You are what you eat

"Hog waste is hardly even excrement in the traditional sense: On a contiuum of pollutants it is closer to radioactive waste than to organic manure." (from "Boss Hog"; Rolling Stone Issue 1015; December 14, 2006)

Mr. Food Musings made me read an article today about Smithfield Food, the world's largest pork processor. According to the article, they kill 1 of every 4 pigs sold as pork in this country. And they are polluting the shit -- no pun intended -- out of most of North Carolina. The tale is a harrowing one, full of 30-foot deep lagoons of pig excrement that regularly overflow the banks; incidences of people being overcome by fumes and falling into the lagoons, where they immediately perish; neighbors who report literally being knocked to their feet at times by the smell, collapsing with severe nausea and "when they regain consciousness, they crawl back into the house."

I know you don't want to read this stuff. It's unpleasant. It's frightening. It's foul beyond all imagining.

And, unless you are buying non-factory farmed pork, it's what you're putting on the table with the mashed potatoes every night.

Truthfully, I'd like to turn away, too, and enjoy fond memories of the carnitas taco I bought this afternoon in the Mission. But consider this: people whose land and houses abut hog farms report that "when the smell is bad, those people, like everyone, shut their windows and slam their front doors shut quickly behind them, but their coffee and spaghetti and carrots still smell and taste like pig shit."

Disgusting.

If you want facts and figures, you'll want to know that Smithfield slaughtered 27 million hogs last year. Apparently pigs produce 3x the excrement people do, and last year's pigs alone generated approximately 26 million tons of waste. Smithfield also holds the record for the third largest civil penalty ever levied by the Environmental Protection Agency; their nearly 7,000 environmental violations cost them $12.6 million bucks. The story would not be complete, of course, without the good-ole-boy CEO who took over the company from his dad and turned it into the successful operation it is today, putting hundreds of small pig farmers out of business in the process. On Joseph Luter III's watch, Smithfield became the 4th largest polluter of the nation's waters. Grand! How shall we pat him on the back? How about we let him bring home the bacon to the tune of $10 million cool ones. That was his salary last year.

The article got me thinking about way more than pig shit; it made me wonder what would I do if I wanted to eat non-factory farmed pork, but I didn't live near a place that sells it. Where would I get the good stuff? A quick glance at Local Harvest helps. This is a web site that helps you find farmer's markets and organic, sustainably raised produce and meat no matter where you live. I typed in the zip code where my folks live in Virginia and it turned up nothing. Now that's not to say that's a definitive answer; it would be worth going to the 2 or 3 upscale markets near my parents' house and asking at the meat counter if they sell any organic or free-range pork. But if they don't, then what do you do? Well, you can always order your meat online. If anyone else knows of any good resources, please let me know.

***

Sustainable Chilean sea bass? We went to Whole Foods last night and, as we were wrapping up our first Dungeness crab of the season, noticed that they are now selling Chilean sea bass again. I was initially horrified, until I noticed a small sign that said "Product of South Georgia." I asked the guy behind the counter if the fish was farmed, thinking that maybe it was, and he said it wasn't. I nabbed a brochure and found out that a small sustainable fishery was certified by the Marine Stewardship Council as meeting their environmental standards. In South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (in Antartica), there are limits on when and how much CSB can be caught. It seems like the MSC spent nearly 3 years observing their fishing practices before putting their sustainable stamp of approval on them. Does that mean Chilean sea bass can go back on the menu now? I'm not sure. My question is, even if these guys are fishing the right way, wouldn't it be better to leave the poor CSB stocks alone in the hopes that they can repopulate? Is it enough that one fishery is practicing sustainable fishing? The jury chez Food Musings is still out. Thoughts welcome.

Comments

[cookiecrumb]

OTOH: And this is a total thread hijack... Wow! I just read about half your interviews with SF chefs today, and I'll keep reading tomorrow. Yowzah. You've been busy! Nicely done. Nice.

[sam]

how do we read the interviews?

