The pork we eat

[Nicko]

A friend recently sent me an article from Rolling Stone magazine about the pork industry. I felt it was interesting enough to share with everyone here and would like to hear others thoughts on this?

Rolling Stone : Pork's Dirty Secret: The nation's top hog producer is also one of America's worst polluters


Some of the techniques described in this article are extremely disturbing so much so that I don't think I will support Smithfield pork products.

[shel]

Originally Posted by Nicko

A friend recently sent me an article from Rolling Stone magazine about the pork industry. I felt it was interesting enough to share with everyone here and would like to hear others thoughts on this?

Rolling Stone : Pork's Dirty Secret: The nation's top hog producer is also one of America's worst polluters


Some of the techniques described in this article are extremely disturbing so much so that I don't think I will support Smithfield pork products.

First of all, this is no "secret." The mess and environmental impact from many such large scale operations, from chickens to cattle and pork, have similar problems. Rather than not supporting Smithfield products, think about not supporting the entire industry except for those who raise their hogs (as wqell as cattle and poultry) in a humane and environmentally considerate manner.

Shel

[Nicko]

Interesting you mention that I recently contacted a farmer from the Eat Wild website here in Illinois. We will be purchasing a half a pig in June from them.

[GhettoRacingKid]

I had to read and do a response essay to that article last quater in school.

[shroomgirl]

butchered a 260# hog last week.....it's fun to make your own boudin, pate d'tete, tamales, etc.....the farmer I buy from raises heirloom blends....berkshire, tammworth, duroq, etc...really good pig. It's economically viable for me to buy a whole animal and sell off some of the parts.....ie....I sold the hams, ribs/1shoulder/couple chops to two restaurants...a whole loin for a party, then had the head, shoulder, liver, loin, tenders, for me. I made enough from the restaurant sales to pay for the pig..

Last Oct I hosted a professional chef pig tasting.....7 varieties, blind tasting....then a guest chef to talk out how to process the meat, the figures on how one restaurant makes it pay off (labor/cost vs return was 10x).
Pics of breaking down a hog.....I had: red wattle, duroq, berkshire, berkshire fed jersey whey, tammworth, ossabow and a loin from Sam's Wholesale. Each had it's own marbling (or in the case of Sam's none) each had it's own flavor, it was eye opening to have the side by side.

One of my favorite sayings is" one thousand hogs produce fertilizer, 10,000 produce pollution".
I've walked through CAFO's, seen films, talked with hog producers, been out on loads of farms.....mass farming is gross, cruel, inhumane and generally not good for the earth.

[Cat Man]

Chef
While I understand your concern about the environment, you should also realize you're playing right into activist hands. It is very obvious that much of the information garnered for the article was PETA style propoganda.
I am not saying that some the issues did indeed not occur, but it would behoove you to learn more about the bigger picture and the other side of the story to get a well rounded perspective.

This country slaughters 400,000 hogs every single week. We also slaughter over 500,000 cattle every week.

One thing not put into perspective in the article was that small organic style farms actually produce more waste per animal than the factory farms do.

Smithfield recently purchased a pork company called Premium Standard Farms. I have personally visited dozens of pig farms, slaughterhouses, processing factories all over the world.

From a humane handling perspective, Dr Temple Grandin (google her) has personally signed off on Smithfields operations as humane.

Regarding antibiotics etc, if your child was sick, would you give him medicine, or just make him tough it out because you want an organic child? The farms are no different. They want strong healthy and happy animals. In most cases, these animals only have one bad day in their entire lives.....when they meet the butcher.
PSF uses a gas stunning method that is the most humane way possible to kill an animal.

Ask how the animal is stunned before slaughter from your little local guy.
For the PETA perspective, watch The Meatrix and The Meatrix2 videos on PETA's website. Funny to watch and well made, but completely skewed to their ultimate agenda, which is to take mankind back to the caveman days, where humans are NOT at the top of the food chain. Personally, I kinda like it here.

I can promise you, the big pork guys (Smithfield, Cargill, Tyson, et al) have no desire to be polluting rivers, kiling fish etc, but sometimes mistakes happen. Have you stopped using fossil fuel energy because of the Exxon Valdez fiasco?

We live and learn and try to do better. I have several freinds at high levels across the entire ag industry, and to a man, every single one of them supports good corporate citizenship.

But the reality is the world is much bigger than you and me. I love my meat, but I also dont want to pay $7/lb for whole porkloin. I doubt you do either.

Try checking out the National Porl Producers Council (NPPC) website and learn what standards and expectations are in place for the pork industry.

Balance scientific facts with your emotions and then make an educated personal decision that is best for your business. If you allow activist propoganda to guide your decisions, we are just one step cloer to 1984.

That's my two cents.

Cat Man

[Cat Man]

So let's see the essay...
I'd love to read it.

Cat Man

Originally Posted by GhettoRacingKid

I had to read and do a response essay to that article last quater in school.

[shroomgirl]

Cat Man,

I disagree wholeheartedly with your premise that large corporate CAFO's are humane and that they provide less pollution than smaller farms....

Brood sows are not given room to move, they've got sores from the bars in their confinement cages. The animals do not take care of their babies but will crush them.

When you see brood sows that take care of their young it's an amazing difference

It does not take a scientist to see the difference nor does it take more than sniffing the air to know serious air pollution when your around it.

Russ Kremer, Missouri Farmer's Union president, pig farmer (54 member co-op) and genetisit has a wonderful story about being gored by a prize hog they'd been shooting up with antibiotics. Russ's leg got infected and he almost died from the reisitant strain of bacteria......his pigs have been raised for 15 years without using antibiotics, they are healthy and look realitively piggy happy within their pens. There are different standards of life for the pigs....I'd much prefer paying the difference.If you buy a whole pig is more economical than buying from a discount wholesale place by alot and bonus the meat tastes better.....considerably better.

