slaughter plants to increase line speeds. Now a slaughterhouse can kill 175 birds per minute. “Broiler” chickens are not raised in tiny cages in the US—that’s a fate reserved for egg-laying hens—but their welfare may be just as poor. The author writes, The distorted chickens raised for meat today are essentially living in something worse than a physical cage—it is a biological cage. Their cage is their own body. Today’s chickens grow so quickly their skeletons and organs can’t keep up. Bred to have an overload of breast flesh, they’ve been compared to a bowling ball trying to balance on popsicle sticks and they are about as successful moving and walking. They’re obese babies when slaughtered at less than two months old—younger even than many of the veal calves and lambs whom many people avoid eating on principle.
Chicken production is a major user of antibiotics, and is contributing to the truly scary future of drug-resistant infections. Many people are becoming sensitized to this issue, and groups like the Consumers Union are pressuring suppliers to stop using antibiotics. That’s a good thing, but if conditions aren’t improved on farms in tandem with removing antibiotics, the unintended consequences are that the birds end up suffering even more as disease and infection spreads like wildfire through the flock.
The majority of chickens raised on conventional farms today live in dirty, warm environments, which are perfect conditions for bacteria to thrive. The birds have also been selectively bred to grow very big, very fast. One unintended consequence of this fast growth is poor immune function…On top of all this, we are now starting to remove antibiotics from the system.
Garces met with small farmers who raise their birds in the sort of sunshine-and-pasture-based system most people would agree is the right way to treat a chicken, to talk about the problem. They agreed that the trend toward “greenwashing” is one of the greatest threats to their business model.
As activists have made more people aware of factory farming, companies have responded not by changing their practices, but by changing their marketing. When you see “Cage Free” signs above the cheap chicken at a big box store? That’s greenwashing. Chickens raised for meat are not kept in cages—they’re crammed into smelly, dark warehouses—so this is a meaningless selling point.
It’s not just chickens who are suffering. Farmers and the public are being burned, too. Truly high-welfare chicken meat is difficult to find. Observes Garces, “Conventional chicken remained the norm even at farm-to-table restaurants that otherwise sold grass-fed beef and pasture-raised eggs.” The humane fakers, who sell their chicken more cheaply and at more stores, are also confusing shoppers.
It’s a struggle that I’ve recently experienced. Like many veg*ns I live with carnivorous pets. When one of my cats got sick and was refusing food recently, the vet suggested I try to tempt back her appetite with some fresh chicken. The humans in my house don’t eat meat; I don’t buy chicken unless it’s pet kibble. I spent a good half an hour in the grocery store scrutinizing packaging looking for the highest-welfare chicken I could find. Later, I discovered https://buyingpoultry.com, and was mortified to discover I had bought a greenwashed product with very low actual welfare standards. Now imagine how difficult it is for a shopper with less knowledge of farming practices or less priority for animal welfare?
Many agree that small, high-welfare farms are part of the solution in fighting factory farming. But their products still only reach a fraction of consumers with the access, finances, and will to forgo familiar restaurants and chain stores in favor of poultry from farmers markets and CSAs. Becoming veg*n is actually easier than eating exclusively high-welfare meat, but that also requires people to turn their backs on a huge amount of societal pressure/conditioning for the benefit of animals they’ll never meet, something a large number of people still aren’t willing to do.
Garces knew that in order to affect the lives of the largest number of animals, she’d have to make inroads and open dialogue with the people she’d spent most of her life considering the enemy: factory farmers and Big Ag CEOs. Some of the things she discovered shocked her.
Despite producing America’s most popular meat, chicken contract farmers are in dire straits. Over three-quarters live below the poverty line. It is not happy work; it is stressful and soul-crushing—many are drowning in debt and want to either farm chickens differently or get out completely, but they cannot. It’s something to think about the next time you see Big Ag advertisements depicting farms as idyllic places and the farmer as the rugged individualist.
