ANIMAL FACTORY MEDIA KIT

ANIMAL FACTORY

By David Kirby

“Thanks to Kirby’s extraordinary journalism, we have the most relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable testimony yet to the hazards of industrial animal farming.” — Booklist, Review Journal of the American Library Association.

ANIMAL FACTORY (St. Martin’s Press; March 2, 2010) is a dramatic exposé of factory farms and the devastating impact they have on human health, the environment, and the economy by New York Times bestselling author David Kirby. 

ANIMAL FACTORY is a thoroughly-researched piece of investigative journalism, in which Kirby sets out to approach factory farms differently from Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation or Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals: beyond the terrible costs for animals raised and killed in these facilities, what are the costs for all of us? 

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. 

In the book, Kirby follows three families and communities whose lives are utterly changed by immense neighboring animal farms.  These farms (known as “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations,” or CAFOs), confine thousands of pigs, dairy cattle, and poultry in small spaces, often under horrifying conditions, and generate enormous volumes of fecal and biological waste as well as other toxins. In ANIMAL FACTORY, Kirby follows three American families in different regions of the US, whose lives have been utterly changed by these CAFOs: Weaving science, politics, big business, and everyday life, Kirby accompanies these families and their struggles in:

New Bern, North Carolina:  Rick Dove, a retired Marine J.A.G and Vietnam veteran observed the degradation of his beloved local river, the Neuse, including strange colors in the water, massive amounts of dead fish, and fishermen developing sores wherever the river water touched them.  His investigation uncovered that local pig farms were spilling waste into the river, contributing to outbreaks of the Pfisteria parasite. 

Yakima Valley, Washington:  Helen Reddout, a farmer’s wife, fought back against local dairy farms that sprayed her house and fields with liquefied manure, spreading pathogens and a film of waste, not to mentioned the offensive odors that permeated the town.   

Elmwood, Illinois:  An all-American town outside of Peoria was devastated by waste lagoon spills and economic pressure from dairy CAFOs in the region.  Families and neighbors were torn apart over the damage to the land, the environment, and profits.  Karen Hudson formed a grassroots group, “Families Against Rural Messes” to fight the CAFO’s dangerous practices. 

As this powerful and provocative books shows, the supermarket price of milk, pork, steak and chicken do not reflect the actual costs of mass-producing meat and dairy, which are passed on the to surrounding communities, including:

•  Airborne feces sprayed by farms, covering neighboring homes, fields, and towns
• Recalls of dangerous meats, fruits, and vegetables caused by farm toxins
• Increasing public health crises, including asthma, MRSA infection, swine flu, leukemia and other cancers in communities adjacent to these farms
•  Massive fish kills in local waters from pig and cow manure lagoon spills 
• High levels of feces and nitrates in public water supplies near these farms.  The New York Times recently reported that “19.5 million Americans fall ill each year from drinking water contaminated with parasites, bacteria or viruses.” (9/15/09) 
• Immense costs to clean up hazardous farms, absorbed by taxpayers or individual farmers, rather than by the corporations that profit from such practices 
• Dead zones spreading miles out to sea, where marine life is suffocated by algae growth stimulated by factory farm pollution 

Weaving complex science, politics, business, and the lives of everyday people, ANIMAL FACTORY documents a crisis that has reached a critical juncture in the history of human health and our larger global environment. This important book describes an American food system gone terribly wrong—and the people who are fighting to restore sustainable farming practices and safe natural resources.  

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David Kirby, a contributor to The Huffington Post, is the author of the bestselling book Evidence of Harm, which won the 2005 Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for Best Book, and was a finalist for the NY Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism. He has appeared in media outlets such as Meet the Press, Larry King, CNN, Don Imus, CNBC and NPR.

