by Will Potter
City Lights Publishers
7/8/2025, paperback
SKU: 9780872869141
Behind the little red barns dotting the landscape and decorating so many of the products we consume is a dangerous threat. This groundbreaking investigation exposes the powerful forces at work to hide the harms of industrial agriculture, its outsize role in the climate crisis, and its links to the global rise of fascism.
Little Red Barns is the record of a harrowing journey that took investigative journalist Will Potter from factory farms to international climate summits, from Congressional hearings to neo-Nazi fascist groups. As Potter uncovers the frightening truth about animal agriculture's role in accelerating climate collapse, he shows how the authoritarian measures being taken to maintain control over this key aspect of the global food supply chain are directly linked to the proliferation and empowerment of far-right militias. Confronting a maelstrom of disturbing information, he asks searching questions about a journalist's role in the 21st century and the impact of bearing witness in a world in which we are bombarded with "news," both real and faked.
Reviews:
"The financial forces behind factory farming have grown powerful enough to silence industry whistleblowers, investigative journalists, and even federal inspectors, according to this troubling account. . . . a fascinating, swirling meditation on law enforcement, rising authoritarianism, misinformation, climate change, and the global spread of ag-gag laws."--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review *
"We are in a fight for our lives against a rising authoritarian tide, and this clear-eyed, compelling, clarion call of a book has a message everyone needs to hear."--Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone
"Will Potter tells stories and shares information in a way that will keep you reading. He focuses on the impacts of factory farming on animals, workers and the environment, and explores the global spread of legislation to silence animal welfare activism. His voice is thoughtful, the book is well researched, and it invites the reader into an important conversation."--Cynthia Kaufman, author of The Sea is Rising and So Are We: A Climate Justice Handbook
"As Potter chronicles, baby cows have metal spikes inserted in their nostrils 'so that it is too painful for mothers to nurse them, ' while chickens lay their eggs in tiny cages surrounded by chicken corpses and 'covered in the feces of birds stacked above them.' That this is not everyday news has a devious reason: Big Ag, working through a lobbying group called ALEC, has pushed through laws across the country to declare whistleblowing a species of terrorism, with 'ag-gag laws' threatening journalists with lawsuits and even imprisonment for detailing the truth about how animal agriculture is conducted."--Kirkus Reviews
About the Author:
Will Potter is a thought leader and award-winning investigative journalist who focuses on social justice and environmental movements, and attacks on civil liberties post-9/11. He was the first investigative journalist to be named a TED Senior Fellow and has been invited to address governmental bodies about his reporting, including the U.S. Congress, Australian Parliament, and Council of Europe. Will's first book, Green Is the New Red: An Insider's Account of a Social Movement Under Siege, exposed the criminalization of nonviolent protest groups by the FBI, and was awarded a Kirkus Star for "remarkable merit."