As the barns, feed, farm equipment, and the birds themselves are all owned by the chicken company, the farmer has no say on how the animals are raised. Chicken “farming,” Garces learns, has become little more than cleaning up carcasses and destroying slow-growing birds. The main job of the farm owner is to remove, record, and dispose of dead birds on a daily basis…Typically, there are 30,000 chickens crowded inside each warehouse…the mortality rates have been rising in recent years, and are now at 4.5 percent. These animals literally suffer to death, and the number of chickens alone who die before reaching slaughter in the US each year dwarfs the number of animals killed for fur, in shelters, and in laboratories combined—even though the latter three generate much more general outrage.
The author writes movingly of walking through factory farm buildings, sitting down with struggling farmers, and finally, of meeting with businesspeople on the corporate end of things. Very few people are actual sadists who want animals to suffer, even in the boardrooms of the industries that cause so much suffering. Garces posits—can these companies still sell their products and turn a profit while decreasing suffering? She believes they can, and challenges them to do just that.
Garces secures a lot of promises throughout this book for companies to make welfare improvements for the birds in their custody. I honestly had to wonder: a lot of these reforms and commitments are far in the future, will they keep their promises? After all, it’s not as if consumers will turn away from chicken meat en masse if Tyson et. al. decide that those reforms just aren’t cost effective over the coming decade. Chickens already suffer more than any other domesticated animal, even as more than ever before are consumed.
The factory farming industry is a behemoth; at times it seems insurmountable to change. But it hasn’t always been this way. In the story of food and agriculture, the postwar rise of the factory farm and its sick animals has happened in a blink of an eye. It changed radically---why can’t it change again?
The book quotes Southern author Janice Ray:
Any one of us middle-aged Americans could be the poster child for the story of agriculture in the US, one that began with working farms, farm animals, seed saving, a land-based, subsistence economy, farming children. And poof, all that was gone, brushed aside so casually. Many people still alive today have seen the entire process of American ag: the function, the falling apart, the rise of big chemical and factory farming, and now the coming back.
Clean meat technology has been the source of an incredible amount of interest and curiosity in recent years. Entire books could be written about it, and have. There are those of us, myself included, who believe that the ability to grow animal flesh in a laboratory setting will be the only thing that will be able to capsize factory farming. Clean meat scientists believe that their safer, more consistent, and less wasteful product will do just that; I dearly hope so. It’s important to remember: clean meat technology is no more “unnatural” than confining tens of thousands of heavily medicated, deformed animals in massive, filthy warehouses.
There’s a great quote from Ethan Brown, the founder of Beyond Meat. Responding to the cynical backlash against plant-based products such as his own, he holds up his smartphone. “What if telecommunication companies had argued you could not call an iPhone a phone? What if they argued that, despite delivering the same service, it could not be referred to as a phone?”
In this context, it seems ridiculous. It also brings to mind how quickly technology advances and norms change. Fifty years ago, could anyone conceive of something like a smartphone? Where will the next fifty years take us? Garces is a wellspring of hope.
We have been responsible for some of the world’s worst innovations, like factory farming, but we also have the capacity to create the very best…The great innovators of our nation have begun the great undoing of factory farming, working in their farms and kitchens and labs to create a better way.
Early on, Garces made the commitment to focus on chickens bred for meat. Why chickens? As America’s most popular meat,
9 billion [chickens] live and die in the US. And 99 percent of US broiler chickens are raised in barren, windowless, enclosed warehouses…More than 90 percent of all factory-farmed animals are chickens. Egg-laying hens, beef cattle, dairy cattle, and pigs combined don’t even come close to the number of chickens raised and slaughtered each year in the US.
And things are getting worse for chickens. One of the earliest moves of the current administration was to allow slaughter plants to increase line speeds. Now a slaughterhouse can kill 175 birds per minute. “Broiler” chickens are not raised in tiny cages in the US—that’s a fate reserved for egg-laying hens—but their welfare may be just as poor. The author writes, The distorted chickens raised for meat today are essentially living in something worse than a physical cage—it is a biological cage. Their cage is their own body. Today’s chickens grow so quickly their skeletons and organs can’t keep up. Bred to have an overload of breast flesh, they’ve been compared to a bowling ball trying to balance on popsicle sticks and they are about as successful moving and walking. They’re obese babies when slaughtered at less than two months old—younger even than many of the veal calves and lambs whom many people avoid eating on principle.
