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 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 3 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.
“For many years, Leah Garcés has been an outspoken advocate of mercy for animals. In this wise book, she also expresses great compassion for the farmers, ranchers, and workers trapped in an industrial food system that sickens consumers and poisons the land. Factory farms are a crime against nature, and Transfarmation convincingly argues that we can feed ourselves, must heal ourselves, without them.”
—Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
“The reality of how broken the current food system is couldn’t be made clearer in these heartfelt stories of people and their lives and the suffering they and animals endure at hands of Big Ag. Weaving together eye-opening investigations, personal narratives, and a compelling call to action, Transfarmation is a book that gives me hope that radical transformation is possible and is happening. A must-read for all those who want to see a brighter, more sustainable, and ethical future.”
—Vicky Bond, president of the Humane League
“Transfarmation is a brilliant, essential read, clear-eyed and kind, showing how animal agriculture is cruel not just to farm animals but to farmers, farmworkers, and the land, and how there’s a happier, gentler path forward for all of us. It comes from one of the world’s authorities on transforming what we eat and how we eat.”
—Annie Lowrey, author of Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World
“What a wonderful antidote to the negativity and cynicism all around us. Leah Garcés gets things done! She makes the world better in concrete ways by reducing the suffering and creating solutions. She tells us how we can all do the same in this great and important book.”
—A. J. Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible
“Too often in life, we only see what divides us, particularly when passions run high and we’re trying to change things. Battle lines get drawn. Opponents become enemies. Differences hold us back. In Transfarmation, we find another way. Garcés takes us on an intensely personal journey of breaking down barriers rather than knocking heads. Of finding new allies in unexpected places. Showing how we are all victims of the ‘cheap meat’ culture driven by Big Animal Agriculture. Heartfelt, insightful, grounded, and upbeat, this book provides deep breaths of fresh air and fresh thinking. Garcés shows us that when it comes to food and farming, we can all choose better.”
—Philip Lymbery, global chief executive, Compassion in World Farming, and author of Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat
“Leah Garcés clearly and powerfully exposes the inherent cruelty entrenched at every level of the industrial farming system but more importantly illustrates a hopeful and sustainable path out of that deeply broken system to a more humane world for all involved—animals and people.”
—Matt Bershadker, president and CEO, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
“Leah Garcés is an exceptional advocate, for animals, for people, and for the rural communities that factory farming has so severely ruined. She’s also a remarkable storyteller, who treats her subjects—all of them—with compassion and respect. The practices she describes are massive cruelties, and the path to their elimination is a long one. But Garcés has given us a powerful roadmap in Transfarmation, with her ideas and her dignified approach to farmers and workers just as badly trapped in the misery of factory farming as the animals it consumes.”
—Kitty Block, president and CEO, Humane Society of the United States
“A powerful exposé of the injustices perpetrated by factory farming, Transfarmation unveils the harrowing experiences of exploited farmers, abused animals, and marginalized communities. Through compelling narratives, Leah Garcés champions a revolutionary shift toward a humane and sustainable food system.”
—Suzy Welch, author, television commentator, professor, business advisor, and public speaker