Praise for ANIMAL FACTORY

Booklist – Journal of the American Library Association: **STARRED REVIEW**
“In factory farms, thousands of animals are confined and rapidly fattened for slaughter, generating millions of gallons of animal waste, which is stored in open lagoons and sprayed into the air. Kirby, author of the best-selling Evidence of Harm (2005), profiles three individuals who have been subjected to the stench, mess, environmental contamination, and health risks of megafarms. Rick Dove, a Marine Corps prosecutor, retired early to enjoy the Neuse River near his North Carolinian home but instead became a devoted “riverkeeper” after witnessing massive fish kills caused by pig-factory waste. In beautiful Yakima Valley, Washington, Helen Reddout and her husband joyfully tended their fruit orchards until a megadairy fouled their property, inducing Helen to become a “warrior activist.” The same thing happened to farmer’s wife Karen Hudson in Elmwood, Illinois. Stonewalling government agencies and evasive and hostile factory-farm owners and their corporate overseers ensure that the trio’s battles for safe air and water have been protracted, complicated, and dangerous, hence the magnitude of Kirby’s meticulously detailed yet propulsive chronicle. Thanks to Kirby’s extraordinary journalism, we have the most relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable testimony yet to the hazards of industrial animal farming.”

Library Journal: “Kirby turns his investigative reporting skills to the human and environmental consequences of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The first section details how three concerned citizens-a North Carolina fisherman, a mother in a small Illinois town, and a Washington State grandmother-became activists after seeing firsthand how CAFOs negatively altered the environment around them. The second section frames the public health and ecological issues surrounding CAFOs by looking at how they have been treated nationally. VERDICT Unlike recent books on this topic that advocate for a vegetarian lifestyle (e.g., Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals or Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson’s The Face on Your Plate ), Kirby focuses on the negative impacts CAFOs are having on not only those who live near these operations but also those who may be affected by polluted water originating from waste lagoon spills at these sites. His narrative is immensely readable and should be required reading for anybody concerned with how CAFOs are changing the nature of livestock farming in the United States.”

Indie Next List – American Booksellers Association: ANIMAL FACTORY has been selected by the as one of the Indie Next List Notables for March 2010 and will appear as a line listing in the Indie Next List printed flyer, as well as with jacket image and full bookseller quote in a downloadable PDF file to be posted on Bookweb.org. 

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: “David Kirby’s book, Animal Factory, is a beautifully written account of the danger industrial meat production represents to our health, environment and democratic process.  In a unique and captivating way, Kirby reveals the consequences of animal factories through the eyes of the citizen advocates who have fought the long and hard battle to civilize the barbaric and often criminal behavior of the meat barons. Rick Dove, Karen Hudson, Chris Peterson, Don Webb and others featured in the book are real American heroes. Their stories are compelling, true and engaging.  The time has come to end the greedy and destructive practices of animal factories. As the readers of Kirby’s book will learn, nature’s clock is ticking and much is at stake for the planet and all of its inhabitants. Each page of this book is filled with powerful information. It has all the makings of a number one best seller.”

Alice Waters: “Nature did not intend for animals to live and die in a factory assembly line.  In David Kirby’s startling investigation Animal Factory, he gives a human face to the terrible cost our health and environment pays for this so-called ‘cheap food’. This is a story that is seldom told and rarely with such force and eloquence.”

Steve Ells, Founder, Chairman & Co-CEO, Chipotle Mexican Grill: “Hurray to David Kirby for exposing the horrific conditions that are so prevalent at America’s factory farms.  When I first confronted the realities of factory farming some ten years ago, I knew that I did not want Chipotle’s success to be based on the exploitation that I saw.  While few people actually have the chance to see firsthand where their food comes from, Animal Factory provides a vivid account of the system and the harm it causes.”

Marion Nestle, Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, and member of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production: “This book puts a human face on a well hidden national scandal: the effects of large-scale raising of animals on the health and well being of farm workers and their families, local communities, the animals themselves, and the environment which we all share.  By examining how CAFOs affect the lives of real people, Kirby makes clear why we must find healthier and more sustainable ways to produce meat in America.”

David Wallinga, MD, Food and Health Director, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy: “Animal Factory tells how big agribusiness’ industrial meat production is leaving our communities foul with unhealthy air, awash in untreated sewage, and increasingly buffeted by bacteria made resistant to the antibiotics. Anyone in search of why America’s health care system is going bankrupt will find part of the answer in these pages.”