Chicken production is a major user of antibiotics, and is contributing to the truly scary future of drug-resistant infections. Many people are becoming sensitized to this issue, and groups like the Consumers Union are pressuring suppliers to stop using antibiotics. That’s a good thing, but if conditions aren’t improved on farms in tandem with removing antibiotics, the unintended consequences are that the birds end up suffering even more as disease and infection spreads like wildfire through the flock.
The majority of chickens raised on conventional farms today live in dirty, warm environments, which are perfect conditions for bacteria to thrive. The birds have also been selectively bred to grow very big, very fast. One unintended consequence of this fast growth is poor immune function…On top of all this, we are now starting to remove antibiotics from the system.
Garces met with small farmers who raise their birds in the sort of sunshine-and-pasture-based system most people would agree is the right way to treat a chicken, to talk about the problem. They agreed that the trend toward “greenwashing” is one of the greatest threats to their business model.
As activists have made more people aware of factory farming, companies have responded not by changing their practices, but by changing their marketing. When you see “Cage Free” signs above the cheap chicken at a big box store? That’s greenwashing. Chickens raised for meat are not kept in cages—they’re crammed into smelly, dark warehouses—so this is a meaningless selling point.
It’s not just chickens who are suffering. Farmers and the public are being burned, too. Truly high-welfare chicken meat is difficult to find. Observes Garces, “Conventional chicken remained the norm even at farm-to-table restaurants that otherwise sold grass-fed beef and pasture-raised eggs.” The humane fakers, who sell their chicken more cheaply and at more stores, are also confusing shoppers.
It’s a struggle that I’ve recently experienced. Like many veg*ns I live with carnivorous pets. When one of my cats got sick and was refusing food recently, the vet suggested I try to tempt back her appetite with some fresh chicken. The humans in my house don’t eat meat; I don’t buy chicken unless it’s pet kibble. I spent a good half an hour in the grocery store scrutinizing packaging looking for the highest-welfare chicken I could find. Later, I discovered https://buyingpoultry.com, and was mortified to discover I had bought a greenwashed product with very low actual welfare standards. Now imagine how difficult it is for a shopper with less knowledge of farming practices or less priority for animal welfare?
Many agree that small, high-welfare farms are part of the solution in fighting factory farming. But their products still only reach a fraction of consumers with the access, finances, and will to forgo familiar restaurants and chain stores in favor of poultry from farmers markets and CSAs. Becoming veg*n is actually easier than eating exclusively high-welfare meat, but that also requires people to turn their backs on a huge amount of societal pressure/conditioning for the benefit of animals they’ll never meet, something a large number of people still aren’t willing to do.
Garces knew that in order to affect the lives of the largest number of animals, she’d have to make inroads and open dialogue with the people she’d spent most of her life considering the enemy: factory farmers and Big Ag CEOs. Some of the things she discovered shocked her.
Despite producing America’s most popular meat, chicken contract farmers are in dire straits. Over three-quarters live below the poverty line. It is not happy work; it is stressful and soul-crushing—many are drowning in debt and want to either farm chickens differently or get out completely, but they cannot. It’s something to think about the next time you see Big Ag advertisements depicting farms as idyllic places and the farmer as the rugged individualist.
As the barns, feed, farm equipment, and the birds themselves are all owned by the chicken company, the farmer has no say on how the animals are raised. Chicken “farming,” Garces learns, has become little more than cleaning up carcasses and destroying slow-growing birds. The main job of the farm owner is to remove, record, and dispose of dead birds on a daily basis…Typically, there are 30,000 chickens crowded inside each warehouse…the mortality rates have been rising in recent years, and are now at 4.5 percent. These animals literally suffer to death, and the number of chickens alone who die before reaching slaughter in the US each year dwarfs the number of animals killed for fur, in shelters, and in laboratories combined—even though the latter three generate much more general outrage.
The author writes movingly of walking through factory farm buildings, sitting down with struggling farmers, and finally, of meeting with businesspeople on the corporate end of things. Very few people are actual sadists who want animals to suffer, even in the boardrooms of the industries that cause so much suffering. Garces posits—can these companies still sell their products and turn a profit while decreasing suffering? She believes they can, and challenges them to do just that.
