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.

"If you think your government wouldn’t really lurk in the bushes to spy on you and use its police power to bully you—get ready for a rude awakening. Mad Sheep sounds like a crime thriller Agatha Christie would dream up, but it’s a real life nightmare lived by the Faillace family." —Jim Hightower, Hightower Radio

"From the hearthside warmth of children farmer-entrepreneurs to the arrogant, hardhearted, tyranny of government bureaucracy, Mad Sheep touches the soul with tears and righteous anger. Though it reads like a fiction political thriller, this story of intrigue, bureaucratic falsehoods, and tyranny is true. Linda Faillace gives Americans yet another reason to mistrust every official announcement from the United States Department of Agriculture." -Joel Salatin, founder of Polyface Farm and author of You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise

"Mad Sheep is one of those books that makes going to sleep at a decent hour unthinkable."—ACRES USA

"Linda Faillace's Mad Sheep is a tragic tale—tragic for the lives of those poor sheep, tragic for the shattered hopes of a family, but above all tragic for America. If you have ever been part of a family farm, Ms. Faillace's gripping account of how political-corporate corruption assaults the integrity of our system of democracy and free enterprise will seem hauntingly familiar. If you have not been part of a family farm, Mad Sheep will be downright terrifying." —Eugene Jarecki, Filmmaker (Why We Fight, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, and others)

"If this were a novel, you probably wouldn't believe it. But the story of a Vermont farming family driven out of business by a government agency is true-and truly frightening.... If you can read the book without getting mad, you're not reading it carefully." —Booklist

"In the end the madness was found not in the sheep or with their shepherds, but in a society that has forgotten the importance of its own food and the purpose of its own governance. A riveting read." —George Schenk, founder of American Flatbread

"[Mad Sheep] shows how far a corrupt government agency will go to protect industry. This is a truly Kafkaesque story." —Dr. Tom Pringle, founder, Sperling Foundation

"Mad Sheep documents the ugliest display of governmental ass-covering and the manipulation of questionable scientific data for political purposes that I have ever read. It will make your blood boil."

—Gene Logsdon, organic farmer and author of The Contrary Farmer, among many others

"Mad Sheep will enrage you. The real crazies in this true and tragic tale are the bureaucratic bullies who tortured and tormented heroic Vermont farmers while allowing a deadly dementia—mad cow disease—to emerge in America. The sheep are dead, lives destroyed, mad cow disease here, and the worst is that these bunglers are still running the show." —John Stauber, co-author, Mad Cow U.S.A.

Linda Faillace is a writer, shepherdess, songwriter, and owner of a country store dedicated to supporting local farmers and locally grown food. She has studied mad cow disease since the early 1990s. A champion of organic and sustainable farming, farmer’s rights, and strong local communities, Linda lives with her husband, Larry, and their three children in East Warren, Vermont.

Publisher: Chelsea Green
Imprint: Chelsea Green
Distributor: Chelsea Green
Publication Date: 10-15-2006
Pages: 324
Measurements: 9in X 6.5in X 21oz