Washington Post Q&A with David Kirby, author of "Animal Factory"

By The Food Section
May 6, 2010

David Kirby's timing looked perfect. His book, "Animal Factory: The Looming Threat of Industrial Pig, Dairy and Poultry Farms to Humans and the Environment" (St. Martin's Press, 2010) was released just as Congress was holding hearings on legislation that would ban the use of antibiotics in livestock. A growing movement of consumers was demanding to know more about where their food came from. But since the book hit the shelves in March, Kirby admits it has been harder than expected to get a serious conversation going about how to fix the problems caused by factory farming. Federal policies that support concentrated animal feeding operations, better known as CAFOs, are technical, and the politicians who support them are seemingly unmovable. "The subsidies at stake are huge. There are anti-competitive measures," he said. "It's an interesting story. I can't figure it out." Over coffee on Wednesday, Kirby, an award-winning investigative reporter, made the case for why Americans, especially food lovers, should join the conversation.

See edited excerpts of Jane Black's interview with David Kirby here.