Garces secures a lot of promises throughout this book for companies to make welfare improvements for the birds in their custody. I honestly had to wonder: a lot of these reforms and commitments are far in the future, will they keep their promises? After all, it’s not as if consumers will turn away from chicken meat en masse if Tyson et. al. decide that those reforms just aren’t cost effective over the coming decade. Chickens already suffer more than any other domesticated animal, even as more than ever before are consumed.
The factory farming industry is a behemoth; at times it seems insurmountable to change. But it hasn’t always been this way. In the story of food and agriculture, the postwar rise of the factory farm and its sick animals has happened in a blink of an eye. It changed radically---why can’t it change again?
The book quotes Southern author Janice Ray:
Any one of us middle-aged Americans could be the poster child for the story of agriculture in the US, one that began with working farms, farm animals, seed saving, a land-based, subsistence economy, farming children. And poof, all that was gone, brushed aside so casually. Many people still alive today have seen the entire process of American ag: the function, the falling apart, the rise of big chemical and factory farming, and now the coming back.
Clean meat technology has been the source of an incredible amount of interest and curiosity in recent years. Entire books could be written about it, and have. There are those of us, myself included, who believe that the ability to grow animal flesh in a laboratory setting will be the only thing that will be able to capsize factory farming. Clean meat scientists believe that their safer, more consistent, and less wasteful product will do just that; I dearly hope so. It’s important to remember: clean meat technology is no more “unnatural” than confining tens of thousands of heavily medicated, deformed animals in massive, filthy warehouses.
There’s a great quote from Ethan Brown, the founder of Beyond Meat. Responding to the cynical backlash against plant-based products such as his own, he holds up his smartphone. “What if telecommunication companies had argued you could not call an iPhone a phone? What if they argued that, despite delivering the same service, it could not be referred to as a phone?”
In this context, it seems ridiculous. It also brings to mind how quickly technology advances and norms change. Fifty years ago, could anyone conceive of something like a smartphone? Where will the next fifty years take us? Garces is a wellspring of hope.
We have been responsible for some of the world’s worst innovations, like factory farming, but we also have the capacity to create the very best…The great innovators of our nation have begun the great undoing of factory farming, working in their farms and kitchens and labs to create a better way.
January 24, 2021
An inspiring journey behind the scenes of coming food system disruption.
April 10, 2021
First book I've come across that links animal suffering with human suffering in factory farming. Garcés makes us feel for the most popular farmed animal in the world and paints a humanizing series of portraits from animal defenders to farmers and food corporation CEOs – with many uncomfortable, but productive relationships in between.
Garcés echoes spectrum-of-allies thinking. “No change can be achieved without the opponent’s engagement," she writes. "We must gain belief and trust. That is a very difficult process, and requires patience, perseverance, and far more failures than wins at the outset – more failures than most people can tolerate. It also means that inevitably your own path will adjust, shift, and adapt. You can’t engage your enemy unless you’re willing to listen and trust.” (140)
Although at some points the main practical suggestion for breaking the ice with the other side seems to be chatting about your children, and childless folks are left to figure it out for themselves, I think this book could inspire anyone whose work involves opposition, polarisation and complex problems. Another practical suggestion is to imagine the better future ahead - and it seems that, across the spectrum, we can agree on leaving factory farming behind.
Garcés echoes spectrum-of-allies thinking. “No change can be achieved without the opponent’s engagement," she writes. "We must gain belief and trust. That is a very difficult process, and requires patience, perseverance, and far more failures than wins at the outset – more failures than most people can tolerate. It also means that inevitably your own path will adjust, shift, and adapt. You can’t engage your enemy unless you’re willing to listen and trust.” (140)
Although at some points the main practical suggestion for breaking the ice with the other side seems to be chatting about your children, and childless folks are left to figure it out for themselves, I think this book could inspire anyone whose work involves opposition, polarisation and complex problems. Another practical suggestion is to imagine the better future ahead - and it seems that, across the spectrum, we can agree on leaving factory farming behind.
October 18, 2019
I got this book as a Goodreads Giveaway.
