David Kirby's new book, "Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poutlry Farms on Humans and the Environment," will be released by St. Martins Press on March 2, 2010. His first book, "Evidence of Harm," (St, Martins Press 2005) was a New York Times bestseller and won the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for Best Book. He is also a field producer for several cable network television productions.

Kirby has been a professional journalist for over 18 years, and wote extensively for The New York Times. He was also a foreign correspondent in Mexico and Central America from 1986-1990, where he covered the wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua, and covered politics, corruption and natural disasters in Mexico. From Latin America, he reported for UPI, the San Francisco Examiner, Newsday, The Arizona Republic, Houston Chronicle and the NBC Radio Network.


Kirby also worked in politics, medical research and public relations. He worked for New York City Council President Carol Bellamy as a special assistant for healthcare, cultural affairs and civil rights, followed by employment as chief scheduler to Manhattan Borough President David N. Dinkins. He also was a senior staff adviser to Dinkins’ successful 1989 run for Mayor of New York City. From 1990-1993, Kirby was Director of Public Information at the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), where he acted as press spokesman for Chairwoman Elizabeth Taylor. He also ran his own public relations agency in New York from 1993 through 1996.

Blog Entries by David Kirby

Lessons From the Egg Recall: Cheap Food Makes You Sick

Posted August 19, 2010 | 01:54 PM (EST)


Americans currently "enjoy" the cheapest animal protein in history. Such a monumental achievement could only have been attained through the industrialized mega-production of meat, milk and eggs -- which now cost about $1.56 on average for a large white dozen in the nation's supermarkets.

At just 13 cents apiece, even...

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American Factory Farming: You Owe It to the Animals to Watch This (Video)

6 Comments | Posted July 15, 2010 | 01:04 PM (EST)


Last month, a camera crew from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) came to my home to interview me about Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment (St. Martin's Press 2010).

Today, a brief part of...

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The Price of Cheap Meat: A Lake Dies in Ohio

32 Comments | Posted July 6, 2010 | 03:43 PM (EST)


Grand Lake St. Marys -- Ohio's largest inland body of water and a treasured recreational area -- is dying. And if you barbecued some supermarket pork over the holiday weekend, you helped contribute to this disaster, however indirectly.

The lake's 13,000 acres of water surrounded by parkland, cabins and campgrounds,...

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To Get Our Farm Animals Off Drugs, First Get Our Politicians Off Farm (and Drug) Money

37 Comments | Posted June 29, 2010 | 05:25 PM (EST)


When it comes to all the addictions that plague our society, there are two that rarely get enough attention, let alone a badly needed intervention: our factory farms' addiction to low-dose antibiotics, and our politicians' addiction to high-octane cash from mega industries like Big Ag and Big Pharma.

On Monday,...

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A Winning Issue for Obama in 2010: Factory Farm Reform

Posted May 3, 2010 | 04:40 PM (EST)


If President Obama really wants to champion a bipartisan issue, one that might appeal to tea-partying conservatives and -- in the wake of the Gulf spill -- jittery eco-liberals alike, he should consider tackling the worst excesses of industrial animal agriculture, better known as factory farming.

It's true that imposing...

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Right Wing Paper Praises Factory Farm Book

Posted April 26, 2010 | 07:56 AM (EST)


I don't know what the editorial policy is toward factory farming at the very conservative Washington Times, but the paper apparently gives free rein to its book reviewers, even when covering politically controversial hot-button issues

On April 23, The Times ran a very favorable account of...

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EPA Study: Autism Boom Began in 1988, Environmental Factors Are Assumed

Posted April 23, 2010 | 12:10 PM (EST)


If it seems like most of the people you know with autism are 22 or younger, that's because most people diagnosed with autism were born after 1987. A recent US EPA study has found a distinct "changepoint" year - or spike - in autism in California and elsewhere...

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White House Will Not Say Where It Gets Its Meat (And I Don't Blame Them)

Posted April 20, 2010 | 01:38 PM (EST)


First Lady Michelle Obama is on a laudable food crusade in America -- promoting the healthful benefits of fresh, local and sustainably grown nutrition, including produce raised in the world's most famous vegetable garden: that photogenic patch of organic land on the White House South Lawn.

But her office does...

