In the mid-1990s Linda and Larry Faillace had a
dream: they wanted to breed sheep and make cheese on their Vermont
farm. They did the research, worked hard, followed the rules, and,
after years of preparation and patience, built a successful,
entrepreneurial business.
But just like that, their dream turned into a nightmare. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture told them that the sheep they imported from
Europe (with the USDA’s seal of approval) carried a disease
similar to the dreaded BSE or “mad cow disease.”
After months of surveillance — which included USDA agents
spying from nearby mountaintops and comically hiding behind bushes
— armed federal agents seized their flock. The animals were
destroyed, the Faillace’s lives turned upside down, all so
that the USDA could show the U.S. meat industries that they were
protecting America from mad cow disease — and by extension,
easing fears among an increasingly wary population of meat-eaters.
Mad
Sheep is the account of one family’s struggle
against a bullying and corrupt government agency that long ago
abandoned the family farmer to serve the needs of corporate agriculture
and the industrialization of our food supply. Similar to the national
best-selling book, A
Civil Action, readers will cheer on this courageous family in
its fight for justice in the face of politics as usual and the
implacable bureaucracy of the farm industry in Washington, DC. |
Mad Sheep
The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm
by Linda Faillace
Chelsea Green Publishing,
2007
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