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Dodge County, Incorporated: Big Ag and the Undoing of Rural America
In this compelling firsthand account, Sonja Trom Eayrs tells the story of one Dodge County family farm in rural Minnesota to expose the abuses wrought by corporate factory farms in terms of pollution, cancer clusters, waste, the destruction of local communities and economies, and the erosion of democracy.
- GenresFoodNonfiction
328 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 1, 2024
21 people are currently reading
194 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 6, 2025
Reading Dodge County Inc. was an interesting experience for me. The content itself was captivating and deeply relevant, especially since I live in a small town surrounded by rural cornfields. The book opened my eyes to how deeply big agriculture is weaving itself into our education system, subtly indoctrinating kids in the classroom. That perspective felt personal and hit close to home, making me appreciate the research and effort that went into writing it.
However, I found the book to be a bit of a hard read. The pacing was slow at times, and there were chapters that dragged on more than they needed to. I couldn’t help but feel that some sections could have been condensed without losing the impact or detail of the story. It’s one of those books where you need to push through the slower parts to get to the valuable nuggets of insight it offers.
Despite these challenges, I’m glad I read it. It’s a thought-provoking book that sheds light on a subject that doesn’t get enough attention, particularly for those of us in small, rural communities. It’s not a light read, but it’s an important one. If you’re curious about the intersection of big agriculture, education, and rural life, this book is worth the effort.
However, I found the book to be a bit of a hard read. The pacing was slow at times, and there were chapters that dragged on more than they needed to. I couldn’t help but feel that some sections could have been condensed without losing the impact or detail of the story. It’s one of those books where you need to push through the slower parts to get to the valuable nuggets of insight it offers.
Despite these challenges, I’m glad I read it. It’s a thought-provoking book that sheds light on a subject that doesn’t get enough attention, particularly for those of us in small, rural communities. It’s not a light read, but it’s an important one. If you’re curious about the intersection of big agriculture, education, and rural life, this book is worth the effort.
May 24, 2025
Sonja Trom Eayrs grew up on a farm in rural Minnesota. The farm went back several generations and was the pride and joy of her family. Like many family farms, it was diverse - growing a rotation of crops for sale and a large vegetable garden for their family. In the late 1990s and early 2000s they noticed a huge change in local farming. Huge pig CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) were being constructed all around them. When anyone in the community tried to fight back or enforce current county codes, there was a LOT of pushback from the CAFO owners and operators. Not one to easily give up, Sonja and her family filed several lawsuits, started grassroots organizations, and fought back equally hard. Spoiler alert: they didn't win. But they do see some progress in other areas and help other communities with what they learned along the way.
I've read a LOT about factory farming and know full well all the evils that come from this way of "farming." But reading this book made my blood boil. In Eayrs community and nearby communities she witnessed Big Ag taking over the governments of these small towns with their yes men who would ignore the law or in some cases CHANGE IT to better suit the construction of the CAFOs and the destruction of the communities. Then to have the nerve to threaten anyone who spoke out - death threats, false police reports, dumping trash and dead animals on their lawn, etc. She had people interviewed for this book who still wanted to be anonymous 25 years later because they were still afraid of speaking out. After reading this book I decided that every one of the people who lied, schemed, threatened, paid off, and bullied their way into forcing these abominable CAFOs on these communities should be forced to live there. Not just on site, but inside the pig barns. They want to lie about the health issues around CAFOs - show me. Live in it yourself. Or we could just throw them in the manure lagoons... While this book is definitely not a happy ending or a triumphant David vs. Goliath story, it's still an important read. What Eayrs exposes is not just the evils of CAFOs but the way these corporations are taking over small towns - changing the government, forcing people out of generational land and farms - all to line their pockets. May each one of them rot in a special hell just for them of pig manure.