3 Stars - mostly because of factual inaccuracies:
- US Foods and Sysco are the largest food service companies in the world (not Aramark or Compass)
- The group that has a stake in a Tel Aviv protein alternative is PHW Group, not whatever the book said.
I still enjoyed reading it. As a butcher I do not share the authors view of the world, but I generally appreciated the otherwise well written story. I think that this book should be read by executives in the meat industry, and if it is just to learn how an activists mind functions. But in a larger scheme of things, the stories show that even with very opposite opinions, people can find common ground and move forward to a better future. Something we miss in todays social media and politics all too often.
It would have deserved 4-stars if the facts where right. Unfortunately, I do not know of there are other claims in the book that are factually wrong.
3 Stars - mostly because of factual inaccuracies:
- US Foods and Sysco are the largest food service companies in the world (not Aramark or Compass)
- The group that has a stake in a Tel Aviv protein alternative is PHW Group, not whatever the book said.
I still enjoyed reading it. As a butcher I do not share the authors view of the world, but I generally appreciated the otherwise well written story. I think that this book should be read by executives in the meat industry, and if it is just to learn how an activists mind functions. But in a larger scheme of things, the stories show that even with very opposite opinions, people can find common ground and move forward to a better future. Something we miss in todays social media and politics all too often.
It would have deserved 4-stars if the facts where right. Unfortunately, I do not know of there are other claims in the book that are factually wrong.
February 16, 2023
My younger punk rock activist self was hesitant to read a book about an animal rights activist working alongside the likes of Perdue and Tyson. Corporations making billions slaughtering animals should be destroyed not negotiated with! Right. Right? Well what I learned from this book is maybe that attitude is not what’s best for the animals. Triggering evolution is going to take a lot more than throwing red paint on someone or getting petitions signed. Leah Garcés has orchestrated real change for the most tortured and slaughtered land animal in the world, chickens.
June 4, 2020
An excellent exploration of the issues that come with factory farming and Garces passionately makes the case for changing our way of interacting with chickens and those on the other side of issues. However, at times the back half of the book can seem a little receptive. Overall, an excellent read if you are interested in animal rights.
November 2, 2019
Enjoyed the beginning 2/3 of the book in which she explores the chicken farming industry and her relationships with the chicken farmers. However the last 1/3 felt a little disjointed, throwing a bunch of facts and random activists at the reader.
January 28, 2023
I added this book a few years back after hearing the author on a podcast. She had talked a lot about needing to find ways as an activist to make actual progress in the issues she was concerned about, rather than just being someone who angrily shouted about the evil corporations of Big Chicken. She talked about finding common ground with those she opposed, and working directly with adversaries to make real changes. I thought that sounded like a useful tool to have in today's political climate, if nothing else.
The book is mostly a deep dive into the factory farming of broiler chickens, along with other food sustainability issues. It's not until around the middle of the book, when the author has progressed from working directly with whistleblower farmers up to working directly with CEOs of companies, such as Jim Perdue, that the "turning adversaries into allies" tagline of the book has its moment. The author relates activism on issues such as food sustainability to the nonviolent protest tactics of Gandhi and MLK Jr, which feels like a stretch when it's first introduced, but makes more sense as the book progresses and she shares pertinent quotes and ideas from each of their movements.
I would have liked to read more about the author's tactics as an activist, or maybe have it spin into a discussion about how similar tactics have worked in other areas or industries, but the book mostly sticks to the author's field of expertise. There are essentially two main pieces of advice that I pulled from the book to use when trying to turn adversaries into allies. The first is to find common ground, no matter what it is. It could be kids, interests and hobbies, sports, whatever. No progress can be made until both sides have humanized each other, and from there you can find further items of shared interest and desired outcomes. Second is that awareness of an issue, by itself, usually isn't enough to lead to action. Movement towards a solution only occurs when it becomes more costly for the corporation to NOT take action than it would cost them to take action. In the case of this book, the negative PR of showing the public what actual chicken farms looked like, combined with the availability of affordable and good-tasting alternative proteins, was enough to entice large food corporations to make changes to their animal welfare policies and start investing in plant-based proteins and clean meat technology.
