Another sign of the times

In a long list of the supposed environmental horrors of pig farming, the alleged greenhouse gas problem gets just "also-ran" billing in the article below.

Ham eaters tell us about the alleged horrors of ham

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.