A Harrowing Tale

I went to a meeting last night, wishing I didn’t have to. It was for people who opposed the construction of hog confinement facilities within smelling distance of their homes.

I live in Iowa – the Pig Capital of the World. It used to be that farmers would raise their hogs outside in a pen. Not any more.

Today, huge windowless animal confinement buildings with grate flooring are constructed over cement “lagoons.” The operators pack thousands of pigs in these buildings. The pigs then spend their entire lives standing on the grate that separates them from millions of gallons of accumulated hog waste. If it weren’t for huge exhaust fans, the air in these buildings would be so toxic that the pigs would die within 30 minutes. Even still the lungs of these pigs at slaughter indicate that they were going to die soon anyway. Chickens, by the way, are raised under similarly unconscionable conditions. And if you have ever driven past one of those Nebraska or Colorado feed lots for steers, you know that bus fumes are less nauseating than that smell.

There are innumerable environmental, ethical, economic, health-related, and spiritual reasons to oppose the construction of these things. But just from the aesthetic point of view, the stench they emit is unbearable. But a pig, besides living in the stress of these crowded conditions, breathes that stench every second of his life which means that that very stench gets deeply infused into every fiber of a pig’s body. Those who eat an animal raised under these conditions are essentially eating highly concentrated pig flatulence among other hellish influences.

Who do we blame?

We could blame agribusiness. They are driven by greed and don’t care one whit about the environment or nearby residents.

We could blame the farmer who is obviously impoverished both financially and intellectually. He selfishly thinks he is getting a great deal just allowing one of these corporations to fund, construct, and supply the operation on his land and buy back the pigs when they are grown. He doesn’t mind polluting the land and stinking up the neighborhood for a few dollars.

We could blame the legislature. They have essentially accepted bribes from agribusiness under the guise of campaign financing and then made laws allowing such abominations to exist. Some of these lawmakers even have relatives in the business.

The real culprit, however, is the consumer. He wants food that is cheap to buy but he has no clue how expensive that cheap food is to his health or to the environment. If the demand is there, then there will always be businessmen who will find ways to supply that demand.

The consumer needs to be educated. It is he that needs to have his consciousness raised. Until then, save your health, save your nose, and save your environment. Buy free-range. Eat organic.

Comments

[John Langlois]

Great piece. Suggest you contact Charles Walters at AcresUSA if you need additional support material.

For fun, show them the cartoon "The MEATrix".
See http://www.themeatrix.com/

[Steve Pavlina]

Why not simply avoid eating animals altogether? Or even better... all animal products. Consuming animal products like dairy and eggs also perpetuates factory farming. The real-world practice of "free range" is more marketing than substance -- free range doesn't mean free to walk around outside.

[perianwyr]

I'm looking forward to the days when we get all our protein from mold farms and the like. Then we can form it into insane designs and make it taste like stuff that nothing has tasted like yet.

Growing animals just to kill and eat them feels just so... paleolithic?