Life Cycle: Greening the Other White Meat

Life Cycle is a series of posts that looks at the life and death of everyday things.

In our blogging journey through everyday things, we've covered your morning routine--from workout to shower, from coffee to cubicle.

Now it's lunchtime, baby. Panda Garden. Porky goodness. Mooshu style.

The "other white meat" in your takeout container falls behind beef and chicken in American consumption, but we do pig out on pig--on average, each of us consumes 51 pounds of Wilbur annually. That translates to big impact on our water and air.

Due to the high variety of bacteria, worms and other undesirables in pig flesh, and because of the quick-spread disease potential of crowded pig farms, heavy doses of antibiotics are administered routinely. Those same drugs end up in your body via waste streaming into our water supply, and via that Mooshu pork to go. Other side dishes you might not have ordered include growth hormones to encourage meat-heavy livestock and vaccines injected to avoid profit-damaging disease.

The crowded piggies also contribute to climate change by emitting methane air pollution, otherwise known as farting.

But the real travesty of pig farms, as you may have heard, is their contribution of dangerous phosphate and nitrate levels to our water supply. Large, corporate pig farms are home to deep vats of untold tons of pig crap, called "lagoons," which regularly overflow or seep past inadequate lining into the earth. The bad stuff in pig manure is associated with stomach cancer, blood oxygen disorders and other health ailments.

We won't go into the ethics of eating meat to begin with--just yesterday we enjoyed a savory ham cheesecake with red pepper jelly, the pre-cubed ham being delicious yet of unknown origin. But as a rule, we try to limit our meat intake and purchase it from local ranchers who raise livestock humanely (some may say there's no humane way to raise an animal for slaughter), hormone-free and with minimal or no antibiotics. Big, corporate pig farms are responsible for the bulk of this industry's environmental offenses.

Not all corporations are, um, pigs. Burrito peddler Chipotle gets its pork from ranches in California and the Midwest that raise antibiotic-free hogs fed vegetarian diets and allowed to graze freely. The restaurant's website includes videos on their pork sources--definitely worth watching Paul Willis talk about his eco-friendly Iowa operation. (Simran visited this farm and saw the little piglets and their mamas. As sweet as they were, the trip did not dissuade her from dining on swine but did convince her that her pig-outs had to be sustainable.)

Cheap, responsible meat options are out there, allowing you to feel better about what's between your chopsticks.

Speaking of chopsticks, we'll break them apart next time.

This post was written by Sarah Smarsh and Simran Sethi. Thanks to the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Lacey Johnston for research assistance and doc18 for the image. You can find previews of these posts every week on Green Options.

Comments

[patianneb]

But the real travesty of pig farms, aside from environmental damage can be found in the undercover report just this week of how many pigs suffer horridly from birth to death. This specific Iowa farm whose battered pigs are bound for Hormel, may harbor some especially sadistic workers, but studies at Smithfield and others show the barbaric practices they perform on what they call "raw protein units" is hideous.
If you eat meat, please for your own health, the health of the planet and of equal importance, common decency and humanity, seek out sustainable sources: eatwell.org is just one by-ZIP reference.

[zizyphus]

Pigs are as smart as dogs. How many Americans would eat dogs?

One day, a pig walked into our yard and began rooting around. He was spotted, calico, and while large, was very cute. I slowly approached him. When I was able to be next to him, I scratched him behind the ear. His long eyelashes fluttered, he sighed, and rolled over on his side.

I could no more eat a pig than I could eat a human. I just don't do animal flesh.

[Photofarm]

You don't get it, that stuff in the lagoons is a treasured by-product called organic fertilizer. It is worth money to put on the ground to raise crops, so it doesn't get wasted. The more a hog lot saves, the more it can sell, and thus make more money.

[lapoutlander]

Maybe so If the farm was digesting the manure to make methane to burn and kill off the parasites. Raw pig sewage and factory farms with no suitable place to spread it should be a ballot question in all states.

[Photofarm]

Your comment proves why it shouldn't be on a ballot, you still have no clue what you are talking about. I don't have the time to start, since you don't appear to not know anything about hogs, crops, or manure.

[elephantwaylon]

I'm a vegetarian, but I always say Chipotle has done more for pigs that all us vegetarians—they nearly single-handedly created the free-range big-time pork industry, which means millions upon millions of pigs get out of factory farms (before they get murdered for our enjoyment, that is).

[Sarah Smarsh - Huffpost Blogger]

For sure... I just bought a book on veganism for friend, and it actually makes reference to there being "no such thing" as free-range pork (I think it was published around 2000, just before Chipotle's "Food With Integrity" initiative really kicked off).