Thanks to the Ethicurian, I´ve added a new feature to The Slow Cook: an interactive map to the biggest polluting factory farms in the nation, provided by the environmental group Food and Water Watch.Most Americans are just waking up to the fact that their beef, chicken, pork, eggs and dairy are no longer being grown on the green pastures of family farms but rather jammed together in the most horrific conditions in giant factory confinement lots.
Besides raising ethical questions about how we treat the food we eat, the quality of meat, eggs and milk, and the destruction that has been wrought on our tradition of family farming and locally produced livestock, factory farming has unleashed pollution from animal manure on a grand scale.
At the moment, I am unable to provide a link here to a site that state-by-state and county-by-county identifies where the nation´s most polluting factory farms are located, all in easy to use mouse-click fashion. You can find a link on the lower righthand side of the page under Bad Things in Food.
For instance, Iowa leads the way in polluting factory pig farms with 3,876. Even more startling is the diabolical consolidation of hog farms that has taken place there in recent years. According to Food and Water Watch, the number of pigs raised in Iowa has increased only slightly, from 13 million in 1987 to 15.5 million in 2002. But in that same period, the number of pig farms has declined by 26,465. That´s right, the number of hog farms in the state of Iowa has plummeted by 26,465 over a 15-year period. That accounts for all those mom-and-pop farms disappearing, and the business of raising pork falling into the hands of large corporations who do their business by jamming animals together in stifling, mind-altering conditions.
Welcome the era of factory farms. Something to remember next time you go shopping for that pork roast. And maybe a good reason to look for an alternative source.
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4 comments:
I say, hopefully, welcome to the END of the era of factory farms.
It might take several years, decades... but we are taking baby steps forward and dismantling reliance on that shrink-wrapped, debeaked crap.
Awareness. We blog, we teach.
Second that emotion, CC. Just finished reading The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter...
For several years, while completing my undergraduate schooling, my family and I lived on a beautiful farm immediately next to an experimental pig farm managed by a major university. When we rented the farm we thought that nothing could be more idyllic than having the luxury of being able to raise our children in such an incredible pastoral setting. What we didn't know (being citified) was that during three out of the four seasons pig manure would be spread on the fields next to our farm house. I must tell you that when the wind blew in our direction that the pollution was, to say the least, overwhelming. Then, during the Spring of our first year the slaughtering began and the noise along with the conjured vision of what was happening to those animals was the very last straw. We had to forgo our security deposit and find another place to live. The very next time you or anyone else reading this comment passes an 'industrial' farm or, for that matter, any of the new mega-farms, remember that what from the road appears to be a small slice of heaven on earth is actually more like hell on earth. Talk about polluting, eh?
It used to be common practice to spread animal manure on the fields. Although it creates a stink, that is part of farming. But factory farming has created an absolute horror show and America is still snoozing...
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