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Still Eating Factory Produced Pork?
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by Barbara McPherson | August 30, 2008 at 02:05 pm
454 views | 22 Recommendations | 9 comments
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Modern industrial farming has come a long way since Farmer Ken down the road kept a sow and a few pigs to sell each fall. Pork has become one of the cheapest meats in N. America these past few years. Why has that happened? Efficiency.
There is a problem when animals become a cog in that efficient delivery of meat. Pigs are thinking animals. For a few years the pot bellied Asian pig was a status pet. Pigs are still used in some European countries to hunt for truffles. The point I'm trying to make is -- these animals are about as smart as dogs.Would we treat a dog this way?
Johnson describes a barn full of sows with piglets, each sow "confined by a metal crate to an area about two and a half by seven feet. The sows filled their cages. They had a foot or two in which to move forward or back, and enough room to lie down but not enough to turn around."
He later describes the gestation room, with 700 sows:
"The hogs stood in tight formation, row upon row stretching out to the end of the building, under dusty yellowish lights. Crates held the pigs in line with their noses next to a water trough and their tails over a slatted floor. The animals eat where they stand and deposit their dung at the other end of the crate. The pig's own feet, or a shot with a hose, sends the waste through the cracks in the floor."
When I was a child on a farm, we usually raised a couple of piglets each year, one to sell and one to slaughter. Our pigs kept the hay inside their shelter clean and never defacated inside. And yes, it seemed like a terrible betrayal when they were killed in October. They screamed and protested.
Johnson then visits a pork industry conference where he learns of a problem for the meat industry, acid in pork, causing pale, soft, exudative meat (PSE) that has a bad taste. PSE is a result of stress -- the stress, for intelligent animals, of living confined in crates. Another problem is that of lameness; sows go lame from standing their whole lives on concrete floors.
Johnson writes, "The solution to this problem of soundness, as far as those at Monsanto or the Swine Improvement Conference are concerned, is to breed 'better' pigs - pigs that can stand on a 2' x 7' rectangle of concrete all their lives without going lame or insane with boredom. And if genetic modification doesn't work, technology often can provide a mechanical solution. Swine Robotics, for instance, has developed a device that removes dead animals from crates -- a contraption that looks like a hand truck with a power winch. This 'boar buzzard' eliminates the problems of poor employee morale and back injuries. On the PSE front, scientists have found they can reduce the amount of pale, soft, exudative meat by taking pigs off their feed eighteen hours before slaughter. The hungry pigs burn off their glycogen reserves, and without glycogen they do not produce lactic acid, no matter how stressed they are."
There are organically and humanely raised pigs out there. If you make the decision to eat pork, then shouldn't you get the highest and best quality possible?
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Barbara McPherson
Nanaimo, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (9)
at 14:22 on August 30th, 2008
Barbara McPherson, I like this story. It's good stuff.
I could not bring myself to watch the videos you posted just incase (as I am really squeamish) but this is a good piece.
I think your part of the story might warrant the opinion flag - what do you think?
at 14:49 on August 30th, 2008
Interesting how you question the acts of industrial farmers ("Would we treat a dog this way?"), yet you had no problem slaughtering a hand raised pig even as it pleaded and protested for its life. Is factory farming wrong because we numb the animals, never giving them a chance to scream in agony and surprise that their loved owners would slaughter them so. I'd hate to be your family dog!
at 17:37 on August 30th, 2008
I say, that seems a bit harsh.
at 17:37 on August 30th, 2008
Mikael, as I said, I was a child at the time. I no longer eat pork and haven't for many years. Why do you think the industrially raised pigs don't scream when they are killed?
at 17:53 on August 30th, 2008
Would we treat a dog this way?
Actually, the answer is - depends.
Who is "we"?
For some humans, a dog is a meal. Alas, for many humans, dogs are competitors for scraps of food in garbage piles and on roadsides. Dogs are a symbol of torture and/or oppression to hundreds of thousands of people in the world. Dogs to some are the unwelcome depositors of deification or urine or diggers of holes to some. For the more brutal types, dogs are just another living thing to kick and slap around.
Frankly, for better or worse, it boils down not to what is humane but what is economical. What may be economical now, may not be so in the long run in the light of recent mass poisonings from contaminated processing. If there were enough demand for organic and humanely raised pork (or any other meat) more people would chase that dollar. Unfortunately, that chase would - in the long run - result in trying to find cheaper and more efficient ways to produce the volume to meet market demand and stay competitive.
Having said all that, I believe I agree with Amy that consideration of an opinion tag is warranted.
I like your last line. It makes sense and it would sell organically and humanely raised pork, allowing you to bring home the bacon.
Please do not get me wrong. I think this is a good think piece.
at 18:22 on August 30th, 2008
Nicely written.
I see your point, but I can't let go of my porcine cravings.
Thanks for the post.
at 02:10 on August 31st, 2008
Barbara McPherson, I like this story. It's good stuff.
Consumer demand and constant pressure for ever lower prises has broth modern farming to corrupt it self and to become the most effective industry of all, even more productive then the big factories such as GM or FORD. The Suicide rates are the Highest today among Farmer, that can no longer keep on producing under the pressure of ever lower prises and higher coast input. Farmers are for the most part at the end of their rope. They did every thing to comply with consumer demands and industrial growth. We loose in Canada alone about 8000 Farmers a year for the past 15 years and in Europe the numbers are worth. Due to financial over stretching and pressures. We want healthy food and well treated animals yet we are not willing to pay the bill, no we have to go on vacation to Cuba twice a years and the Big screen TV as well as the SUV and so on and spend a fortune for those things yet for food, no way we will pay the fair price and if the Farmer kills him self to keep on producing with next to no revenue so what, what do we care. However dare you cut the wage of a Ford Worker or a Lawyer and they will shout murder. The Farmer who cares. A yes now we want to factory farms to disappear yet we are not willing to pay for the extra labour and coast of production that this implies let the Farmer absorb it and suffer a little more, if he goes Bankrupt, so what, not our problem we ripped him of for years and made a killing on his back. Most Farmers have a dept load today due to all this that they can no longer carry.
at 02:37 on August 31st, 2008
Barbara McPherson, I like this story. "Still Eating Factory Produced ...." We don't like it, but we buy it, because we are adicted to the light in the supermarket outlet for Industry food, good packaged. However with the Diesel prices for trucks alltime high, I predict the revival of the Family Farm with Internet marketing, animals, vegetables wheat, a round cycle and no transportation costs. Nice photos from zichi, I am used to the wild living porcs in my area up the mountains. Good awareness article, thanks
at 19:15 on August 31st, 2008
Hey dude:
People who complain about those who espouse their ideas are ultimately the troublemakers in society. Insulated in their removal from reality. So comfortable in their finery. Makes me wanna puke!!
Adamo