Wastelands

The True Story of Farm Country on Trial

By: Corban Addison, John Grisham - introduction

Narrated by: Rob Shapiro

"Beautifully written, impeccably researched, and told with the air of suspense that few writers can handle, Wastelands is a story I wish I had written." —From the Foreword by John Grisham

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 riverkeeper 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 whistleblowing 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.

Fantastic

This was a hard book to put down. Riveting at a personal and intellectual level. The characters are portrayed in three dimensions as are the court proceedings. I’m also contemplating going full vegan.

Land Owners Rights 🙏

Great piece of work about property owners rights vs large industry and reversing as a bell ringer story!

Justice Delayed but Not Denied

An utterly riveting story of the fight for environmental, community and individual justice in North Carolina farm country. The courtroom drama is real, and taken to an exponential level given the complexity and stakes of the cases.

Stop eating animals

Listening to this made me want to never eat pork again. The immoral pig companies sacrificing everything—everything!— for filthy lucre. And the fierce fighters who fought them. Great story, very well narrated.

Eyes wide open

Great storytelling. Best nonfiction novel in a long time. My heart goes out to those that endured the horrible living conditions. And my anger, a righteous indignation, goes toward those who refuse to acknowledge the hog $#!*. Happy for the history lesson. Can't believe it's a current subject that still needs to be addressed. Much praise for the law team that stood for truth and refused to back down under the Hog empire.