The book is mostly a deep dive into the factory farming of broiler chickens, along with other food sustainability issues. It's not until around the middle of the book, when the author has progressed from working directly with whistleblower farmers up to working directly with CEOs of companies, such as Jim Perdue, that the "turning adversaries into allies" tagline of the book has its moment. The author relates activism on issues such as food sustainability to the nonviolent protest tactics of Gandhi and MLK Jr, which feels like a stretch when it's first introduced, but makes more sense as the book progresses and she shares pertinent quotes and ideas from each of their movements.
I would have liked to read more about the author's tactics as an activist, or maybe have it spin into a discussion about how similar tactics have worked in other areas or industries, but the book mostly sticks to the author's field of expertise. There are essentially two main pieces of advice that I pulled from the book to use when trying to turn adversaries into allies. The first is to find common ground, no matter what it is. It could be kids, interests and hobbies, sports, whatever. No progress can be made until both sides have humanized each other, and from there you can find further items of shared interest and desired outcomes. Second is that awareness of an issue, by itself, usually isn't enough to lead to action. Movement towards a solution only occurs when it becomes more costly for the corporation to NOT take action than it would cost them to take action. In the case of this book, the negative PR of showing the public what actual chicken farms looked like, combined with the availability of affordable and good-tasting alternative proteins, was enough to entice large food corporations to make changes to their animal welfare policies and start investing in plant-based proteins and clean meat technology.
July 15, 2019
Grilled is the story of activist and Mercy For Animals president Leah Garcés' fight to change the cruel and destructive methods of the chicken industry/big ag. Contrary to many factory farming books I have read, Garcés takes a more moderate approach to her methodology, looking to reach across the aisle and speak to farmers contracted to big ag companies in addition to working with animal rights groups to make changes. By taking such an unorthodox approach, Garcés is able to expose a side of the animal rights argument that is often overlooked: treatment of the farmers themselves by the big ag companies that contract with them. Garcés shows that the farmers are often in major debt, making little money, and show concern for the welfare of their flock that is often ignored.
Instead of focusing on the tired "us vs them" arguments, Garcés preaches an approach of togetherness to make change in the industry. Despite being a vegan herself, she does not preach veganism as the only solution. She instead puts forth conscious consumerism/capitalism as solutions, directing people to ask more questions and remove their blinders when it comes to where their food comes from to force change and eventually end factory farming.
I have to give special praise to the chapters on the clean meat movement, which involves the growing of meat using cellular technology without harming the animal. This is a fascinating development and the optimism put forth by both Garcés and the people doing it have me hopeful that it could catch on in our lifetimes.
This is a fantastic book for anyone looking to learn more about the heartbreaking realities behind "cheap" meat and the solutions that are being put forth for the future.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Bloomsbury USA.**
Instead of focusing on the tired "us vs them" arguments, Garcés preaches an approach of togetherness to make change in the industry. Despite being a vegan herself, she does not preach veganism as the only solution. She instead puts forth conscious consumerism/capitalism as solutions, directing people to ask more questions and remove their blinders when it comes to where their food comes from to force change and eventually end factory farming.
I have to give special praise to the chapters on the clean meat movement, which involves the growing of meat using cellular technology without harming the animal. This is a fascinating development and the optimism put forth by both Garcés and the people doing it have me hopeful that it could catch on in our lifetimes.
This is a fantastic book for anyone looking to learn more about the heartbreaking realities behind "cheap" meat and the solutions that are being put forth for the future.
**I was given a copy of this book by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Bloomsbury USA.**
January 1, 2021
Had never heard of Garcés, was not extremely familiar with her work or her organization, etc. but as a meat eater I am always looking to expand my horizons and looking to make better choices in what I eat and how I eat. The title also intrigued me--making allies out of adversaries in the chicken industry? Sounds interesting.
Garcés takes us through her life and times and how she tried to get to know producers, farmers, etc. the people behind the chickens that show up as our eggs or as chilled/frozen pieces of meat at the grocery store. What these chickens go through, how they often suffer, etc. from their relatively short (and miserable) lives to the buffalo wings to the fried chicken to the pieces of chicken in our soups, casseroles, grilled, etc.
