 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., first asked Nicolette Hahn Niman to head up his environmental organization's "hog campaign," she balked. Investigating hog manure pollution was hardly the glamorous assignment she pictured when leaving everything to work for him in New York. But Kennedy, she discovered, is not a man who takes no for an answer. Thus began Niman's fascinating odyssey into the inner workings of the "factory farm" industry and her transformation into an intrepid environmental lawyer who goes up against the big business farming establishment and—unexpectedly—finds love along the way. Starting her work for Kennedy's organization in North Carolina, Niman uncovers the shocking practices of hog factory farms, including inhumane animal confinement and devastating water and air pollution. She organizes a national reform movement to fight these practices and shows again and again that livestock farming can be done in a better way—not only for hogs, but also for poultry, fish, and dairy cows. Through Niman's work, she also tours the best of farms, where traditional farmers and ranchers treat their animals humanely and have joined with other farmers to successfully market the foods they produce. She profiles the innovative and cost-effective methods these operations have incorporated to make a profit by ethical, sustainable means. Along the way, the story takes a surprising turn when Nicolette is swept off her feet by a high-profile cattle rancher. At first, they seem an unlikely pair: Nicolette, a thirty-something, urban, East Coast, vegetarian attorney, and Bill Niman, an older, West Coast, cowboy type. But they share a passion for raising animals with kindness, and she soon finds herself transitioning to ranching life at the famed Niman Ranch in Northern California. In telling her story, Niman details not only why to choose meat, poultry, dairy, eggs, and fish from traditionally farmed sources (and avoid products tainted by chemicals and antibiotic-resistant bacteria), but also how to do so. She reveals what to look for on labels, why to skip animal products from outside the United States, and what questions to ask when eating out. A searing account of an industry gone awry and one woman's passionate fight to remedy it, Righteous Porkchop is a must-read for anyone who cares about food sources or good eating. |
Average Customer Rating:  Calm non hype great information This isn't one of those scare the beejevers out of people book. Instead its a calm, readable book that explains why small farms are the best for humans and animals. As well as the long term expenses involved in factory farms. Be it water pollution or unhealthy animals. And that big business doesn't mean less expensive food. A Book that needed to be written I just completed the book 'The Righteous Pork Chop', it is a worthy read and thank you for writing it! I can't say I necessary enjoyed the reading of it because it is hard for me to read about how we treat animals that we raise for our use.
I'm a Vermonter born and raised and have lived or worked on farms for the first half of my life (I'm 44 now). Animals, even those destined for the freezer were always treated well, respected as a valued guest in our lives, seems silly but we never thought of any other way of treating them. I saw a documentary on where our meat comes from on PBS about 5 years ago, I was horrified! Since then my family (wife and 3 kids) have changed our lives where food is concerned. We raise chickens, layers wander the lawn and pasture, our meat chickens live in 'tractors' moved everyday on the grass. Our turkeys wander with the layers thinking they are part of the flock. Our 6 pigs race around in a 1/2 acre wooded glade behind the house, we will keep one sow to breed for next year, this is my first time with pigs so that is an adventure! Amazingly without advertising people are finding me and asking me if I would raise birds or pork for them. I'm helping feed 12 families now and I already have requests from more folks for next year.
With the people I come in contact with I am finding two camps: Those, like us, who hear and are concerned about the treatment of the food we put in our bodies and more importantly, our childrens bodies. The other simply don't care through pure ignorance. In conversation this past weekend at my sons All-Star baseball game this lady and her husband asked me what the big deal was in they way chicken/pigs/cattle were treated. I asked them would they knowingly buy a puppy from a puppy mill? They said of course not, I asked them what was the difference? The puppy that survives at least has a chance for a good life but those industrial factory raised animals never have that chance. I told them that in Vermont proprietors of puppy mills are fined and possibly go to jail on animal cruelty charges. We make those owners of the big industry rich at the expense of the animals not to mention the farmer, the community and the land. Probably landed on deaf ears.
Books like this need to written and read. Thank you Mrs. Niman for the opportunity! Best book yet on industrial food I've read many, if not most, of the major books about the industrialization of our food supply and I think Righteous Porkchop is the best one yet. It's well written and engaging but at the same time it's loaded with fascinating facts and information. With close to 300 notes at the end of the book, the research done for this book is unmatched. But what is especially unique about the book is that it is written as a memoir, so the story line propels the reader forward from start to finish. I consider Righteous Porkchop a book that everyone should read to learn about where their food comes from and how it's produced. eye opening This book provides the links from what many Americans consider farming to the ugly truth of factory farms. I like that she included the history as well as present day reality. She's not preachy, just tells it like it is. Insightful necessity for any consumer This book exudes ethical, personal, and factual wisdom that inspired me to take daily action and teach others. The matter of industrial meat practices is not publicized enough. I am so glad I came upon this! |  |
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