I am a long time follower of Will Potter. His old site Green is the New Red was a bit of a companion to me in my organizing days before my health knocked me down too much. Not only did I often feel isolated from other leftists who were frequently unwilling to face exploitation of other animals and environmental destruction as important issues, it was just a scary time all around existing through the height of the green scare. Maybe that is not a correct way to frame it, as the damage has been done, the laws like the AETA and Ag-Gag still exist, and people are still being charged with "terrorism" for things like rescuing abused animals or property destruction with no harm to the living. Back then, animal and earth activists were labeled the #1 domestic t-word threat in the USA and the feds came down on these movements like a never-ending avalanche. There are still people languishing in prison from outlandish sentences, ones who were returned to high security prison for blogging, and others who were freed due to entrapment and the state withholding evidence (but not before their lives were torn apart.) The surveillance at the time was so suffocating that even the most banal and unthreatening actions such as blogging about animal suffering or having a completely legal sidewalk protest would still attract feds. I suppose since then I have seen the feds acknowledge that nazis killing people might be a tad more important than people rescuing chickens or filming animal torture, but it is still bad.
It was exciting to see Potter put out his newest book Little Red Barns as it is an important catalogue of past and present that is very relevant to the current dystopian state of things, especially in the USA. Animal agribusiness industries have brilliant front groups and advertising that has allowed them to frequently skirt the response to blatant violence towards other animals, decimation of neighborhoods they use up and destroy, and being top causes of climate change. The myth of humane slaughter and "family" farms is a big part of that as well as the utilization of wealth to influence political action. To salvage my mental health, I chose to limit my consumption of media that speaks of harm to animals in detail many years ago. I make few exceptions. Reading this book in its entirety is one of those. Do not misunderstand me- this is not simply a book of horrific descriptions of abuse. But, there are some descriptions woven throughout the text as it is impossible to convey the reality without mention of it. Potter describes his own awakenings to this info and encourages the reader not to look away.
There is a frank discussion about media saturation with violence. When should we witness harm? What purpose does it serve? When is it responsible to look away? When does it motivate us to act and when does it desensitize us? I often see this discussion about harm to humans, but this is one of the rare times I have seen it addressed regarding harm to other animals as well. Potter is not the first, but brings it to another audience.
Given my aforementioned history, I expected to know a lot of the content in this book already. I lived through many of the things he discusses. I thought I would pick up some new info here and there while enjoying Potter's work as always. This book was a much bigger experience than that for me. There were facts like learning that the AETA was actually written in part by animal exploitation industry ceos that should not have surprised me but did. I always knew these powers were huge but did not realize they were actually writing the laws as well. I also didn't realize just how absolutely horrific and disgusting the treatment of people living in neighborhoods where these farms exist is. I knew about the shit sprayed into the air at times, the poor air and water quality, and other forms of hell. I did not realize you literally have to use your windshield wipers to see past the feces while driving and that you can never open your windows. Potter visiting these places, interviewing people, and cataloguing the experience was something I had never read before.
Potter also breaks down all of the arguments in favor of exploitation of farmed animals (and all of the resulting effects upon wild animals, environments, humans, etc) and combats them frankly. His arguments are not devoid of passion, but he relies heavily on concrete evidence and explanation of what is going on behind all of the closed doors and red tape. He shows well the connections to fascism and other forms of oppression. Near the end of the book, he discusses how seeing the big picture in regards to how all of these oppressions are interconnected was illuminating to him. The only thing I think he could have improved upon here is inclusion of the feminist organizers, writers, sanctuary workers, etc who have been discussing these ideas for some time. It would have wrapped the whole thing up nicely.
I found Potters writing style in this book to be interesting as well due to how intimate it was. He went out of his way to acknowledge his own biases and combat them in his reporting. He often writes in a more detached journalistic style, but this book is full of bits of memoir. It meant a lot to read things like this in part because of how much I related to Potter. Being aware of what occurs on these farms and slaughterhouses, what they do to the people who live in neighborhoods that rain literal shit, what they do to the soil and climate, and so on is taxing. On top of that, spending so many years doing what often feels like screaming into the void trying to change things is very defeating. It becomes more taxing when otherwise liberation minded people ignore it. Watching the same leftists who would break a window to save a dog from a hot car turn completely reactionary in regards to the suggestion that farmed animals should not suffer in the same way is beyond depressing. But, I digress. This is all a recipe for mental health crises and I was very grateful to see Potter speak frankly about it.
Despite the level of struggle expressed, Potter still manages to end the book on a more positive note. It reminds me a bit of the book Hope without Hope. Even though we are often up against unstoppable forces, we need to keep going. There is no movement in history that was one and done. Things will always be shifting and we will always need to evolve with that.
I definitely recommend this book to pretty much anyone. It's especially important for folks without knowledge of animal agribusiness industry, government repression, and so on- even if they don't consider these things as personally relevant. These effects spread across the planet and to other movements. It is very important for folks who believe that "humane" exploitation both exists and is easy to choose over factory farming. It is important for folks concerned with climate change. It is also a good book for folks who may already agree or think that they know the info therein. There is a lot here that I did not know. The connection and validation of personal struggles in and around these movements is also a big benefit to reading this.
This was also posted to my goodreads and storygraph.
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