Is Avian Flu Coming to the Meat Bird System?

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The industry is freaking out because avian flu spreads quickly and it doesn't stay contained in one barn. Tom Philpot from the Center for a Liveable Future at Johns Hopkins: We're at an inflection point where we really need to decide what kind of food system that we have to have. Robert King: I think getting over that challenge, you know, at the end of the day, going to have to be people power that does it.

Poultry farmers are in flock-down. The bird flu known as H5N1 is being called “the largest foreign animal disease outbreak in US history.” Vox’s Benji Jones and Johns Hopkins University researcher Tom Philpott say the virus underscores the poultry industry’s shortcomings.

This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Paul Robert Mounsey, and hosted by Noel King.

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