Robert S. Lawrence, MD, Director, Center for a Livable Future, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: “Animal Factory, by David Kirby, documents the scandal of today’s industrial food animal production system in the same compelling way Upton Sinclair alerted Americans to the abuses of the meat packing industry in his 1906 The Jungle. The well being of animals produced for human consumption, the fate of rural communities, the health of farm workers, and the protection of the environment are daily compromised for the sake of profit.”

Frederick Kirschenmann,  President of Kirschenmann Family Farms: “David Kirby’ s new book points to a deeper story than may be apparent to some.   It is easy to blame the farmer, or blame the industry for the unintended consequences of our food system.   But there are deeper systemic issues which give rise to these problems that we now need to address. Our “fast, convenient, and cheap” food system gave us benefits that many found praiseworthy.  But we failed to anticipate the unintended costs to health, to communities, and to the environment.  Perhaps it’s time to reinvent a food system that is resilient, affordable and health-promoting for both people and land.   Perhaps Kirby’s new book can serve as part of a wake-up call for us all to become food citizens to that end.”

 Bill Niman (Founder, Niman Ranch) and Nicolette Hahn Niman (Author, Righteous Porkchop:  Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms): “The industrial production of farm animals is a grim saga of pollution, health risks, and animal misery.  Yet in Animal Factory David Kirby has put together an ingenious book that is highly readable and engaging.  The heroes of his book are fighting for a better America — one in which waters are safe to drink, air is safe to breathe, and traditional family farmers are the sources of our food.  Anyone who reads this book will be drawn into their cause.”

Deirdre Imus: Ol’ MacDonald had a farm – until America’s corporate animal factories plowed it under, packing living, breathing, sensate creatures into sewage plant conditions for your gustatory pleasure.  Now, you’re next.  Bon appetit.

 

Talking Points and Statistics from ANIMAL FACTORY

by David Kirby

 A TOXIC WASTE LOAD:

● US animal factories yield 100 times more waste than all US human sewage plants.

 ● Human sewage is treated to kill pathogens but animal waste is not. Hog manure has 10-to-100 times more pathogens than human waste.

 ● The law would never permit untreated human waste to be kept in vast “lagoons” or sprayed onto fields in the way that raw manure is applied.

 ● The Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay produces 1,000,000 tons of chicken manure a year, enough to fill a large football stadium to the top row.

 A THREAT TO AIR AND WATER:

 ● Raising cattle produces more greenhouse gases than cars, a UN report warns.

 ● Manure-based emissions of methane and other CO2 containing gases contributed 7.4 percent (2 million tons) annually to total greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

 ● Agricultural waste is the top cause of well water contaminants in the US. At least 4.5 million Americans are exposed to dangerously high nitrate levels in their drinking water.

 ● A CDC study of well water in nine Midwestern states showed that 13 percent of the supply had nitrate levels above the EPA standard of 10miligrams per liter.

 ● Waste lagoons do not destroy all pathogens: About 15% of viruses and 55% of bacteria survive and could reach groundwater supplies.

● There is ample documentation of water pollution from runoff of animal waste. More than half of all US fish kills were attributed to livestock.

  A THREAT TO HUMAN HEALTH:

 ● Manure can contain deadly pathogens, antibiotics, drug-resistant bacteria, hormones, heavy metals, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, etc. that can seriously impact human health.

 ● Odors from 170 separate chemicals can cause respiratory disease, diarrhea, depression, violent behavior, nausea, vomiting, headache, insomnia, coughing, appetite loss, and irritation to the eyes, nose and throat.

● Animal factories can release nitrates into well water in levels that may cause diarrhea, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, spontaneous abortion and “blue-baby syndrome.”

● Excess nitrate exposure in pregnant women may cause central nervous system problems in children, and even neural tube defects, which has been linked to autism.

● Animal factories can help breed dangerous levels of organisms such as dangerous E-coli, salmonella, listeria, viruses, protozoa and worms.

