Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms

For many years, I thought I had been doing the right thing, eating the right foods and watching out for my health. I thought I was an environmentalist, caring about the preservation and good stewardship of the natural world we live in. Holy cow, was I wrong. Some time ago, I was reading another good book about human behavior, and what is required for us to behave against our own values. Compartmentalization was a concept I came to understand is absolutely necessary for most of us to act in ways that are not in accordance to our own values. To do wrong, we must push out of our awareness the realization of consequences to our actions. We must stuff things into a locked away place and live in denial. Picture the mind as a house with many rooms, each with a door. Well, there was this room in my mind ... and it had a door, and I had firmly closed it. Inside that room was a vague realization that animal abuse was happening in order to put food on my plate. Gee, I love that steak, that juicy burger, that slab of bacon! Did I really want to know how it got there? Now I know. The door to that room is wide open, and I have no intention of closing it again. Once most of us are aware, most of us do change our behavior. Most of us, when you get down to it, are pretty nice people. Most of us want to do the right thing and we love our pets, we love the natural world around us, and we care to preserve it. So how is it that our supermarkets are filled with food produced in food factories, by an industrialized form of agriculture that is fast ruining our environment and obliterating a type of lifestyle many of us find admirable? How is it that we tolerate the cruelest forms of animal abuse imaginable? And consider this: we don't have to. We can still enjoy that steak, sizzle that bacon, and chow down on that juicy burger. Yes, we can have our delicious porkchop and eat it, too. The person breaking down my denial door is author Nicolette Hahn Niman. Assigned to write a story about food production and food activism for the Kalamazoo College alumni magazine, I introduced myself to Nicolette when she (an alumnae) visited the college campus. She was talking to a rapt audience about her new book, Righteous Porkchop. Slides illustrating her experiences as a food activist working for Bobby Kennedy, Jr. added images to her words, and I'm pretty sure I could hear doors flying open throughout that room. Niman had grown up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, majored in biology at Kalamazoo College, and had been raised in a family that shopped for local foods before it was something of a fad (a good one) to do so. By the time she was an adult, she was a vegetarian, and she considered herself pretty safe in thinking she was not participating in livestock abuse. But wait. She was still enjoying dairy products. She was still eating eggs and cheese. She still had an occasional meal of fish. And me? I've been eating skinless chicken breasts that I purchased at the supermarket i

This book is compelling on a number of levels. Very well written as a memoir it takes the reader on a personal journey of discovery with the author as she explores her life of environmental activism, work/life balance, joy of family and the outdoors, and ultimately finding love. Engaging as her personal story is the real 'meat' of the story lies with her detailed research and impassioned belief that there is a connection with the food we eat and the lives we lead - specifically outlining that the mass production, factory-farm meat industry is non-sustainable both individually and societally. By exposing the direct and indirect costs of the mass industrialization of US agribusiness (pork, chicken, beef, and dairy)the author makes a reasoned, non-extremist argument for both the individual (reduced meat consumption, vote with your economic dollar, understand the real 'value' and source of food items) and society (enforce environmental laws on the books, stop subsidizing agribusiness, and allow free markets to operate with true costs embedded.) A book everyone should have on their shopping list for loved ones!

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.

After reading Nicolette Hahn Niman's reporting on conditions under which pigs, chickens, dairy cows and other cattle, and even farmed fish are kept before ending up on our dinner tables, one can hardly be other than in fervent accord with her statement above. Niman faithfully describes the artificial, often terribly cramped containment pens or cages that crowd thousands of pigs, cattle, or laying hens together. Often the animals never see the outdoors, never breathe anything but the stink of their own waste, never get to raise their own offspring, and never even get a meal that isn't laced heavily with harmful drugs and blood and excrement from other animals. And sometimes they die barbarically. Raising stock this way is excused by agribusiness as necessary to maximize economies of scale and profits. But the author of Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms systematically shoots down these flimsy justifications. For example, she points to studies that show the high investments needed to undertake and maintain these huge confinement facilities generally lead to a revolving debt operation, whereas farmers with a more natural and smaller operation can outperform on a dollar in / dollar out basis. Also, the pollution produced per animal is far greater in confinement plants (and they are plants, rather than farms). Animal manure from thousands of head run off into water channels, liquefy, and pool into big lagoons. This form of animal waste gives off ammonia, methane, and other gases that shouldn't be in our air. Not to mention -- again -- the horrific odor that wafts for miles. Niman furnishes as many facts as possible about the widespread conditions in industrial animal production. But RIGHTEOUS PORKCHOP isn't simply a dry recitation of statistics. Niman is telling her own story: how, as a fledgling lawyer, she worked for Bobby Kennedy Jr. to gather first-hand evidence for environmental lawsuits against confinement agriculture for polluting waterways with liquefied waste. How in the course of things, she met rancher and entrepreneur Bill Niman and in time married him. How she moved from New York to northern California and learned the ins and outs of ranching. How she and her husband do their utmost to let their cattle and other animals live as natural a life as possible. How she searches for outlets where she can buy food for the Niman table that is grown or raised on family farms where "organic" and "natural" aren't just buzzwords. Niman presents a well-researched case for the pressing need to change the way our meat supply is managed from insemination to slaughter. She emphasizes that a failure to do so will endanger the future survival of these animals and the whole food chain including us. But she is realistic too and suggests that the best action each individual can take is to stop buying from these meat/poultry/dairy/fish producers. Perhaps her most practical chapter is "Finding the Right Foods," in which she

I read this book at a pivotal time for me personally. Last year, I was toying with the idea of joining a CSA, but didn't pull the trigger. I had a friend convince me to join this year. Once I joined the CSA (produce only), I kind of felt like I was done -- I did my part in supporting the local food supply, and there wasn't much more I could do. Well, then I read Niman's book. The book was fascinating. I've always had kind of a vague awareness that agribusiness was not best for the environment and farm animals, but I figured the FDA monitored it, so I didn't worry too much. I tried to buy organic, and that's all I could do. This book has brought everything into focus for me. It was absolutely riveting. The information provided is so important for the average consumer, and it is presented in a manner and format that is easily accessible to anyone. The factual information provided was interesting and complelling, but I also really enjoyed reading about Niman's personal journey through her research. Learning how Niman progressed from a vegetarian living in Manhattan to the wife of California rancher was fascinating. The last couple chapters of how Niman's daily choices are supporting free range / organic / humane treatment of farm animals was very helpful to me. We recently bought two dozen eggs from Costco, and I am vowing those will be the last eggs I buy that do not come directly from a farm. I am now carefully exploring our options for buying chicken / beef / pork. The information presented in this book is essential for anyone who purchases meat or dairy products.