There were a lot of good quotes, I'll try to limit here:
"The bit of propaganda repeated most often by 'Big Ag' (big agriculture) lobbyists is that corporate agriculture 'feeds the world.'...But consider this: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released numbers in 2018 that indicated the United States produced approximately seventy-three million hogs that year - the same number of hogs it produced in 1943." (p. 15)
"By signing a contract, young farmers essentially become low-wage corporate employees. Most growers do not receive a pay increase, not even a cost-of-living adjustment, during the contract term. Likewise, they do not get a pension contribution, profit sharing, or health insurance. Many economists and ag scholars deem the grower-integrator relationship today's version of sharecropping." (p. 37)
"The single most important organization in enabling the rapid takeover of hog country was undoubtedly the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and its state affiliates. The Farm Bureau has a chapter in every state and is active in 90 percent of all U.S. counties...the AFBF is one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington DC and is comparable to the National Rifle Association (NRA) in terms of its influence and reach. But unlike the NRA, many people are unaware of the organization's partisanship and politics." (p. 49-50)
"Indeed, at the time, proximity to a meatpacking plant was the greatest predictor of a community's increased likelihood of COVID infection, illness, and death. Research published in July 2020 found that communities near meatpacking plants had more COVID deaths than would be expected by the baseline, in the range of 4,300 to 5,200 excess deaths, representing an elevation of between 37 and 50 percent above the baseline rate. The researchers also reported that these impacts were lessened in communities where the meatpacking plants chose to shut down. Yet most didn't, and those that did close reopened within an average of nine days." (p. 225)
[On keeping meatpacking plants open with the argument of a potential meat shortage] "In reality, it was a booming time for the meat-packers. In April 2020 the pork industry, led by Smithfield and Tyson, exported a record-setting amount of pork to China...the industry produces at least 25 percent more pork than needed for domestic consumption, and government data reveals that in the spring of 2020, Smithfield had 'hundreds of millions of pounds' of meat in cold storage, or enough to feed the entire country for several months even in the theoretical complete absence of more production." (p. 226-27)
"Officials estimated that during plant closures in April 2020, about seven hundred thousand pigs across the nation could not be processed each week and had to be euthanized...Many CAFO operators resorted to depopulation methods that the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) classifies as 'not recommended' but 'permitted in constrained circumstances.' Ventilation shutdown was a common procedure during the 2020 factory closures. Contract growers shut off the ventilation fans inside the CAFOs, closed the vents, turned up the heat, and piped a cocktail of carbon dioxide and steam into the barns. The animals died from overheating, suffocation, and poisoning...In Iowa in May 2020 a whistleblower employee at Iowa Select Farms, the state's largest pork producer, informed the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) when such an extermination would be taking place. DxE installed a hidden camera. The footage captured the sounds of hogs crying out in agonized pain and distress for hours. When employees arrived the next morning, some of the hogs were still alive. Workers killed them with bolt guns." (p. 228)
"Tom Butler, a North Carolina hog contract grower with about 7,500 to 8,000 hogs, told his integrator, Prestage Farms, that he would insist on sending his hogs to local butchers and distribute the meat to the hungry. His pitch was unsuccessful, and there was absolutely nothing Butler could do about it. Prestage owned the pigs...When Butler's integrator announced tentative plans to come to his farm and kill thousands of healthy adult hogs, he continued his plea to send the hogs to local butchers or just give them away to the community. Butler lives in a rural community where most residents know how to slaughter, preserve, and save pork. Finally, the integrator agreed to remove the overweight animals and transport them to their own meat processing plant in Wright County, Iowa. While an imperfect solution, it was preferable to the total waste that the industry was promoting." (229-30)
"The majority of voters in Iowa, including the majority of Republican voters, favor a statewide CAFO moratorium, and 75 percent favor stricter permitting requirements. For six consecutive years - annually since 2018 - members of the legislature introduced a bill cosigned by dozens of local organizations to enact a CAFO moratorium in Iowa and to tighten the regulation of existing facilities. Yet nothing happens. The state's legislature won't even bring the bill to the floor." (p. 243)
"In a final act of retribution against the Trom family, local industry operative spread manure on the land for nearly thirty-six hours the weekend of Lowell's [the author's father] visitation and funeral. They spread it just steps from the funeral home in Blooming Prairie on the day of the visitation...Spreading continued through the night and the following day. As our family gathered around my father's rural gravesite, several family members had to remain inside their vehicles, unable to bear the foul odor." (p. 264) [I hope every single person who did this drowns in a hog manure lagoon.]
