NOTE: I started this piece with the intent of writing a review of Reese’s novel, but as I went through my notes, I realized that too much vital information would be glossed over if I tried to cram it all into 1000 or so words. So I decided instead to do a section-by-section deep dive into the book. This first installment covers the introduction. Each subsequent one will cover one or more chapters. The novel is laid out in such a neat and logical fashion, it only makes sense to follow its order.
“This is not a book about the problems of animal farming,” begins Jacy Reese’s 2018 novel The End of Animal Farming. “This is a book about exactly how we can solve those problems.”
Despite the above statements, Reese starts off his novel by giving readers a lay of the land as regards the current state of animal farming. This includes some truly mind-boggling and heart-wrenching stats: at this very instant, there are more than 100 billion farm animals alive, globally; chickens and fish make up about 93% of them; over 90% of them are on factory farms and the number is 99% in the US. Reese also talks about how the scientific consensus is and has been for some time that these animals are conscious, sentient beings with the same capacity to feel joy and pain as any of us.