I can't say I got as much out of this as others did. It seemed like too much of a mix of her own story vs. her work. This is something that can work (and obviously her personal life played a part) but I kind of wish she had just stuck to her trying to learn more those in the chicken industry. I also didn't think she was a particularly compelling writer and it was hard to stay interested.
Will this sway you? Probably not. Will you learn something from it? I would guess that unless you're already super familiar with Garcés you'll definitely get something out of it. That said, you can probably learn just as much by looking around various websites, articles, videos, etc. I will say I appreciated that this was not about the author trying to berate or lecture or hound meat eaters or the people behind chicken production, etc. into changing their minds, though.
Got this as a bargain buy and ultimately that was right for me (so I could read this on my own timeline) but you're probably fine borrowing it from the library or skipping completely.
Garcés takes us through her life and times and how she tried to get to know producers, farmers, etc. the people behind the chickens that show up as our eggs or as chilled/frozen pieces of meat at the grocery store. What these chickens go through, how they often suffer, etc. from their relatively short (and miserable) lives to the buffalo wings to the fried chicken to the pieces of chicken in our soups, casseroles, grilled, etc.
I can't say I got as much out of this as others did. It seemed like too much of a mix of her own story vs. her work. This is something that can work (and obviously her personal life played a part) but I kind of wish she had just stuck to her trying to learn more those in the chicken industry. I also didn't think she was a particularly compelling writer and it was hard to stay interested.
Will this sway you? Probably not. Will you learn something from it? I would guess that unless you're already super familiar with Garcés you'll definitely get something out of it. That said, you can probably learn just as much by looking around various websites, articles, videos, etc. I will say I appreciated that this was not about the author trying to berate or lecture or hound meat eaters or the people behind chicken production, etc. into changing their minds, though.
Got this as a bargain buy and ultimately that was right for me (so I could read this on my own timeline) but you're probably fine borrowing it from the library or skipping completely.
March 22, 2020
I was interested in this book from two perspectives. I think the way farm to food animals are treated terribly in the US and I'm against animal cruelty in any form. I also think the way they're kept results in disgusting, contaminated meat that we shouldn't be eating (& is the primary reason I'm a vegetarian).
I found her take on the situation interesting and a nice mix from the usual animal advocates. People aren't going to give up eating meat and many don't care how the animals are treated so that is not a motivator for change. She proposes some unique ideas on how to solve this problem and I hope there is more success in this area.
**ARC provided through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
I found her take on the situation interesting and a nice mix from the usual animal advocates. People aren't going to give up eating meat and many don't care how the animals are treated so that is not a motivator for change. She proposes some unique ideas on how to solve this problem and I hope there is more success in this area.
**ARC provided through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
October 7, 2022
It was fairly decent the whole way through.
Then the prospective epilogue came off as more preachy than hopeful. It really took away from what I was looking for.
The book was premised to be focusing on how to work with people that you perceive initially as adversaries in activism. It stayed on point for the most point.
Some spots were completely uncritical of important side information and it is clear that tunnel vision came into play once idealism became the discussion. But, it was truly interesting to see the behind-the-scenes of some major changes.
I don't regret reading it, but I do wish it had stayed on point more.
Then the prospective epilogue came off as more preachy than hopeful. It really took away from what I was looking for.
The book was premised to be focusing on how to work with people that you perceive initially as adversaries in activism. It stayed on point for the most point.
Some spots were completely uncritical of important side information and it is clear that tunnel vision came into play once idealism became the discussion. But, it was truly interesting to see the behind-the-scenes of some major changes.
I don't regret reading it, but I do wish it had stayed on point more.
April 24, 2025
I was interested in this book specifically for the insights into the lives of farmers involved in industrial agriculture. As a vegan of many years, I'm already familiar with all of the other consequences of factory farming so this lesser-known angle intrigued me. The author does a good job telling this story, but then the book evolves into the more typical essays on climate change, antibiotic resistance, lab-grown meat, etc, so if I'm being completely honest I got a bit bored. It is full of very useful info for anyone unfamiliar with these topics, but I was hoping for a deeper dive into the personal stories of the farmers and how we can all work together to transition the food system.