I've read a LOT about factory farming and know full well all the evils that come from this way of "farming." But reading this book made my blood boil. In Eayrs community and nearby communities she witnessed Big Ag taking over the governments of these small towns with their yes men who would ignore the law or in some cases CHANGE IT to better suit the construction of the CAFOs and the destruction of the communities. Then to have the nerve to threaten anyone who spoke out - death threats, false police reports, dumping trash and dead animals on their lawn, etc. She had people interviewed for this book who still wanted to be anonymous 25 years later because they were still afraid of speaking out. After reading this book I decided that every one of the people who lied, schemed, threatened, paid off, and bullied their way into forcing these abominable CAFOs on these communities should be forced to live there. Not just on site, but inside the pig barns. They want to lie about the health issues around CAFOs - show me. Live in it yourself. Or we could just throw them in the manure lagoons... While this book is definitely not a happy ending or a triumphant David vs. Goliath story, it's still an important read. What Eayrs exposes is not just the evils of CAFOs but the way these corporations are taking over small towns - changing the government, forcing people out of generational land and farms - all to line their pockets. May each one of them rot in a special hell just for them of pig manure.
There were a lot of good quotes, I'll try to limit here:
"The bit of propaganda repeated most often by 'Big Ag' (big agriculture) lobbyists is that corporate agriculture 'feeds the world.'...But consider this: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released numbers in 2018 that indicated the United States produced approximately seventy-three million hogs that year - the same number of hogs it produced in 1943." (p. 15)
"By signing a contract, young farmers essentially become low-wage corporate employees. Most growers do not receive a pay increase, not even a cost-of-living adjustment, during the contract term. Likewise, they do not get a pension contribution, profit sharing, or health insurance. Many economists and ag scholars deem the grower-integrator relationship today's version of sharecropping." (p. 37)
"The single most important organization in enabling the rapid takeover of hog country was undoubtedly the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and its state affiliates. The Farm Bureau has a chapter in every state and is active in 90 percent of all U.S. counties...the AFBF is one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington DC and is comparable to the National Rifle Association (NRA) in terms of its influence and reach. But unlike the NRA, many people are unaware of the organization's partisanship and politics." (p. 49-50)
"Indeed, at the time, proximity to a meatpacking plant was the greatest predictor of a community's increased likelihood of COVID infection, illness, and death. Research published in July 2020 found that communities near meatpacking plants had more COVID deaths than would be expected by the baseline, in the range of 4,300 to 5,200 excess deaths, representing an elevation of between 37 and 50 percent above the baseline rate. The researchers also reported that these impacts were lessened in communities where the meatpacking plants chose to shut down. Yet most didn't, and those that did close reopened within an average of nine days." (p. 225)
[On keeping meatpacking plants open with the argument of a potential meat shortage] "In reality, it was a booming time for the meat-packers. In April 2020 the pork industry, led by Smithfield and Tyson, exported a record-setting amount of pork to China...the industry produces at least 25 percent more pork than needed for domestic consumption, and government data reveals that in the spring of 2020, Smithfield had 'hundreds of millions of pounds' of meat in cold storage, or enough to feed the entire country for several months even in the theoretical complete absence of more production." (p. 226-27)
"Officials estimated that during plant closures in April 2020, about seven hundred thousand pigs across the nation could not be processed each week and had to be euthanized...Many CAFO operators resorted to depopulation methods that the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) classifies as 'not recommended' but 'permitted in constrained circumstances.' Ventilation shutdown was a common procedure during the 2020 factory closures. Contract growers shut off the ventilation fans inside the CAFOs, closed the vents, turned up the heat, and piped a cocktail of carbon dioxide and steam into the barns. The animals died from overheating, suffocation, and poisoning...In Iowa in May 2020 a whistleblower employee at Iowa Select Farms, the state's largest pork producer, informed the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) when such an extermination would be taking place. DxE installed a hidden camera. The footage captured the sounds of hogs crying out in agonized pain and distress for hours. When employees arrived the next morning, some of the hogs were still alive. Workers killed them with bolt guns." (p. 228)
