Quotes & Reviews
Quotes
“This is a more serious and important book than its… title suggests. Nicolette Hahn Niman has combined her past experience as an environmental lawyer with her present work as a rancher to offer a searing, and utterly convincing, indictment of modern meat production. But the book brims with hope, too, and charts a practical (and even beautiful) path out of the jungle.”
—Michael Pollan, author, Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food
“My Sunday column looks at the way we’re destroying the efficacy of antibiotics by using them as a routine, non-therapeutic supplement to livestock feed. There’s lots to read on the subject for those who are interested. A brand-new book by Nicolette Hahn Niman, “Righteous Porkchop,” looks at the broad issues involving industrial hog farms—and the alternatives. It’s a good read.”
—Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
“A thoughtful and affecting memoir… Righteous Porkchop firmly establishes Hahn Niman as a major national voice for efforts to reform industrial animal production.”
—Marion Nestle, professor, New York University and author, Food Politics and What to Eat
“A portrait of animal farming, from the small-scale to the mega-scale, that’s as notable for its clarity as it is for its vision. Required reading for anyone who eats.”
—Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns
“When Nicolette Hahn Niman became a cattle rancher, she discovered that when animals are given a life worth living, they can be raised for food in an ethical and sustainable manner.”
—Temple Grandin, professor, Colorado State University and author of Animals in Translation
“Nicolette Hahn Niman is the smiling face of conscientious eating—righteous, but never self-righteous. With warmth and an engaging plainspokeness, she persuasively makes the case that activism bears results, that humane farmers are happier farmers, and that ‘compassionate carnivore’ is not an oxymoron.”
—David Kamp, author of The United States of Arugula
“Nicolette Hahn Niman, in a powerful and trenchant way, shows us how severely modern agriculture has spun off course and abandoned any set of responsible standards—for the animals, the environment, and rural communities. This is not just a recitation of the problems of factory farming, but an original and personal examination of the issue through the lens of someone who looked at the problems firsthand and decided to do something about it.”
—Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO, The Humane Society of the United States
“Righteous Porkchop is a compelling call for overhauling the way we produce food from one the nation’s most credible advocates. It’s also a great read. I highly recommend it.”
—Matthew Scully, author of Dominion: The Power of Man, The Suffering of Animals and The Call to Mercy
“The story that Nicolette Hahn Niman tells in this book is full of heroes and villains (of the two footed kind). Food lovers can only help that America takes her message to heart and votes at the check-out counter.”
—Peter Kaminsky, author of Pig Perfect: Encounters with Remarkable Swine
“Finally, a book that can help everyday Americans understand what’s at stake as a result of our factory animal systems. A great, common sense, and steady read…”
—Michel Nischan, Chef, Dressing Room; President, Wholesome Wave Foundation
“To tell her story, Nicolette Hahn Niman has created a unique genre—half romance, half exposé, narrated through her personal experience of the horrors of factory farms, mitigated by the human face of farmers and ranchers she’s met in her travels across the land. With a lawyer’s mind she dissects the extremes of industrial farming, with a woman’s heart she learns to mitigate her own extremes to create greener pastures for the animals, her husband and herself on the ranch she loves.”
—Betty Fussell, author of Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef and The Story of Corn
“There is an interesting analogy between books and food. Both can, in many cases, be highly palatable but lacking in nutrition, or very healthful but devoid of appeal. On rare and lucky occasions, foodstuffs and books can be both good and good for you. Nicolette Niman’s masterful book, Righteous Porkchop, is a paradigmatic example of just such a confluence of virtues. This book is without a doubt the best piece of writing on animal agriculture I have encountered in 25 years of work in animal welfare and agriculture. And it appears at a fortuitous time. After more than 50 years of apathetic indifference to food and how it is produced, the American public has suddenly developed major prudential and moral concerns about foods of animal origin. These include concerns about confinement agriculture or ‘factory farming’ regarding animal welfare, environmental and ecosystemic degradation and despoliation, human and animal health, antibiotic resistance and pathogen evolution in such systems, and the effect of consolidation of industrial agricultural units on rural communities. Ms. Niman is uniquely qualified to write such a book, having served both as an environmental lawyer and activist, and as the working co-owner of an exemplary cattle ranch. She knows whereof she speaks, and she speaks with eloquence, grace, and passion. I am about to teach a new course in agriculture for students with no background in the field, and will make this book a required text. Any student who reads any of this book will certainly read the entire book, as it is a totally captivating read. Despite the painful subject matter, the book’s message is one of hope. Niman provides concrete examples of the flourishing of animal producers who have embraced husbandry, rather than industry. This book may well become a powerful lever for moving animal agriculture to where it once was, and should be again.”
—Dr. Bernard E. Rollin, Colorado State University, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Biomedical Sciences, and Animal Sciences
Reviews
This Little Piggy
By Cathleen Medwick
O, The Oprah Magazine
March 2009
A modern industrial riddle: Where is a “nutrient” a pollutant, a “lagoon” a pool of animal waste, the air you breathe a miasma of toxic vapors? Answer: at a factory farm, where hogs, chickens, cattle, and even fish live the short, unhappy lives that environmental lawyer, activist, and rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman depicts, with uncommon restraint, in Righteous Porkchop (Collins Living). This necessary book—part memoir, part exposé—may briefly put you off your feed, but its reasoned case for healthy and humane farming practices has the sweet savor of truth.
