ANIMAL FACTORY in the Media

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Selected by Indie Booksellers for the March 2010 Indie Notables

‘Animal Factory’ book recounts Lower Valley dairy disputes -By Leah Beth Ward – Feb 24, 2010

“Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment,” a new book being released next week, features in part the Yakima Valley. Author David Kirby, a freelance writer based in Brooklyn, N.Y., recounts the mid- to late 1990s lawsuits against four dairy owners by the Community Association for Restoration of the Environment, or CARE. The dairies were sued for violations of the federal Clean Water Act. 

Animal Factory has a definite point of view. Liner notes say the American food system has “gone terribly wrong.” 

While three of the dairies settled, one did not: Hank Bosma of Zillah. After trial, Judge Edward Shea ruled that Bosma committed 16 violations of the act. He was fined more than $500,000, not including his own legal fees. 

Kirby interviewed the key players, including Helen Reddout, the Granger orchardist and retired teacher who took on the industry, and Charlie Tebbutt, the Eugene, Ore., lawyer who represented CARE. 

Kirby draws on court records and newspaper articles for his 452-page, heavily footnoted account. There are some interesting anecdotes, like Reddout’s unintentionally surreptitious recording of Bosma. 

Bosma had come to Reddout’s home in an attempt to talk her out of filing the suit. (Reddout thought it was a threat.) Tensions were high in the Lower Valley because of the lawsuits. 

Reddout had taped a note on her door announcing the household’s right to tape conversations but didn’t tell Bosma for the record that she was taping him or request his permission, a violation of state law. 

The defense agreed not to prosecute Reddout if they could have a copy of the tape. The tape was played in court and actually benefited both sides. Bosma recounted how some of his fellow dairymen discharged manure into drains that empty into the Yakima River. 

But he also committed to following the regulations on manure management and talked about costly improvements he had made at his two dairies. 

The book recounts similar grass-roots movements against large-scale animal farming elsewhere in the country — hogs in North Carolina and chickens in the South and Midwest. 

Kirby is also author of “Evidence of Harm,” which explores the controversy over a possible link between vaccines and autism. 

The timing of “Animal Factory” is interesting. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is beginning to test a number of Lower Valley wells this week in an effort to trace the source of high nitrates in residential wells. One likely culprit: dairy manure. 

  Oregon Daily Emerald 

Green law conference to feature new book

Feb 15, 2010‎

David Kirby’s “Animal Factory” explains how food production affects environment, people

By Rachel Hatch | News reporter

Published: Tuesday, February 16, 2010

In 2005, journalist David Kirby published his book “Evidence of Harm,” which investigated the relationship between mercury-contaminated vaccines and autism. The book became a New York Times best seller and source of great controversy.

Five years later, Kirby’s new book “Animal Factory” shifts his focus to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, agricultural producers similar to factory farms where livestock are raised in confined spaces.Kirby will visit Eugene next week to attend the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference on Feb. 25-28 at the University’s School of Law.Law student Laura Beaton, co-director of the conference, said “Animal Factory” comes out
March 2 and will be available before then exclusively at the conference.

“We’re very excited to have him here because he’s a best-selling author and knows a lot about CAFOs,” Beaton said.

“Animal Factory” follows three American farming families over the course of about 20 years and demonstrates how large-scale, market-dominating CAFOs hurt communities.

“It’s the story about three different American families in three different parts of the country,” Kirby said. “These are mostly conservative, country families, but then one day industrial farms move into their area. We see how these CAFOs lead to the
degradation of air, water and soil, destroy communities and economic opportunities and cause diseases.”

In recent years, factory farms and CAFOs have become divisive subjects because of their reported impact on the environment, human health, animal well-being and small businesses. The Environmental Protection Agency has even developed certain criteria for what constitutes a CAFO.

Kirby asserts in his book that new research conducted by groups such as the United Nations shows that raising cattle produces more greenhouse gases than cars. He also says that runoff from CAFOs contaminates water sources and kills fish, and that poorly processed meat can be contaminated with E. coli, salmonella and types of worms.

One of Kirby’s major points in “Animal Factory” is that CAFOs hurt small, independent family farms. Because CAFOs produce so much meat so quickly, family farms are often forced out of business because they can’t compete in the market.

“As consumers, we have a right of choice to food that is raised in a more sustainable way,” Kirby said. “It is important for more sustainable farms to have equal access to the market. We should give the consumer and the independent producer an even field to compete on.”

Eugene is home to multiple free-range, pasture-raised farms, such as The Living Earth Farm.

Sharon Blick, who runs the farm, advocates pasture-raised food for health and environmental reasons.

“On these farms, the manure is spread out in the field by having the animals free in the pasture, so there aren’t concentrations of manure, which cause pollution to the water and air,” Blick said. “There are many nutritional studies that show pasture-raised meat has more fatty acids and omega-3s. You also know that you’re eating happy animals, so that’s important for your emotional health.”

Kirby said that he didn’t write the book to push an agenda, but that he simply believed people should be more aware of where their food comes from.

“I didn’t set out to write an anti-CAFO book. This wasn’t supposed to be a manifesto; this is supposed to be a story,” Kirby said. “The reader has the opportunity to make up their own mind. Food is very personal; everyone makes their own choice. I’m not telling people what to eat.”

Kirby considers Eugene a hub for sustainable, environmentally conscious agriculture.

“I got the sense that (Eugene) was a thriving center for this well-educated, environmentally
aware, progressive way of thinking,” Kirby said. “Even back then it was very ‘hippie-dippy,’ but they were onto something with the healthy food movement.”

rhatch@dailyemerald.com

The Illinois Times  

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