Transfarmation The Movement to Free Us from Factory Farming

The story of factory farmers, rescued farm animals, and rural communities standing up to big corporations and constructing their own new world that will change the way we eat

In Transfarmation, president and CEO of Mercy For Animals Leah Garcés explains how food and farming policies have failed over decades and offers insights into the wave of change coming from a new crop of farmers and communities who are constructing a humane and sustainable farming system. Factory animal farming faces an abundance of issues—from environmental concerns and animal cruelty, to exploited farmers and poor working conditions—and more and more farmers are searching for a way out and for a new start.

Using insights from interviews and fieldwork, Garcés shares the perspectives of three groups:

—Farmers—such as the Halley farm, where a family crushed by chicken factory farming builds a new way by transitioning their farm to growing hemp and rescuing dogs.
—Animals—like Norma, an industrial dairy cow who was sentenced to death after injuring a worker in an effort to protect her calf.
—Farm communities—including stories like how the hog industry in North Carolina preys on historically Black communities by contaminating the air and water for decades with hog pollution.

Garcés demonstrates the reasons why we must end factory farming and calls on readers to imagine a future world where Transfarmation is complete and we have transitioned to a just food and farming system.

Leah Garcés is the president of Mercy For Animals. She has partnered with some of the world’s largest food companies on her mission to end factory farming. Leah has nearly 20 years of leadership experience in the animal protection movement. She oversaw international campaigns at the World Society for the Protection of Animals and launched Compassion in World Farming in the United States. The New York Times, the Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Vice magazine, the Chicago Tribune, and other national and international media outlets have featured her work. She is a contributing writer for Food Safety News and serves on the advisory boards of Encompass and Seattle Food Tech. She is also the author of GRILLED: Turning Adversaries into Allies to Change the Chicken Industry, published by Bloomsbury in September 2019. Part memoir, part activist tell-all, Grilled illustrates how her fight to end factory farming and construct a compassionate food system led Leah to collaborate with unlikely allies in the food industry.

Introduction

PART ONE: THE FARMERS

CHAPTER ONE
From Chickens to Hemp and Dog Rescue

CHAPTER TWO
From Chickens to Mushrooms

CHAPTER THREE
From Chickens to Greenhouses

CHAPTER FOUR
The Last Pigs

PART TWO: THE ANIMALS

CHAPTER FIVE
The Year of Henrietta the Hen

CHAPTER SIX
Felix the Pig

CHAPTER SEVEN
Norma the Cow

PART THREE: THE COMMUNITIES

CHAPTER EIGHT
Eastern North Carolina Communities of Color: Rosemary and René

CHAPTER NINE
Immigrants: Sandra, Leticia, Marisol, and Carmen

CHAPTER TEN
Refugees: Tom, Mykia, and Maykeu

CONCLUSION
Harvesting Change: A Vision Toward a Humane, Sustainable, and Just Food and Farming System

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index