Here’s the Beef
By Samantha Campos
Pacific Sun Magazine
July 10, 2009
Fast-food burgers, asserts the documentary, are composed of about 70 percent meat—the remainder filled with ammonia and other chemicals to preserve the meat and kill potential E. coli bacteria. (And it doesn’t always work; earlier this month, Costco found itself recalling 4,300 pounds of E. coli-contaminated beef in the Midwest.) … It is issues like these that spurred Nicolette Hahn Niman to join forces with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nine years ago in his bid to confront and reform the nation’s factory-meat industry. In her new book, Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms, Hahn Niman describes her unlikely path from Manhattan environmental lawyer battling industrial hog operators in the country’s heartland to marrying well-known traditional cattle rancher Bill Niman (founder of the natural meat company Niman Ranch—turned over to investors in August 2007) and settling on his 35-year-old, 1,000-acre, sustainable seaside ranch in Bolinas.
The book nimbly juxtaposes “the ills of industrial animal methods” with Hahn Niman’s unsettling realization that the country’s main meat providers were being largely left alone by federal and local government—in spite of overwhelming evidence of neglectful, inhumane husbandry practices and the harm factory farms were doing to the environment. It’s an informative as well as entertaining read. Hahn Niman relates with wit and self-effacing humor the often precarious situations she found herself in along the way (at one point she was swooping down past forbidding security in a private Cessna piloted by maverick ex-military and water protection activists to capture photos of a North Carolina hog factory dumping manure into a stream).
Review of Righteous Porkchop
By Christine Sismondo
Toronto Globe and Mail
February 28, 2009
In addition to being an account of her journey into cattle-ranching (by way of falling in love with Bill Niman, founder of the famed Niman Ranch), the book is also a serious and dense exposé of agribusiness.
In fact, Righteous Porkchop is one of the most authoritative treatments of the practices of the feedlot yet, as Hahn Niman delves into the environmental and health consequences of factory farming, not to mention the ethical considerations.
Also of interest… in unconventional memoirs
The Week Magazine
March 20, 2009
“Someday, someone will make a movie” out of Nicolette Hahn Niman’s life,” said Susan Steade in the San Jose Mercury News. While crusading against factory farms, the vegetarian lawyer fell in love with a cattle rancher. “Part autobiographical, part scholarly,” her book treats both farmers and livestock humanely, arguing gently for more “mindful” practices in raising pigs, cows, and poultry. “What could have been just a litany of outrages” is a meditation on the relationship between man and meat.
Advance Book Review: Righteous Porkchop
By Ian Goodwillie
Popjournalism Magazine
February 13, 2009
Righteous Porkchop tells the story of Niman’s horrific tour through the stunning realities of the modern day meat, poultry and dairy industries. She discovers that that corporate run hog ‘farms’ across the U.S. are responsible for a shocking amount of air, water and noise pollution, not to mention the abhorrent treatment of the animals. But her book is not all doom and gloom as she also highlights a number of traditional farmers and ranchers who are doing things right and fighting for something better.
This book is superb because it is highly readable. The research and realties of the world she is exploring are hung upon the framework of a personal memoir. Niman discusses her own life changes during this period, which includes starting up the eco-friendly Niman Ranch in Northern California with the same earnest she dedicates to the ecological fight. If you care about the food you eat, then this book is a highly important read.
Books for Cooks: Righteous Porkchop
By Susan Steade
San Jose Mercury News
February 17, 2009
Vegetarian environmental lawyer fighting industrial farms falls in love with California cattle rancher. Someday, someone will make a movie out of that; for now, it’s the frame of this exploration—part autobiographical, part scholarly—of how meat is raised in the United States…
What could have been just a litany of outrages Niman saw while working for Waterkeeper Alliance is leavened with praise for family farms; the last chapters include everyday advice for people seeking meat, dairy and eggs from humane operations. (Labels, she says, are misleading; try to find out how the animals live. In restaurants, ask where the meat’s from.)
In the end, it’s encouragement to mindful eating—as the subtitle puts it, finding “good food beyond factory farms.” As you’ve guessed, she married the rancher—Bill Niman—and together they now raise goats and poultry. And she’s still a vegetarian.
Review of Righteous Porkchop
By Geoff Nicholson
The San Francisco Chronicle
March 6, 2009
Niman never comes across as smug … [Mo]st of us are hypocrites when it comes to food. We say we want to eat well and ethically, we admit to qualms about modern methods of food production, but most of us would rather not know the whole story. We certainly don’t want to be denounced and berated by fanatics. Fortunately for people like us there’s Nicolette Hahn Niman, a … sane and sympathetic character, pushing us gently but firmly in a direction we know we should already be heading.
