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
more sustainable ways to produce meat in America.” [continued on reverse]

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
 • 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
--more--
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 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