Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial - Corban Addison Audiobook

Written by Corban Addison
Read by Rob Shapiro
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Books on Tape
Release date: June 7, 2022
Duration: 16:27:14

John Grisham - Author of introduction, etc.

The once idyllic coastal plain of North Carolina is home to a close-knit, rural community that for more than a generation has battled the polluting practices of large-scale farming taking place in its own backyard. After years of frustration and futility, an impassioned cadre of local residents, led by a team of intrepid and dedicated lawyers, filed a lawsuit against one of the world’s most powerful companies—and, miraculously, they won.
As vivid and fast-paced as a thriller, Wastelands takes us into the heart of a legal battle over the future of America’s farmland and into the lives of the people who found the courage to fight.

There is Elsie Herring, the most outspoken of the neighbors, who has endured racial slurs and the threat of a restraining order to tell the story of the waste raining down on her rooftop from the hog operation next door. There is Don Webb, a larger-than-life hog farmer turned grassroots crusader, and Rick Dove, a river keeper and erstwhile military judge who has pioneered the use of aerial photography to document the scale of the pollution. There is Woodell McGowan, a quiet man whose quest to redeem his family’s ancestral land encourages him to become a better neighbor, and Dr. Steve Wing, a groundbreaking epidemiologist whose work on the health effects of hog waste exposure translates the neighbors’ stories into the argot of science. And there is Tom Butler, an environmental savant and hog industry insider whose whistle-blowing testimony electrifies the jury.

Fighting alongside them in the courtroom is Mona Lisa Wallace, who broke the gender barrier in her small southern town and built a storied legal career out of vanquishing corporate giants, and Mike Kaeske whose trial skills are second to none.

With journalistic rigor and a novelist’s instinct for story, Corban Addison’s Wastelands captures the inspiring struggle to bring a modern-day monopoly to its knees, to force a once-invincible corporation to change, and to preserve the rights—and restore the heritage—of a long-suffering community.

“Rob Shapiro doesn’t miss a single beat in his performance here. The Premise isn’t sexy: This is a true story about large-scale hog-farming waste. … Families living next to the farms are directly impacted; in particular, the smell permeates their entire lives. Listeners will experience a riveting account of citizens rising up to fight this abuse, including a courtroom battle that illustrates the true meaning of environmental justice. Shapiro’s effective performance is a case study in empathy and gravitas. The steps the company takes and moved by the legal fight that ensues will outrage listeners.” —AudioFile

And I thought Indiana’s problem was bad—-J