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For Americans on a Budget, Meats Are the New Carbs

Posted April 17, 2010 | 03:26 PM (EST)


When I was in my 20's, my friends and I knew that the cheapest food available was made of carbs, and we survived on mounds of mac-n-cheese and home fries for lunch, and ramen, rice and beer for dinner.

But animal factory farming has changed all that.

Last week while...

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Drugs, Poisons and Metals in Our Meat -- USDA Needs A Major Overhaul

Posted April 14, 2010 | 03:26 PM (EST)


Washington dumped some more bad news Friday afternoon when the USDA's Office of Inspector General issued a damning and unsettling report on the department's "National Residue Program for Cattle." It found gaping holes in the safety of American beef production, including residue of drugs, poisons and heavy metals...

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You Want Chicken Poop With That Steak? Why FDA Should Ban Feces From Feed

Posted April 9, 2010 | 02:17 PM (EST)


One of the most revolting things I learned while researching my new book "Animal Factory" is that some cattle are fattened on rations that include chicken manure. Poultry excrement is loaded with urea, which bovine stomachs are adept at converting into lean, ready-to-grill protein.

We feed chicken...

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Gratifying Reviews for Animal Factory

Posted April 4, 2010 | 08:28 PM (EST)


When you work hard for three long years, researching and writing a non-fiction book and hoping that it might be well-received, if not a financial windfall (few of us expect to retire on any of our books), critics' reviews become a form of psychic currency.

And though I cannot...

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This Just In: Indiana to Pop Giant Crap Bubbles on Thursday

Posted March 31, 2010 | 04:51 PM (EST)


UPDATED AT 5:00PM EDT - The beleaguered Union Go Dairy will dispatch a professional team to the town of Winchester on Thursday to carefully excise the explosive and deadly methane gas that has been trapped under the synthetic lining of a mega-dairy near the tiny hamlet.

Over the weekend, I...

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The Nutritional Superiority of Pasture Raised Animals

Posted March 29, 2010 | 05:57 PM (EST)


You are what you eat - and the same goes for the animals whose meat, milk and eggs you put in your mouth. We should not only be concerned about what we eat, but what our food eats as well.

Generally speaking, our food animals are not eating what they...

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Obama's Factory Farm Policy: Not As Bad As You Think

Posted March 28, 2010 | 04:55 PM (EST)


When The Washington Post's On Leadership section asked me to write an online column about Barack Obama's leadership -- or lack thereof -- on the hot-button issue of animal factory reform, I thought I would be penning a disapproving piece on reneged promises and ignored vows.

Candidate Obama...

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Who Will Foot The Bill When The Crap-Bubble Bursts?

Posted March 26, 2010 | 06:55 PM (EST)


This is not a story about junk bonds or shady hedge fund schemes. It's a story about industrial-scale cow-poop and the potentially deadly, explosive methane gas it produces.

Today, rising 20 feet or more in the air above the sprawling cornfields of eastern Indiana are several giant bubbles filled with...

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NPR Compares Animal Factory to Sinclair and Schlosser

Posted March 20, 2010 | 08:12 PM (EST)


On Friday, NPR named Animal Factory - The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment (St. Martin's Press) as one of its "Books We Like," and compared the work to that of two Great American Muckrakers.

"Kirby combines the narrative urgency of Sinclair's...

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Obama Keeps Two Factory Farm Promises - Will Hold "National Rural Summit"

Posted March 14, 2010 | 12:20 PM (EST)


(NOTE: This is the first of a two-part series on President Obama and the regulation of animal factories)

The Obama Administration on Friday fulfilled two campaign pledges that affect factory farming in America: It agreed to hold a long-delayed National Rural Summit and, on the same day, two Cabinent members...

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Humane Society of the US: New Factory Farm Book is "Groundbreaking... A Dramatic Expose"

Posted March 11, 2010 | 06:27 PM (EST)


The following is from the website of the Humane Society of the United States, in a Q/A on the new book Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Envrironment (St. Martin's Press).

More information is at www.animalfactorybook.com.

...

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Animal Factory Book Excerpt - Is Manure a Hazardous Substance? Blanche Lincoln Says "No"

Posted March 6, 2010 | 02:20 PM (EST)


In my new book, "Animal Factory - The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment," I describe the efforts of Pro-Agribusiness members of Congress who have been working hard to make sure that spilled animal waste from industrial farms is...

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