In this eye-opening expose, acclaimed health journalist and National Geographic contributor Maryn McKenna documents how antibiotics transformed chicken from local delicacy to industrial commodity-and human health threat-uncovering the ways we can make America's favorite meat safer again.
MARYN MCKENNA is an award-winning journalist and the author of two critically acclaimed books, Superbug and Beating Back the Devil. She writes for Wired, National Geographic, Scientific American, Slate, Nature, The Atlantic, the Guardian, National Geographic magazine's online science salon Phenomena, and others, and is a senior fellow of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University.
“In this well-written exposé, McKenna (Superbug) dissects the
controversy of the routine use of antibiotics to fatten chicken,
which has led to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria…Throughout,
McKenna offers spot-on commentary on the dangerous additives in
chickens and concludes on a relatively hopeful note.” –Publishers
Weekly
“This superb scientific exposé by journalist Maryn McKenna skewers
the use of growth-promoting antibiotics in chicken
feed.”–Nature
“Solid, eye-opening public health journalism.”–Kirkus
“In Big Chicken, McKenna chronicles in exquisite detail how
humanity went from developing antibiotics to prevent the world’s
worst bacteria, to standing on the verge of an onslaught of
unstoppable diseases.”–PBS.org
"Journalist and author Maryn McKenna...describes the
consequences of decades spent feeding chicken antibiotics, in terms
of chicken flavor, poultry well-being, and, most significantly,
human health."
–The Atlantic
"A twisting tale that science writer Maryn
McKenna elegantly unspools in her extraordinary new book.
–Fortune
“Maryn McKenna has led the charge against rampant antibiotic use
and the resultant superbugs. Here, in a page-turning story, she
tells how chicken became the symbol of factory farming, and why we
can finally be hopeful this dreadful era is drawing to a close. A
must-read for anyone who cares about the quality of food and the
welfare of animals.” —Mark Bittman, author of How to Cook
Everything
“McKenna zeroes in on the industry’s longtime reliance on
antibiotics in order to quickly grow nice and plump birds for our
dining pleasure.” –Atlanta Journal Constitution
“Big Chicken is a fascinating story of big food and the price we
pay for cheap food.” —Tom Colicchio, Chef of Crafted Hospitality
and Co-founder of Food Policy Action
“If you think raising farm animals on antibiotics is nothing to
worry about, Big Chicken will change your mind in a hurry. McKenna,
a compelling writer, tells a gripping story: how antibiotics helped
transform chicken-raising from backyard to industrial. Her
account of the profit-driven politics that allowed widespread
antibiotic resistance should be required reading for anyone who
cares about food and health, and especially for congressional
representatives who have consistently failed to take action on this
critical issue.” —Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition, food
studies, and public health at New York University, and author of
Food Politics
“A modern Upton Sinclair, Maryn McKenna explains how our food is
actually produced today. Big Chicken is highly readable,
shocking, and opens our eyes to the risks we have been incurring. A
most important book!” —Martin Blaser, MD, author of Missing
Microbes, Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at New York
University
“Always curious, never pedantic, Maryn McKenna shows empathy for
man and sympathy for fowl, while giving voice to scientists and
farmers who have concluded that antibiotic-drugged chickens imperil
the American diet. Big Chicken is beautifully written, rendering
her research and the agitations of reformers all that more
persuasive.” —John T. Edge, author of The Potlikker Papers
“You will never look at BBQ chicken wings or buckets of nuggets the
same way again after you read Maryn McKenna’s meticulously
researched, riveting Big Chicken—and you shouldn’t. After all, the
only reason that chicken is so darned fat is that it was fed
antibiotics every day of its life. Brava, McKenna, for a tour de
force of environmental, science and food writing.” — Laurie
Garrett, Pulitzer Prize winning writer and author of The Coming
Plague
“Maryn McKenna's enthralling book is ostensibly about chicken but
is really about us: the foolish choices we have made and the
happier, healthier future that awaits us all if we liberate this
most American of foods from the drug fix we have imposed on it. Her
deep, careful reporting respects every nuance but builds to a
clarion call that is as persuasive as it is profound. So let the
cry echo throughout the land, from the egg farms of the Delmarva
Peninsula to the bistros of San Francisco: Let chicken be chicken
again!” —Dan Fagin, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Toms
River
“This is a warning: Read this book and you will never look at
bucket of fried chicken the same. In this tour de force,
investigative journalist Maryn McKenna hunts down the history of
antibiotics in the food chain, showing the missteps and collusion
that brought us to a worldwide epidemic of antibiotic resistant
bacteria that could undermine our most powerful public health tool.
Every now and then I read a book that I believe holds the power to
radically remake the world for the better. McKenna’s Big
Chicken is just such a book.” —Anna Lappé, author of Diet of a
Hot Planet
“Maryn McKenna is one of the best journalists in America reporting
on public health. In her latest book, Big Chicken, she shows how
modern chicken production and drug resistant infections are part of
the same problem. This important book is a must-read for
anyone wanting to understand why our approach to producing food is
unsustainable and the changes we must make if we don't want to
return to a pre-antibiotic era. I love chicken wings but I will
never again look at them in the same way.” —Richard E. Besser,
M.D., President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
“Drug-resistant infections are among the greatest challenges of our
time, threatening the foundations of modern medicine. Maryn McKenna
makes this challenge personal and compelling, illustrating how
antibiotic resistance has been developing, why we should care, and
what we should all demand if society is to address it.” —Dr.
Jeremy Farrar, Director of The Wellcome Trust
“Maryn McKenna is the leading journalist worldwide on antibiotic
overuse and resistance, and in BIG CHICKEN she tells a crucial part
of that story: the vast misuse and overuse of antibiotics in
industrial farming. Antibiotic resistance is a global emergency,
and agricultural use of antibiotics is a key part of that crisis.
This clear, urgent explanation of how we got here and what’s at
risk should be required reading for anyone who wants to see change
happen.” —Lance B. Price, Ph.D., Founder and Director of the
Antibiotic Resistance Action Center
“Maryn McKenna has told an important and frightening story — and
told it well. As McKenna makes clear, getting antibiotics out
of routine chicken production will make our food tastier and
safer.” —Thomas R. Frieden, MD, former director of the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
“Agribusiness's headlong quest to put "a chicken in every pot" has
come at a tremendous cost: Feeding modern medicine's most valuable
antibiotics to healthy farm animals has made these wonder drugs
impotent, resulting in thousands on once-preventable human deaths
each year. Through solid research and compelling narration, McKenna
tells the story of how we allowed this to happen and points to ways
to stop the unfolding catastrophe--before it's too late.” —Barry
Estabrook, author of Pig Tales
“Big Chicken gathers a colorful cast of characters to piece
together the history behind our culture’s massive overuse of
antibiotics in chicken production, illuminating the unintended
consequence of drug resistance around the globe. Through
stories of place-based agriculture from France to Georgia, McKenna
leads us toward an alternative future of food that relies on farmer
knowledge, promotes biodiversity and results in great-tasting,
antibiotic-free chicken.” —Jill Isenbarger, CEO of Stone Barns
Center for Food and Agriculture
“I encourage everyone to read Big Chicken and learn more about
where their food comes from, and more importantly, how it is
raised. Maryn McKenna’s book offers a persuasive understanding as
to why it is imperative to support what is best for the animal, the
farmer, public health, the environment, and the customer.” —Paul
Willis, founder of Niman Ranch Pork Company
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