Yes, I hate Paula Deen...here's why...

[antigone382]

101. A couple of ways I would make an environmental case for pastured pigs:

(This is a quick and dirty version)

For one, high concentrations of animals in confinement leads to huge volumes of waste which must be stored in manure lagoons. With diversified agriculture, it is possible to use such waste as fertilizer for crops, but confinement operations are generally not close enough to sites of crop production to offset the cost of transporting manure (which is high in water content and very heavy). Instead, it is concentrated in the lagoons, which tend to leak and become a significant source of nitrogen pollution in surrounding waterways.

Nitrogen pollution is also an issue with the grain based diet that confined pigs are fed. Monocultures of corn and soybeans require massive inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, and irrigation. They also require tremendous amounts of fossil fuel to plant, manage, and harvest. Besides nitrogen pollution, other environmental problems associated with this practice are soil erosion (because monocultures require so much bare soil), loss of biodiversity, lowering of water tables, and of course the various negative impacts of acquiring and using fossil fuels. Well-managed pasture can be maintained with virtually none of these inputs or waste products. Pigs have actually been a component of healthy human management of forests and other ecosystems for quite a long time.

Finally--and you may choose to view this more as a health issue rather than an environmental one--Because of the high population of animals in such a small area, and because of the stress the animals are under, high amounts of preventative antibiotics and other medications are required for confinement operations to be profitable. I don't recall the actual amount per pound of antibiotics used in the production of animal products, but it is several times higher than the amount used to actual treat human disease. The consequence of this is that such farms are virtual breeding grounds for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which can and do enter society to become human pathogens.

I recognize the very significant economic issues involved in switching to less destructive means of food production, and I don't expect such changes to be made overnight, or without considering the potential implications for the affordability and availability of food. I don't have all of the answers to that. However it is still critical to understand and acknowledge the issues with our current system, the reasons that that system might lead to greater long term cost on our society (particularly on its poorest and most vulnerable members), and that the need for a change does undeniably exist.