The Pork Check Off.....paid by every pork farmer but is gearred to support whom?

[Ishbel]

I have bought only organic meats for just over 20 years.

I don't WANT animals filled to the gunnels with antibiotics. They are not necessary UNLESS the animal has some sort of infection - so why feed the stuff to them?

I don't WANT to eat animals that have been less than humanely raised and which have been in factory farmed rearing areas (can hardly call them farms).

Yes, I pay extra. But it's worth it to me - both in terms of taste and to ease my conscience

[shel]

Originally Posted by Ishbel

I have bought only organic meats for just over 20 years.

I don't WANT animals filled to the gunnels with antibiotics. They are not necessary UNLESS the animal has some sort of infection - so why feed the stuff to them?

I don't WANT to eat animals that have been less than humanely raised and which have been in factory farmed rearing areas (can hardly call them farms).

Yes, I pay extra. But it's worth it to me - both in terms of taste and to ease my conscience

I pretty much agree. There are plenty of alternatives to corporate-produced meat and produce, but it sometimes takes a little research to find them. However, there are more and more options available for finding such places. While the San Francisco Bay Area is a little "special" in that regard, having numerous outlets for humanely raised meat and poultry, I'm sure other areas of the country can provide at least some sources.

I don't eat that much meat, but when I do, I want it to be the best possible from all perspectives. However, my cat eats meat, and over the years I've been able to find organic and humanely raised sources for his daily dose of protein. He doesn't need the crap that's put into a lot of the food and meat that one often finds. For example, the turkey that he gets comes from a farm in the nearby foothills (Diestel Family Turkey Ranch ), and their birds really do roam free and are fed organic feed. Comparing a turkey thigh from one of these birds to the more common supermarket variety, and even the ones sold at Whole Foods, the meat is redder, a bit leaner, and has a greater meat to bone ratio. In truth, my cat gets better quality meat and poultry protein than most people do <LOL>

Shel

[shel]

Originally Posted by Nicko

Interesting you mention that I recently contacted a farmer from the Eat Wild website here in Illinois. We will be purchasing a half a pig in June from them.

Does Eat Wild verify the claims made by the producers? I didn't see anything about that on their web site.

Shel

[deltadoc]

Originally Posted by shroomgirl

I disagree wholeheartedly with your premise that large corporate CAFO's are humane and that they provide less pollution than smaller farms....

Brood sows are not given room to move, they've got sores from the bars in their confinement cages. The animals do not take care of their babies but will crush them.

When you see brood sows that take care of their young it's an amazing difference

Well, I've had a bit of a different take on this as I have family in Iowa that have produced hogs since I was a boy working 2 weeks during each summer in Lost Nation, IA, to cousins who've bred hoglets to sell to bigger farms to raise.

Sows will lay on their young, the young will squeel like mad, and the sow does nothing. BUT...if she sees you even touching her piglet, they'll go crazy and attack and kill you if they can.

The cages/pens were roomy, and there was never a need for the sow to just flop down and smoother/squish her young. It just seems to be the way of the animal.

doc

[shel]

Originally Posted by Cat Man

One thing not put into perspective in the article was that small organic style farms actually produce more waste per animal than the factory farms do.

Regarding antibiotics etc, if your child was sick, would you give him medicine, or just make him tough it out because you want an organic child?

But the reality is the world is much bigger than you and me. I love my meat, but I also dont want to pay $7/lb for whole porkloin. I doubt you do either.

I'll just address these issues:

Can you document that small "organic style" farms produce more waste per animal than factory farms? What, BTW, is an "organic style" farm?

There's a difference between giving a child antibiotics when he or she is sick, and innoculating an entire pig population to "prevent" sickness. These corporate farm animals are routinely given meds in anticipation of sickness and disease, which is caused by over crowded and filthy conditions. Your argument doesn't hold water.

Many of us don't mind paying more for a product we feel offers a degree of quality. Good, healthy food costs more - I pay more at thre farmer's market for great produce than I pay at the Safeway for unripe, pesticide infused peaches, but I don't mind. I pay more for grass fed beef from fully pastured cows than I would for Costco Crap, and I don't mind. I support the local dairies who produce organic and rbst-free products rather than buy milk and such from Horizon.

Shel

[bubbamom]

My reaction to the article was "more PETA hogwash". Meat processing plants are not pretty and without a doubt, there are environmental impact issues. None of us want to eat meat that is not healthy, that's not even an issue. Processing is what processing is and slaughter is a part of it and isn't pretty. I'm pretty sure that processing plants are inspected and required to handle product is a safe and humane manner. Is my (or anyone elses) definition of humane the same as the governments, doubt it. Additionally, I am sure that some plants are not as ethical or "up to par" as others and that's criminal! Organically processed meat still requires humane and safe handling and unless you are doing the butchering yourself, at some point, you have to trust that the decisions about what you are eating are the best choices for you. (Shel, my dog also eats better than a lot of people - - good for my dog, and sad for people.)

The picture in the RollingStone article looks like a pile of the pig figures that were part of a board game we had as kids called, I think, "Hog Wild".

[shel]

Originally Posted by bubbamom

My reaction to the article was "more PETA hogwash". Meat processing plants are not pretty and without a doubt, there are environmental impact issues. None of us want to eat meat that is not healthy, that's not even an issue. Processing is what processing is and slaughter is a part of it and isn't pretty.

I'll read the article again just in case I misread it (I already read it twice), but the focus of the article I read wasn't about processing plants, but with the environmental impact of pig farming on a large scale, specifically Smithfield. What goes on in the slaughter house has little or nothing to do with lagoons full of pig **** and the pollution caused by intensive production of the pigs themselves.

Shel