 ● Factory farmed animals often receive low dose antibiotics, creating bacterial resistance that is passed between bacteria and conferring resistance to drugs needed by humans.

 ● One study found salmonella in 20% of hamburger tested, of which, 84% was resistant to at least one drug, and 53% resistant to three or more drugs.

 ● Another study found airborne enterococci, staph, and strep bacteria with resistant genes: 98% were resistant to two or more antibiotics.

 ● Helicobacter pylori bacteria, associated with gastric ulcers and possibly stomach cancer, has been found in swine lagoons.

 ● 1-in-5 US pig farmers has methicillin- resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, which kills more Americans than AIDS each year.

 ● The National Pork Board found MRSA in 3% of pork samples tested. A family buying raw pork twice a week was bringing MRSA home three times a year.

 ● The US still feeds cows to cows (a cause of mad cow) in three ways – In restaurant scraps, blood meal and chicken litter, which can have beef-containing feed pellets in it.

 A THREAT TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES:

● Economic concentration of agricultural operations tends to remove a higher percentage of money from rural communities than when the industry is dominated by smaller farms.

● Many studies have shown that social and economic well-being in small towns improve by increasing the number of farmers, not increasing the volume of commodity produced.

● The agriculture sector boasts that it is so productive it only employs 2% of the population. For every job created by a hog factory, three local jobs are lost.

● Every year, hog factories put almost 31,000 farmers out of business, out of their homes, and out of their communities.

 ● In 1990, there were 670,350 family hog farms; in 1995, there were only 208,780, though hog production has increased..

 ● One poll said that 42% of rural respondents said a neighboring farm detracted from quality of life “a great deal” or “somewhat.” Odor was the main concern, followed by flies, manure run-off, noise, and dust.

 ● Agribusiness leaders have political contacts and access to government uncharacteristic of the average citizen.

 ● When individual concerns and complaints are taken to the state level they are often regarded as being scientifically unfounded and “emotional” in nature.

 ● Quality of life is an issue. One study said that “highly cherished values of freedom and independence gives way to feelings of violation and infringement.”

 ● Local redress can be restricted: 13 states have laws limiting disparaging speech about agriculture.

 ● All 50 states have some type of “right-to-farm” rules that protect animal factories from zoning laws or lawsuits

Bio for DAVID KIRBY, author of ANIMAL FACTORY

David Kirby wrote the award-winning New York Times bestseller, EVIDENCE OF HARM: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic – A Medical Controversy (St. Martin’s Press – 2005). 

Evidence of Harm sparked a national debate in private homes, leading universities and the halls of Congress, and Kirby has appeared on such venues as Meet the Press, Larry King Live, The Today Show, Imus in the Morning, Montel Williams, Air America, and dozens of local radio and television stations. Kirby has also been interviewed by or reviewed outlets such as The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Associated Press, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Newsday, The Lancet, Salon.com and more.

Kirby, a contributor to the Huffington Post since its founding in 2005, has been a professional journalist for over 15 years.  Kirby has also written for a number of national magazines. In addition, Kirby was a foreign correspondent in Mexico and Central America from 1986-1990, where he covered the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and covered politics, corruption and natural disasters in Mexico.

He has also done extensive consulting with the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report Office.

Kirby also worked in politics, medical research and public relations. He worked for New York City Council President Carol Bellamy as a special assistant for healthcare, cultural affairs and civil rights, followed by employment as chief scheduler to Manhattan Borough President David N. Dinkins. He also was a senior staff adviser to Dinkins’ successful 1989 run for Mayor of New York City.

From 1990-1993, Kirby was Director of Public Information at the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), where he acted as press spokesman for Chairwoman Elizabeth Taylor, and witnessed first-hand the inner workings of Congress, the White House and powerful Federal agencies like the FDA, CDC and NIH.

 He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

For interviews please contact: 

Rachel Ekstrom
Publicity Manager
St. Martin’s Press
646-307-5563  
rachel.ekstrom@stmartins.com