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.