"Tom Butler, a North Carolina hog contract grower with about 7,500 to 8,000 hogs, told his integrator, Prestage Farms, that he would insist on sending his hogs to local butchers and distribute the meat to the hungry. His pitch was unsuccessful, and there was absolutely nothing Butler could do about it. Prestage owned the pigs...When Butler's integrator announced tentative plans to come to his farm and kill thousands of healthy adult hogs, he continued his plea to send the hogs to local butchers or just give them away to the community. Butler lives in a rural community where most residents know how to slaughter, preserve, and save pork. Finally, the integrator agreed to remove the overweight animals and transport them to their own meat processing plant in Wright County, Iowa. While an imperfect solution, it was preferable to the total waste that the industry was promoting." (229-30)
"The majority of voters in Iowa, including the majority of Republican voters, favor a statewide CAFO moratorium, and 75 percent favor stricter permitting requirements. For six consecutive years - annually since 2018 - members of the legislature introduced a bill cosigned by dozens of local organizations to enact a CAFO moratorium in Iowa and to tighten the regulation of existing facilities. Yet nothing happens. The state's legislature won't even bring the bill to the floor." (p. 243)
"In a final act of retribution against the Trom family, local industry operative spread manure on the land for nearly thirty-six hours the weekend of Lowell's [the author's father] visitation and funeral. They spread it just steps from the funeral home in Blooming Prairie on the day of the visitation...Spreading continued through the night and the following day. As our family gathered around my father's rural gravesite, several family members had to remain inside their vehicles, unable to bear the foul odor." (p. 264) [I hope every single person who did this drowns in a hog manure lagoon.]
August 21, 2025
An examination of the corporatization of farming, spotlighting my home county. I always recognized that the farm my dad grew up on a modern farms were not the same. This book taught me why. Trom Eayrs has a distinct perspective, but overall the book was super interesting and educational… and sad.
February 6, 2025
This is a literary book based on rigorous scholarship and hardnosed reporting. Ms. Eayrs, who is one of the leading experts in the US about Big Ag and the harm it causes to rural communities, lays bare the truth about the ruthless corporate takeover of rural Dodge County agriculture. She describes in detail how that takeover has been to the profound detriment of independent farmers and anyone who values the environment, fundamental fairness, and personal integrity. But it is also how it is nearly impossible to speak out against the power brokers without facing endless intimidation and threats to one's safety and livelihood. As a result, most people are afraid to speak out. And, the persons who could curtail Big Ag's excesses, most office holders and judges, generally do Big Ag's bidding at every step of the way. It is a bitter lesson to learn that judges are not required to follow the law if they don't feel like it, and there is no practical recourse. Fundamentally, this book presents simply another chapter in the sordid tale of what has become the corporate takeover of all facets of American life, including the courts.
May 27, 2025
This story brings to light how industrial animal agriculture companies have infiltrated and damaged rural America. Sonja's multi-generational family farm in Dodge County, Minnesota has fought relentlessly for years to try to protect their farm and neighbors from market interference and devastating environmental offenses.
Sonja's family's farm is surrounded by corporate hog facilities - huge metal buildings containing thousands upon thousands of hogs - all of which never see the light of day. The manure they produce is contained for months, then spread over adjoining fields. The stench is overwhelming and deadly. The run-off has poisoned local aquifers and rivers. No one lives on these properties.
The Trom family is still holding out. They have filed countless lawsuits and have endured harassment from corporate farm neighbors. Many former friends and associates have abandoned them for fear of retaliation.
Since hogs must have clean water, corporate farms are looking at expanding into lake areas in northern Minnesota. These factory farms will decimate these areas and so far nothing or no one is stopping them. These corporations are big and far-reaching, with corporate facilitators in every level of government.
