20 Jun 2005
Livestock scientists aim to tame the smell of hog farms

This is one of the more disingenuous articles on modern agriculture I've read for quite a while. It comes close to telling the truth, closer than most pieces written for laymen, but still manages to obscure some simple facts.

Truth is, animal for animal, pigs don't smell any worse than other livestock. The problem is that porkers are somewhat smaller than cattle (and more to the taste of the American palate than lambs). This allows "modern" farms to squeeze more hogs into a smaller space - and while 1 pig (or 50, or 100 on an acre) doesn't put off the engulfing stench described here, 100,000 animals in that same space will.

These animals never see sunlight, their feet never touch the earth. Ear protection is required for human workers entering the "plant" - it is surmised in most quarters that the piglets go deaf shortly after birth from the constant din around them. Manure is sloughed off into lagoons (really small lakes, some covering ten acres) that make open septic tanks look like wading pools for the kiddies.

Note that the feed experiments described here are within parameters: to produce "produce excrement with lower amounts of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other pollutants without compromising animal growth". That means that the poor little porkers still have to reach market weight in 3 to six months - a pasture raised pig will take nearly a year. Of course, that's where hormones come in ...

When you cram that many animals of any species together, you always increase the risk of disease. No exceptions, be it chickens, pigs or people. So of course you keep a constant stream of antibiotics running to the herd, to "suppress" the outbreaks before they occur. Never mind that you're creating new strains of mutant virii in the process, not doing so would cut into the quarterly profits, and the pandemic won't start for another five years or so! What's to worry?

But then some truth managed to get slipped in:

About 130 companies that operate thousands of livestock farms have signed onto the consent agreement, agreeing to abide by clean air, hazardous waste and emergency reporting laws.

These are not family farms. Calling them "farms" at all is an insult to the English language: they're factories. And "tens of thousands" would be more like the number of confinement hog barns operated by the cream of American "agribusiness". They don't even call themselves farmers and ranchers anymore, for the most part.

We are ignoring Nature, and treating crops and livestock as though they were mere products of human ingenuity - our foods are no longer grown or raised, they're "engineered".

And one of these days we're all going to pay dearly for the maintenance of the "agri-dollar" - in a ravaged environment, and in an epidemic the likes of which the world has never seen. Who needs asteroids or nukes to do in humanity, when we have corporate agribusiness?

When a west wind blows, Linda and Perry Trader's southern Indiana home is bathed in the stench of a nearby hog farm -- a stink so foul they often retreat indoors, abandoning their backyard and swimming pool.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Despite public vows, FDA slow to protect cattle from mad cow

It annoys me to no end to find myself in aggreement with an avowed political "green", but ya know, in this instance, he's right on. What's going on here is nothing short of an outright deception.

American cattle are eating chicken litter, cattle blood and restaurant leftovers that could help transmit mad cow disease -- a gap in the U.S. defense the Bush administration promised to close almost 18 months ago.

(link) [Chicago Sun-Times]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Scientists see women's brains switch off during sex

The Register uncovers a new item for my nascent 'Studies in Stupidity' catalog...

There was no mention of whether the results may have been affected by the fact the couples were being watched by a bunch of geeks in white coats while at least one partner had their head connected to a machine that goes bing.

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link