June 19, 2020
An in-depth exploration of the chicken industry and its impact on animal welfare, the environment, and the farmers involved. Garces also does a great job of highlighting many of the protein alternatives, such as plant-based meat and lab-grown meat, which is currently being developed in the Bay Area.
March 19, 2021
I knew Leah Garces was a force - I'd heard her discussion with rich roll on his podcast - and still this book exceeded all expectations.
It's gripping, touching and insightful. And it has left me not just appreciating all the different actors (who I would never have given a second thought), but feeling more inspired & better armed with how to approach enormous systemic change.
It's gripping, touching and insightful. And it has left me not just appreciating all the different actors (who I would never have given a second thought), but feeling more inspired & better armed with how to approach enormous systemic change.
March 2, 2025
It's funny reading an advocacy book a few years after the fact, with a lot of positive reporting about all the things that were going to happen e.g. in the cellular agriculture space, and perhaps then to notice that progress is sometimes slower than a book like this might suggest is going to happen.
October 23, 2019
A brave and brilliant piece of advocacy on why we should all either: stop eating meat, reduce our consumption of meat, or opt for the alternatives. Written with great compassion and with an inclusive mindset.
January 11, 2021
i think because i have similar views as Garcés, I'm more attentive to any biased asides that occur in the text. the first half i found well written but the second half seemed to trail off. the 'turning' seemed a more passive than active action.
March 26, 2022
Inspiring book about how people can work together to find solutions for animal welfare, food, and environmental challenges. I love how Leah Garces builds bridges instead of demonizing people and organizations. Much to learn from and celebrate here.
July 19, 2019
Such an amazing book. It really is one of turning people who have nothing in common to being allies in a just cause. Give it a read. You might find yourself questioning what you believe.
January 13, 2020
Honest heart-warming memoir of passionate mission to encourage humane animal farming. All humans benefit from this activist's journey.
April 25, 2020
Phenomenal. Paving a path towards a cruelty-free world.
May 12, 2020
A bit repetitive at times and less of the "changing the chicken industry" than I expected/hoped for, but overall a very good book to read if you care about the welfare of broiler chickens.
June 3, 2020
Very good, I like the story telling nature of the writing - the epilogue brought a tear to my eye 💚
March 8, 2024
Another good "activist" read. Well written.
January 5, 2022
Eye-opening! When I chose to read this book, I expected to be educated about the conditions in which chickens were raised for meat, however, it is so much more than that. This book opens your eyes not only to the inhumane conditions and practices under which factory-farmed animals are bred, but it also shines a confronting light on the treatment of contract farmers and factory workers operating within the industry - they are every bit as much in a hellish prison as the animals they raise, slaughter and process.
Leah's approach to improving the plight of both the animals and the farmers is refreshing and progressive and, I believe, more effective than the historical head-butting methods - she approaches it from a perspective of respect to educate and collaborate with the companies that profit from the industry to change the way the industry operates together.
Leah's approach to improving the plight of both the animals and the farmers is refreshing and progressive and, I believe, more effective than the historical head-butting methods - she approaches it from a perspective of respect to educate and collaborate with the companies that profit from the industry to change the way the industry operates together.
September 21, 2023
This book was well written and has a great premise, but it wasn't what I wanted. As someone who is very well versed in how chicken factory farms work, lives around them, has studied factory farming, watched documentaries, etc, I was pretty let down that this book was written very surface level and for someone who has no idea what is going on. I wanted to really learn something since the book is pitched as her making friends with Perdue and other giants in the industry. I didn't get that though. The parts I liked the most were the parts where she talked about her own life and how animals and food played a part in making her who she was. I also enjoyed that she pointed out that how we treat the food animals we consume also directly affects our health and life.
April 26, 2021
Leah Garcés' book led me to pause multiple times whilst reading, to marvel at the beautiful relationships she seeks to form with those who are breeding and farming animals. There is understanding, respect and mutual cooperation with the ones animal rights activists often consider the "enemy" (farmers and animal ag industry). Reading her perspective was incredibly refreshing and eye opening- a must for those hoping to get a more diverse, genuine and nuanced understanding of animal liberation and what it means to achieve it.
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