I highly recommend reading this book. The future implications of this type of food control expanding beyond what is already happening is terrifying.
Sonja's family's farm is surrounded by corporate hog facilities - huge metal buildings containing thousands upon thousands of hogs - all of which never see the light of day. The manure they produce is contained for months, then spread over adjoining fields. The stench is overwhelming and deadly. The run-off has poisoned local aquifers and rivers. No one lives on these properties.
The Trom family is still holding out. They have filed countless lawsuits and have endured harassment from corporate farm neighbors. Many former friends and associates have abandoned them for fear of retaliation.
Since hogs must have clean water, corporate farms are looking at expanding into lake areas in northern Minnesota. These factory farms will decimate these areas and so far nothing or no one is stopping them. These corporations are big and far-reaching, with corporate facilitators in every level of government.
I highly recommend reading this book. The future implications of this type of food control expanding beyond what is already happening is terrifying.
September 10, 2025
Sonja Trom Earys has written an incredibly important book, 'Dodge County, Inc'. This book is about me and my family, although we are never mentioned. We lived next door to Sonja's husband, Douglas. Our farm had been in our family since 1865, and when my father was dying he knew we would have to sell it. He begged us NOT sell it to a corporation. We didn't, and then the buyer sold to a corporation. Reading Sonja's incredibly well-written book breaks my heart. If it were a novel, no one would believe it, but it is all true. When our son decided to become a farmer, I suggested he check out Dodge County. He did and told me he would never farm there as it is poisoned. Read this book. Learn what the reality is and know that somehow things need to change. Bravo Sonja for an incredible book and for fighting back! We need you! Thank you for all you are doing and for writing a very important book.
November 18, 2024
Sonja Trom Eayrs writes from both the heart and the mind - capturing a story - all too sad and true - of how “Big Ag” is systematically taking over in rural America and nearly driving to extinction the small and independent family farms and farmers. In the process, this takeover is also polluting our groundwater, degrading our rivers, contributing to the demise of communities, and pitting neighbor against neighbor. The author knows what she is writing about as the daughter of a farmer who has amplified her personal concern through amazingly comprehensive research and fact-finding. I am a retired farmer and conservationist and I recommend this book to everyone who cares about what is happening to our land, water, and people.
January 10, 2025
This book details the soil, water, and air devastation caused in southern Minnesota and beyond by the current farming practices of Big Ag. It focuses on pork, but the same issues arise in diary, beef, and poultry production. In this well-documented book, the author exposes the “big farming” collusion between local officials, the monied interests of large corporations, and various farm associations. The myth that these farming practices are necessary to “feed the world” is also dispelled. Despite many frustrations and setbacks along the way, the author remains optimistic that current grassroots efforts will stem the “big farming” tide and result in more sustaining farming practices. Let’s hope so.
April 16, 2025
Dodge County, Incorporated is a powerful and eye-opening examination of the relationship between corporate agriculture and rural communities. Through meticulous research and compelling storytelling, Sonja Trom Eayrs shines a light on how industrial agricultural practices have harmed rural areas.
This book serves as an important contribution to our understanding of industrial agriculture and raises vital questions about sustainability, community rights, and the future of farming in the United States. For anyone interested in food systems, rural development, or environmental policy, this book offers valuable insights and a compelling case for thoughtful dialogue about how we balance agricultural production with community well-being.
This book serves as an important contribution to our understanding of industrial agriculture and raises vital questions about sustainability, community rights, and the future of farming in the United States. For anyone interested in food systems, rural development, or environmental policy, this book offers valuable insights and a compelling case for thoughtful dialogue about how we balance agricultural production with community well-being.
May 17, 2025
Phenomenally written! I grew up in southeastern Minnesota without realizing the full extent of what was unfolding in my backyard. In an way that's easy to follow (and with tangible examples of grassroots actions) Sonja skillfully points out how CAFOs are a major contributor to water pollution and adverse health effects, impacting quality of life and slicing divides between neighbors in tight-knit communities as contract growers defend this dangerous business model. I also found it interesting (and unnerving) when between chapters she quoted literature from the Minnesota Farm Bureau Foundation, “Moving to the Country” and “When an Activist Group Comes to Town.” I highly recommend this read to anyone looking to better understand rural life and the disintegration of small towns.
