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I feel obliged to trust Pollan for a few reasons, namely his tone and rhetorical skill. I find his tone to be irritable, compassionate, and erudite.  Irritable in the sense that he never seems content with anything the industrial food system has to offer, and often throws a few snide remarks into his description of the goings-on at large food factories and slaughter houses.  To the plight of the animals, he is quiet empathetic (maybe sympathetic is the better word) and always gives the animals a fighting chance to be more than the lumbering machine-beasts the food companies want the general public to perceive them as. As for erudite, he is very methodical in the progression of his points, the presentation of his arguments, and his conclusions are both comprehensive and achieve some high meaning than just repeating the initial question. The reason I trust him is because he makes me feel that his interpretation of this entire situation is entirely human; he showcases his disgust, his empathy, and his capacity for clear thought completely.