HERD ABOUT IT?

by Ana Grarian

In deference to the joke Ana shared last time, and the oblique reference to a blog/book/TV show by Justin Halpern , it is important when determining livestock farm policy to “know your sh*t”.

Industrial livestock production = huge amounts of manure (sh*t) = pollution (sh*t in our water, sh*t stank in our air). And that stank stinks because the air is carrying tiny particles of sh*t, which we inhale, and it gets sucked into our nasal passages and lungs causing irritation, that allows in the little microbes that are also floating in that stanky air. Which makes us sick, very sick. And they’re in the water too, along with chemical and nutrient loading that also makes us sick.

Millions of our tax dollars are going to companies trying to develop “cutting edge” technologies to treat manure. In a merry go round of good money chasing bad ,we the taxpayer, are investing in dubious projects to turn sh*t green. Millions more are going to industrial livestock operations to try out those unproven technologies. The technology companies are happy, and their stock prices go up at the mere mention of the vague possibility that their technology might be used, so the investors who wouldn’t know a sh*t spreader from a convertible, are happy. The factory livestock producer gets more government grants and subsidies, so he’s happy. (CAFO’s do NOT make money because they are more efficient producers, they make money by trolling government subsidy and grant programs.)

The small farmer gets even less for his/her product, the livestock gets treated like -(well- you know), the neighbors still get the stank, the consumer gets ever less desirable products and the taxpayer takes it up the stank hole.

I’ve got a better idea.

How about if we pay farmers well, to farm well.