Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life
and Good Food Beyond Factory
Farms by Nicolette Hahn Niman
Eye Opening
When Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., first asked Nicolette Hahn Niman to head up
his environmental organizations hog campaign, she balked. Investigating
hog manure pollution was hardly the glamorous assignment she pictured
when leaving everything to work for him in New York. But Kennedy, she
discovered, is not a man who takes no for an answer.
Thus began Nimans fascinating odyssey into the inner workings of the
factory farm industry and her transformation into an intrepid environmental
lawyer who goes up against the big business farming establishment and—
unexpectedly—finds love along the way.
Starting her work for Kennedys organization in North Carolina, Niman
uncovers the shocking practices of hog factory farms, including inhumane

animal confinement and devastating water and air pollution. She organizes
a national reform movement to fight these practices and shows again and
again that livestock farming can be done in a better way—not only for
hogs, but also for poultry, fish, and dairy cows.
Through Nimans work, she also tours the best of farms, where traditional
farmers and ranchers treat their animals humanely and have joined with
other farmers to successfully market the foods they produce. She profiles
the innovative and cost-effective methods these operations have
incorporated to make a profit by ethical, sustainable means.
Along the way, the story takes a surprising turn when Nicolette is swept off
her feet by a high-profile cattle rancher. At first, they seem an unlikely pair:
Nicolette, a thirty-something, urban, East Coast, vegetarian attorney, and
Bill Niman, an older, West Coast, cowboy type. But they share a passion
for raising animals with kindness, and she soon finds herself transitioning
to ranching life at the famed Niman Ranch in Northern California.
In telling her story, Niman details not only why to choose meat, poultry,
dairy, eggs, and fish from traditionally farmed sources (and avoid products
tainted by chemicals and antibiotic-resistant bacteria), but also how to do
so. She reveals what to look for on labels, why to skip animal products
from outside the United States, and what questions to ask when eating out.
A searing account of an industry gone awry and one womans passionate
fight to remedy it, Righteous Porkchop is a must-read for anyone who
cares about food sources or good eating.
Personal Review: Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good
Food Beyond Factory Farms by Nicolette Hahn Niman
I just completed the book 'The Righteous Pork Chop', it is a worthy read
and thank you for writing it! I can't say I necessary enjoyed the reading of
it because it is hard for me to read about how we treat animals that we
raise for our use.
I'm a Vermonter born and raised and have lived or worked on farms for the
first half of my life (I'm 44 now). Animals, even those destined for the
freezer were always treated well, respected as a valued guest in our lives,
seems silly but we never thought of any other way of treating them. I saw
a documentary on where our meat comes from on PBS about 5 years ago,
I was horrified! Since then my family (wife and 3 kids) have changed our
lives where food is concerned. We raise chickens, layers wander the lawn
and pasture, our meat chickens live in 'tractors' moved everyday on the
grass. Our turkeys wander with the layers thinking they are part of the
flock. Our 6 pigs race around in a 1/2 acre wooded glade behind the
house, we will keep one sow to breed for next year, this is my first time
with pigs so that is an adventure! Amazingly without advertising people

are finding me and asking me if I would raise birds or pork for them. I'm
helping feed 12 families now and I already have requests from more folks
for next year.
With the people I come in contact with I am finding two camps: Those, like
us, who hear and are concerned about the treatment of the food we put in
our bodies and more importantly, our childrens bodies. The other simply
don't care through pure ignorance. In conversation this past weekend at
my sons All-Star baseball game this lady and her husband asked me what
the big deal was in they way chicken/pigs/cattle were treated. I asked
them would they knowingly buy a puppy from a puppy mill? They said of
course not, I asked them what was the difference? The puppy that
survives at least has a chance for a good life but those industrial factory
raised animals never have that chance. I told them that in Vermont
proprietors of puppy mills are fined and possibly go to jail on animal cruelty
charges. We make those owners of the big industry rich at the expense of
the animals not to mention the farmer, the community and the land.
Probably landed on deaf ears.
Books like this need to written and read. Thank you Mrs. Niman for the
opportunity!
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