October 12, 2024
4 stars
A fascinating and frightening look at what has happened to the average farm in America since big corporations have moved and taken over. At times, this book is very hard to read, especially when the author describes the conditions the animals live their lives. It's very sad, highly informative and disturbing all at the same time.
I highly recommend this book to everyone.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.
A fascinating and frightening look at what has happened to the average farm in America since big corporations have moved and taken over. At times, this book is very hard to read, especially when the author describes the conditions the animals live their lives. It's very sad, highly informative and disturbing all at the same time.
I highly recommend this book to everyone.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.
December 19, 2024
A large corporate dairy is threatening (yes, threatening) to build in our area in spite of community disapproval, and major detrimental issues for animal welfare, water quality, air quality, manure disposal, light pollution, etc. This book is a must read to get educated on the ill effects of these massive animal operations. The benefits to the community at large are non existent. Read it. It is time well spent. The documentation is phenomenal. This is not fiction.
January 7, 2025
Great book about the power and danger of corporate agriculture in America, although this book focuses on pork farming. The author does a good job of weaving together her personal fight against Big Ag with the broader landscape of corporate pork farming in the country. Even if you disagree with some of her arguments, this one is worth reading to consider the long-term health of our land and our rural communities.
February 20, 2025
Sonja Trom Eayers has woven together a beautiful (albeit disturbing) story of one family’s fight against Big Ag. The Trom values of “family and community,” hard-work, determination, resilience, and fairness ring true throughout the book, with a level of documentation and research that is impeccable. Her story is hard to hear (and in many cases hard to believe), but so important to the reader who wants to understand what is really going on in rural America.
April 14, 2025
Tells the true story of big industrial ag in the U.S. This is a very informative book that everyone should read. I did not realize how many of the big companies that source our meat supply are from other countries and that our "farmers" are becoming contract growers. America's little farmers are being force out, while the big companies do not care at all that they are polluting our water supply as well as our air. This book is well written and all based on facts.
August 29, 2025
Dodge County, Incorporated is a powerful well-written nonfiction. The contents, notes, index and a list of abbreviations are all there as they should be. I had some notion of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (unfavorable) and “Big Agriculture” (unfavorable) but know I know much more. So much more I now find both manipulative, founded on greed, despicable AND the U.S. government is implicit…
May 21, 2025
This is an excellent book. One might think that this would be a rather dry topic but it is anything but. Trom Eayrs writing is crisp, personal, informative and totally engrossing. Trom Eayrs has opened my eyes to the realities and nightmares of the effect Big Ag has had and is having on individual farmers and on our country. I've been recommending this book to my friends and family.
February 11, 2025
Fascinating and depressing read about the expansion of Big Ag into southern Minnesota. The author's family farm was involved in some disputes involving corporate farming moving into her small rural community.
September 9, 2025
Far more is broken with the US agriculture system than I imagined. Informative and compelling. Detail rich, which at times might bog the reader down a bit, but seems useful to support the author’s arguments.
March 28, 2025
Really important information for everyone to be aware of. Unfortunately, the writing style was dry with a fair amount of repetition. Took me over a month to finish it.
January 27, 2026
Gripping account of how Big Ag divides a community and threatens the livelihoods of independent farmers.
Eayrs writes of her family's personal experience in Dodge County, Minnesota, including the abuse and harassment they've endured since they first filed a lawsuit in 2014 against county officials and area CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). The Trom family farm dates back to 1892// but since industrial farming first made its appearance in 1993, the 760-acre corn and soybean farm has been surrounded by twelve swine CAFOs within a three-mile radius. (I grew up on a small hog farm and will never forget the manure and odor—I can't imagine the amount of manure and odor 12 large facilities would generate!)
