Transfarmation: The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming

This impassioned treatise from Garcés (Grilled)—the president of Mercy for Animals, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable agriculture—explores the dark underbelly of animal farming. She describes the meat industry’s cruelty (chickens are bred to grow so large and so fast that their hearts, unable to keep up, often fail) and devastating environmental impact, noting that “farmed animals emit more greenhouse gases than the world’s planes, trains, and automobiles put together.” Examining how “Big Ag” hurts farmers, Garcés tells how in order to contract with Tyson (one of a handful of companies that together control over half the meat market), North Carolina farmers Paula and Dale Boles took out hefty loans to build facilities that conformed with Tyson’s standards, only to find that the company’s capricious payment system meant that in years when disease thinned their flocks, Tyson didn’t pay enough for the Boles to make their loan payments. Garcés suggests that farmers can reclaim their independence while healing the environment by transitioning to growing such products as mushrooms and microgreens, both of which bring in higher profits than meat. Garcés makes clear how animals and humans suffer under the status quo, and she offers practical suggestions for reform, including bolstering animal welfare protections and improving labor standards for farmers. This strikes a chord. (Sept.)