Article by David Kirby: 6 Baby Steps Toward a More
Sustainable Animal Diets
Interview with David Kirby,
Author of "Animal Factory"
Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry
Farms to Humans and the Environment (Hardcover): Released on March 3.
Pre-Publication Special BF Price, Includes Shipping and Handling. By David Kirby
BuzzFlash.com's Review (excerpt)
“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)
“David Kirby’s book, Animal Factory, is a beautifully written account of the
danger industrial meat and dairy 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,
Helen Reddout, Chris Petersen, 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."--Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
"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,
water, and food.
In this thoroughly-researched 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. Weaving science,
politics, law, big business, and everyday life, Kirby accompanies these
families in their struggles against animal factories. A North Carolina
fisherman takes on pig farms upstream to preserve his river, his family’s
life, and his home. A mother in a small Illinois town pushes back against an
outsized dairy farm and its devastating impact. And, a Washington state
grandmother becomes an unlikely activist when her home is covered with soot
and her water supply is compromised by runoff from leaking lagoons of cattle
waste.
Animal Factory is an important book about our American food system gone
terribly wrong—and the people who are fighting to restore sustainable
farming practices and save our limited natural resources."
*****
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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. -- Library Journal
Animal Factory is a thoroughly-researched piece of investigative
journalism, in which Kirby sets out to approach factory farms differently
from 'Fast Food Nation' or 'Eating Animals'. As his 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 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
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)
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
In Animal
Factory, Kirby follows three American families in different regions of the
US, whose lives have been utterly changed by Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operations, or CAFOs. Weaving complex science, politics, business, and the
lives of everyday people, Kirby documents a crisis that has reached a
critical juncture in the history of human health and our larger global
environment.
6 Baby Steps Toward a More Sustainable
Animal Diet
by David Kirby, Author of Animal Factory:
The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and
the Environment
The most common question I get about my new book
Animal Factory, which comes out Tuesday, March 2, is, "Am I going to have to
become a vegetarian after reading this?"
My answer usually throws
people off.
"No," I say, "You're going to want to eat even MORE meat,
eggs and dairy!" Then, as a bemused brow breaks over their face, I add: "But
by that, I mean more that is raised humanely and sustainably, without harm
to human health or the environment."
Most people I speak with
inherently sense that their meat and dairy should be raised as "humanely and
sustainably" as possible, but don't really know what those terms mean. The
whole new morality of shopping the supermarket meat aisle can seem so
daunting, especially while trying to sort through the various "cage-free"
"humane" and "organic" labels.
Meanwhile, the painful ordeal of
shelling out big chunks of one's paycheck for pricey protein from boutique
sources other than CAFOs -- (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or
factory farms), is just too onerous for some to ponder. And if even they
were to make the sacrifice to "go sustainable," they ask, how are they going
to find such vaunted foodstuffs, both at home and on the road?
Still
others beg off the subject entirely with a wince, a wave, and an "I don't
want to know!"
But some of my friends really do make every last
effort to eat only sustainable animal protein and, when not available, to go
without. But I also understand that, for most Americans, it is exceedingly
difficult and prohibitively expensive to switch overnight to a 100 percent
CAFO-free diet, unless they are planning to go completely vegan.
I do
not believe in telling others what to eat or, more importantly, what not to
eat. It's a deeply personal choice. But I do believe that we all have a
responsibility -- even a solemn duty -- to inform ourselves about the
origins of our food, and the impact it had on people, places and animals.
Just remember, that pork chop may have been raised in a crowded North
Carolina CAFO, whose liquefied manure emits noxious gases into the air,
might leak pathogens and nutrients into state waters, and has been known to
coat neighboring homes, cars and people with the greasy, misty detritus of a
massive manure "sprayfield," Carolina style.
So what's a
conscientious but somewhat underpaid omnivore to do? What follows are just a
few suggestions -- some baby steps to reduce your reliance on cheap animal
factory food, whence most American meat, egg and dairy "outputs" are now
derived.