[Catherine]

CC -- aww, shucks, for a compliment you can hijack the post with my blessing! Glad you're enjoying them...it was a lot of work, but very interesting.

Sam -- you should be getting your copy in the mail if you haven't yet. (Or I can bring you one. I have extras...)

[Becca]

Thanks for publicizing that article, and I'm hope that Rolling Stone reaches a whole new audience with that information. It's mind-boggling what can happen as a result of the profit motive.

[Tea]

Thanks for mentioning this article, Catherine. I'm going to hunt up a copy so I can read the whole thing. Scary stuff, eh?

[sam]

i havent received my copy yet, so in the meanime please could i borrow one?
see you tomorrow

[Luisa]

I'm always super vigilant about Chilean Sea Bass, though a fishmonger recently (last 2 months) told me it's okay to eat it again... Still, I'm with you, and not buying or eating it for the near future. As for where to buy sustainable/happy animal products, check out this website and see if your parents zip code turns anything up: http://www.eatwild.com/products/index.html

[susan]

There is no such thing as sustainable or legally caught Patagonian Toothfish, a.k.a. "Chilean sea bass" (it's actually not a bass and it's not only caught in Chilean waters). I've been researching an article on this for over a year (it will appear in Northside SF in the coming months) and I've spoken to everyone from the head of the Seafood Watch Program to Jim Humphries, the head of the Marine Stewardship Council --- which, incidentally, is a controversial group amongst environmentalists. (The certification by the MSC of fisheries despite scientific evidence disputing the sustainability of the fisheries and over objections from environmentalists has been the source of the controversy.) The simple truth is that CSB can not be farmed --- they are deep, cold water fish. They don't start breeding until they are 10 years old and they reproduce slowly because of the extremely frigid water. 95% of CSB is illegally caught --- they are caught in international waters, where regulations are lax and corruption is rampant --- a few bucks and the "authorities" will fudge the paperwork. The CSB catch stays out at sea a minimum of six months on the boats, and by the time it arrives here, the paper trail is endless and old. Also, it is impossible, according to everyone I spoke with, to really know if what you are selling or buying is "legally" caught. I talked to seafood buyers at Safeway, Whole Foods and Alberton's who all admitted to me that they doubt the CSB they sell is legal and they don't have a lot of faith in the MSC to be able to police the entire world's oceans. Because the population of CSB is so depleted but demand (and dollar) remain so high, desperate fishermen are now taking smaller and younger fish, most of which have not even reached the age of maturity for reproduction. The bottom line is that consumers are ultimately responsible. When I asked the Safeway seafood buyer why he carries something illegally caught and near extinction he said, "Because people ask for it, and if I don't carry it, Albertson's will." When I asked the Albertson's buyer the same question he said, "Because people ask for it, and if I don't carry it, Safeway will." Instead of asking for CSB, consumers should make a point of telling every seafood counter manager what I just told you above, and ask them to stop carrying it. Sadly, even if everyone stopped selling it tomorrow or 100% of it was "legally" caught, the Patagonian Toothfish would still not survive and is doomed to extinction in less than five years.

[susan]

PS -- To Luisa, of course a "fishmonger" would tell you it's "okay to eat it again." He's in the business of selling fish, and CSB fetches the highest price of any supermarket or fish market catch at nearly $25 a pound. Trust me, it's not okay to eat it. If it were, the Seafood Watch Card would have changed its status. For more info on all of this, check out http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?fid=13.

For those of you who are simply concerned about the impact of the things you eat on the environment, CSB is also a bad choice --- most are caught by bottom trawling which damages seafloor habitat, or by longlining, which takes bycatch of endangered albatrosses and other seabirds --- they get hooked as they try to snatch the bait and drown.

[Allison]

Smithfield is one of the candidates in the Jobs with Justice "Grinch of the Year" contest to determine the national figure who has done the most harm to working families this year. You can cast your vote at http://www.jwj.org/grinch. Please spread the word!