ANIMAL FACTORY by best-selling author David Kirby

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Praise for ANIMAL FACTORY by DAVID KIRBY
The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment
PUBLICATION DATE: MARCH 2, 2010
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.”
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.”
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 [continued on reverse] 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.” Library Journal: “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.”
Contact: Rachel Ekstrom 646-307-5563 rachel.ekstrom@stmartins.com
“Thanks to Kirby’s extraordinary journalism, we have the most relatable, irrefutable, and unforgettable testimony yet to the hazards of industrial animal farming.”—Booklist (starred review)
ANIMAL FACTORY by DAVID KIRBY
The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment
“[Kirby’s] 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.”—Library Journal
ANIMAL FACTORY: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment (St. Martin’s Press; March 2, 2010; hardcover) 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. Kirby, a contributor to The Huffington Post, is the author of the bestselling book Evidence of Harm, which was a finalist for the NYPL Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, and has appeared in media outlets such as Larry King, CNN, Don Imus and Air America. 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? 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
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Recalls of dangerous meats, fruits, and vegetables caused by farm pathogens Increasing public health crises, including asthma and MRSA infection, and possibly swine flu and leukemia and other cancers in communities adjacent to these farms
--more-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)
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Massive fish kills in local waters from pig and cow manure lagoon spills 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 in part by factory farm pollution
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In ANIMAL FACTORY, Kirby follows three American families in different regions of the US, whose lives have been utterly changed by these Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs: 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, a one-cell vampire organism that attacks both people and fish. Yakima Valley, Washington: Helen Reddout, a farmer’s wife, watched as industrial dairy operations in her neighborhood sprayed fields with raw sewage. Urine, manure and chemical waste from the factory operation was intentionally released into ditches ,streams and rivers, and water from her own private well became polluted with nitrates and organic materials. In October of 2009 Reddout became the Executive Director of The Dairy Education Alliance. The DEA is a national alliance of grassroots organizations which have won local, state, national and international recognition of their work in educating the public of pollution from industrial dairy operations. 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. 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.
ANIMAL FACTORY: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment by David Kirby St. Martin’s Press 0-312-38058-5 $26.99 March 2, 2010
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 charter 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 and his website is www.animalfactorybook.com. For interviews please contact: Rachel Ekstrom Publicity Manager St. Martin’s Press 646-307-5563 rachel.ekstrom@stmartins.com