Be Label Conscious - You have rights as a
consumer, but you also have responsibilities, in my opinion, and that
includes self-education and being savvy about labeling. In Animal
Factory, I describe some of the competing food labels (organic, humane,
cage free, etc.) and the different criteria they require to earn their
endorsement. There's a lot of cross-over, and a lot of confusion. Some
consumers are now looking for what is widely considered to be the most
stringent label of all, "Animal Welfare Approved." AWA requires all animals
to have pasture-based certification, prohibits the use of liquefied manure,
and only certifies farms "whose owners own the animals, are engaged in the
day to day management of the farm, and derive a share of their livelihood
from the farm." You can search a database of farms and where to find AWA
products at
www.AnimalWelfareApproved.org .
Pick A Protein -
Begin your path towards being a more sustainable epicure one food at a time.
Pound-for-pound and dollar-for-dollar, eggs, cheese, or butter are good
starter products. For example, I only buy humanely raised, certified organic
eggs at my local supermarket. They cost $3.99 a dozen vs. the $1.99 a dozen
for factory farmed eggs -- a difference of about 16.5 cents an egg. And
while I have the admitted luxury of not having to support a family, I am
more than happy to double my costs and expend an extra 33 cents in the
morning for my omelet. Organic (pasture-fed) cheese and butter also have
manageable price point ratios to their commercial counterparts, so you might
want to pick one of those as one of your switchover foods as well.
Become Cooperative - A few national chain stores, and of
course your local farmers market (the ones in New York are a marvel) are
usually excellent and reliable sources of sustainably raised protein. But
the prices can sometimes make you laugh out of sheer exasperation -- I have
seen $27 chickens, which for most families is too extravagant. On the other
hand, I have seen $2.70 chickens in my supermarket, which to me at least
seems too cheap for the life of a bird. Another alternative is to seek out a
food coop in your area that specializes in local, sustainable meat and
produce. I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, home to the nation's oldest coop,
which offers deep discounts on delicious, fresh, local meat, dairy and eggs.
Unfortunately for me, the place is so popular that I have not yet been able
to get a slot in the mandatory orientation for new membership, but I keep
trying.
Go Red-Tag Shopping - I have noticed that
the meat department at my local place tends to get rid of its older stuff on
Mondays and Tuesdays, slapping a bright red, easy-to-spot sticker with the
words "Manager's Special" onto the cellophane. I make it a point to shop on
those days or, sometimes if I am just passing by, I might pop in and make a
quick run down the aisle, eyes peeled for those exciting red tags as I scan
the row. The discounts are usually about 30% off the normal price, and
sometimes more. Whole organic chickens are often reduced from $3.99 to $1.99
a pound. If you don't eat it that day, freeze it.
Go Online
- Another great resource for finding local, sustainably and humanely raised
animal products is
Sustainable Table, and its
Eat Well Guide --
with a Zip-code based searchable database for farms, markets and restaurants
in your area that offer food that did not take a toll on humans, animals or
the environment before landing in your mouth.
Eat Less Meat
- This is a suggestion, not an order, and it doesn't come from me, it comes
from the "Meatless Monday"
campaign. But reducing your animal protein even a little bit each week will
contribute to easing worldwide animal demand from any source. Check out the
Meatless Monday virtual online support group for temporary withdrawals of
the flesh. Think of it this way: for billions of people in the world, it's
going to be "Meatless 2010," so a 52-day sacrifice is not that hard to make.
Copyright © 2010 David Kirby, author of
Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig,
Dairy, and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment
Author Bio
David Kirby, author of
Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy, and Poultry
Farms to Humans and the Environment, is a Huffington Post
contributor and author of the New York Times bestseller
Evidence of Harm, winner of the 2005 Investigative Reporters and
Editors Award for Best Book, and finalist for the New York Public Library
Helen Bernstein award for Excellence in Journalism. He lives in Brooklyn,
New York. Visit
www.AnimalFactoryBook.com .