‘Porkchop’ Author Balances Full Plate of Farm Activism
By Blair Anthony Robertson
The Sacramento Bee
March 9, 2009
If “Righteous Porkchop” is a manifesto, it is a friendly one. The writing is neither strident nor preachy. There are no guilt trips. But the details are clear and, at times, disturbing, especially as the reader tags along during Niman’s visits to pig farms, poultry farms and dairy farms… Niman said she hopes we are approaching the day when massive factory farms will be put out of business and farms return to the way they were at the beginning of the 20th century… Many progressive consumers are already on board with what Niman is talking about. So who is this book for? She said she wrote it for those who believe in sound environmental practices and who care about animals “but are not making the connection with the food they eat.”
In words that are at turns searing, personal, friendly and optimistic, “Righteous Porkchop” makes that connection. It also makes a compelling case for change.
Book by Vegetarian Rancher Reflects on Food Choices
By Tom Perry
Des Moines Register
February 20, 2009
The rancher sitting across from Nicolette Hahn in the New York City restaurant noticed immediately that she did not order a meat entree. “He asked me if I were a vegetarian,” she said, recalling that after she told him she was, he replied. “That’s cool.” About a year later she married Bill Niman, the California cattle rancher whose meat products began enjoying rock star status among chefs and gourmets in the 1990s. Today, she is Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of Righteous Porkchop: Finding A Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms…
Book Review: Righteous Porkchop
By Natalie Fasano
Eats.com
March 9, 2009
Even though it’s not easy being green, it’s a valid argument that personal inconveniences on a day-to-day basis are minimized when considering the potential for a global increase in quality of life. Everyone stands to benefit from traditional farming methods, and Niman’s devotion to raising awareness that change is possible is “The Righteous Porkchop’s” true success.
The Righteous Meat Slurpee
By Ross Wulf
Rediscovered Bookshop
February 24, 2009
…I originally picked up this book solely because of its catchy title, and I am so glad I did! Miss Niman’s chronicling of her investigative research into the factory farming of animals is both pallatable and enlightening. Reading very much like a memoir, what I enjoyed most was that I never felt preached at or scolded for still buying meat at the grocery store. Rather, Righteous Porkchop presents current information on the meat industry, all the while interjecting candor and humor along the way…
Just Published: Righteous Porkchop
Center for a Livable Future
February 20, 2009
Check out the new book, Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms, which takes a critical look at factory farms while giving readers a pathway to find sustainably and humanely-produced meat, dairy, and eggs. Righteous Porkchop, penned by environmental lawyer and rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman, hit the bookshelves in mid-February and is already receiving wide praise…
Review of Righteous Porkchop
Robert L. Zimdahl
Professor Emeritus of Weed Science
Colorado State University
The book is not just about the pork (pig) production. Ms. Niman castigates hog producers, chicken producers, cattlemen, dairy farming and fish production, finding similar faults in each system. She provides abundant examples of the faults of confined animal farming operations (CAFOs) but she also provides many examples of successful, humane small farms to demonstrate that farms with the right moral argument and attitude are possible and profitable.
The book does not purport to be a moral argument but it is. It is full of well-documented moral outrage and succeeds in regularly reinforcing its central point (p.226) that “industrialized agriculture is inherently hostile to animals and that only non-industrialized farming can be truly humane.” The book addresses and answers the argument that only industrialized agriculture can produce enough food to feed a growing world population. Industrialized agriculture is not good. It is, in the view of many, a necessary evil. Ms. Niman claims that if we Americans wish to hold ourselves up to the world as a moral people, industrialized agriculture that she describes well in the consistent disparaging terms, cannot continue.
If one is concerned about where food comes from and how food production affects our world’s environment, Ms. Niman’s book is a good resource.
Righteous Porkchop
By Sofia Balino
Food & Water Watch Blog
March 13, 2009
With a title like Righteous Porkchop, Nicolette Hahn Niman’s recently released book is hard to miss. Which is a good thing too, considering how it takes a somewhat difficult topic like factory farms and makes it accessible to a wide audience.
Blessed are the Cheese-Eaters
By Geoff Nicholson
Psycho-Gourmet
February 25, 2009
The book is full of astonishing, and sometimes horrifying, facts about industrial food production. One part that got me especially was about milk and cheese.
In 1909, she tells us, the average dairy cow produced 2,902 pounds of milk per year, and the average American annually ate three pounds of cheese. By 2005 most US dairy cows were Holsteins, which now give an average of 19,951 pounds of milk per year; with the average American now eating 31 pounds of cheese per year.
Righteous Porkchop: Or Don’t Be a Supermarket Zombie
By Richard A.
The Passionate Foodie
March 10, 2009
This is an excellent book, well written and compelling. It deals with very important issues which we all should know more about. It not only points out problems, but also offers alternatives and solutions. This may be a good introductory book to understand these issues yet even those familiar with the issues will find value within its pages.
As I previously stated in my Itadakimasu post, “Let us step back and think more about the sources of our food.” And the Righteous Porkchop is a great first step.
Seek Out Peaceful Pork
Eating Well Magazine
March / April 2009
Righteous Porkchop was selected by the editors of Eating Well magazine for its list of tips for a greener diet.