Eayrs points out how local ordinances were changed to accommodate these industrial farms and then follows the paperwork to show the role national organizations like Farm Bureau and Farm Credit Services play in helping multi-national companies like Smithfield, Hormel, Cargill, and Tyson announce record-breaking profits while the independent farmer struggles to make ends meet.
A practicing attorney, Eayrs writes with confidence and supports the personal with finely-researched documentation. She says she's not afraid of conflict and believes it vital that she speak out; she also knows her family is not alone in what they've faced.
An eye-opening important read, especially if you do not have a farm background.
Eayrs writes of her family's personal experience in Dodge County, Minnesota, including the abuse and harassment they've endured since they first filed a lawsuit in 2014 against county officials and area CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations). The Trom family farm dates back to 1892// but since industrial farming first made its appearance in 1993, the 760-acre corn and soybean farm has been surrounded by twelve swine CAFOs within a three-mile radius. (I grew up on a small hog farm and will never forget the manure and odor—I can't imagine the amount of manure and odor 12 large facilities would generate!)
Eayrs points out how local ordinances were changed to accommodate these industrial farms and then follows the paperwork to show the role national organizations like Farm Bureau and Farm Credit Services play in helping multi-national companies like Smithfield, Hormel, Cargill, and Tyson announce record-breaking profits while the independent farmer struggles to make ends meet.
A practicing attorney, Eayrs writes with confidence and supports the personal with finely-researched documentation. She says she's not afraid of conflict and believes it vital that she speak out; she also knows her family is not alone in what they've faced.
An eye-opening important read, especially if you do not have a farm background.
January 16, 2025
Sonya Trom Eayrs does a masterful job of describing both traditional family farming and corporate farming practices, with a personal touch derived from her years growing up on a family farm in rural Minnesota. What sets this book apart from others is her uncanny ability to blend this knowledge with the elements of a legal thriller. The plot of the book is especially chilling in that it is not fiction--it is reality happening right before our eyes with corporate greed gutting the fabric of family farming in America. The pages will keep turning in your hands, as you can't wait to find out how or if the family farm can survive. Every person who considers themselves an "activist" must read this book to see first-hand how the author used persistence and aggressiveness to mitigate the greed of corporate influence. This book will join others across the spectrum of works designed to inform and activate individuals who want to make a difference in advancing the common good, not just the good for the wealthy and powerful.
December 27, 2024
The story of one family’s battle against the corporate takeover over of rural agriculture by seeding the countryside with concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO). It documents how bit by bit, step by step, local decision making bodies and resource protection departments became the willing tools of Big Ag. It describes how neighbor turned against neighbor and used intimidation against those trying to halt this expansion. This book focuses on large hog operations but serves as a parable of what happens when powerful economic interests trample local values and lifestyles.
July 23, 2025
“Dodge County, Incorporated” is a disturbing and sometimes harrowing account that reveals the brutal reality of factory pig farming in southern Minnesota. Sonja Trom Eayrs delivers an unflinching examination of how industrial hog operations are destroying rural communities environmentally (groundwater contamination, stench and biohazard waste) and economically (the family farm supporting generations has given way to profits going to corporations).
This is essential reading for anyone who cares about sustainable agriculture, environmental justice, rural communities, or simply wants to understand the true cost of cheap food. It’s a book that demands not just to be read, but to be acted upon.
This is essential reading for anyone who cares about sustainable agriculture, environmental justice, rural communities, or simply wants to understand the true cost of cheap food. It’s a book that demands not just to be read, but to be acted upon.
August 4, 2025
Wish this book was a work of fiction instead of fact. Sonja Trom Eayrs book is well written, documented, and lets the reader know what happens to your health, life, home, community, and happiness, when industrial factory farms move into your community. From the inhumane treatment of livestock, environmental toxins, and cancer clusters to bought off politicians, sadly the book tells it all. My own trauma was in some of those pages, the same play book used by corporate agriculture in every community it seems. A good read and educational for the public on where their food comes from and the destruction of family farms by multinational corporate agriculture.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews