Should Pork Processed Pork Be Banned?

• They slaughter 32,000 hogs per day (2,000 hogs an hour) and employees get infections from handling the guts so much

In his article “Boss Hog: The Dark Side of America’s Top Pork Producer,” (Rolling Stone Magazine, December 14, 2006) Jeff Teitz reports that not only are millions upon millions of pigs being abused and slaughtered each year by America’s largest pork producer, but, in turn, the waste produced by those pigs is polluting, destroying, and even killing others. Teitz begins by revealing that Smithfield Foods, the world’s most profitable pork processor, killed 27 million hogs last year, which is roughly equivalent to the entire human populations of America’s thirty-two largest cities. As Teitz delves deeper into statistics, he explains that more fecal matter is produced from half a million pigs at one Smithfield subsidiary than the 1.5 million

In chapter four, it is said that from colonial times to the 1950’s when it was overtaken by beef, pork was the major source of meat for Americans. Pioneers kept hogs as free-range animals that foraged for their food. Corn-fed pigs grew faster and bigger, so it was common practice to round up surplus hogs and corn-feed them in the weeks before they went to market (value is weight-based). In 1818, the first meatpacking plant in Cincinnati was opened and became the dominating entity in pork production until the civil war,

Every year, an average American will consume approximately one hundred-twenty six pounds of meat. This meat can be traced back to factory farms where the animals are kept to be tortured to turn into a product for the appetite of humans. The terrible treatment these animals are forced to endure is the outcome of the greed and want for a faster production of their product. The industry of factory farming works to maximize the output of the meat while maintaining low costs,but will sadly always comes at the animals’ expense.

Imagery of how workers were getting sick when pulling the guts out of the slaughtered pigs that for the most part can only leave readers saddened. “A culture that just uses a pig as a pile of protoplasmic inanimate structure, to be manipulated by whatever creative design the human can foist on that critter, will probably view individuals within its community, and other cultures in the community of nations, with the same type of disdain and disrespect and controlling type mentalities,” (Wiber 350). Wiber tries to establish that these meat products are anything but one hundred percent real meat. Instead they’re filled with artificial fillers made of who knows

The farmers of long ago took pride in their animals treating them with kindness and care, but today they are kept in small cramp areas with countless other hogs where the ability for movement is often constricted this for the animal causes stress and in turn makes the meat more tough, and sometimes fattier. Some of these animals are filled with hormones that will increase their size making the animals today larger than the ones in the past, but larger doesn’t always mean better. The hormones that they are using can cause illness to some people this unacceptable this is not only unethical, but inhumane to the animal and how they are treated. The small hog farmers are bought out from the big business, but they still allow the farmer to raise the animals under strict guidelines that they must follow this in turn makes the small farmer feel like they “work for the man” and their understanding of the business is often shot down because they have little or no control of their farm they are told how to raise the hogs, how to process them and transport them, but at times they are the ones that have to take the fines if they are not following standing USDA procedures with the big corporation

The meat industry today is not what it was nearly a century ago. While improvements are thought to have been made, an ever changing society has brought upon new problems that have been piled on to the previously existing ones. While these problems are not like those found in The Jungle, they do parallel how by exposing what is going on in the meat industry; new regulations would be the answer to the noted problems. The increased demand for meat has made it a rushed mutated production instead of a means to raise livestock for consumers. Taking into consideration the demand for cheap meat that will be used for in quick and high demanded products such as frozen and fast food, this demand of meat has greatly skyrocketed. Animals whose sole

This book summarizes the excruciating environment factory farm animals live in, as well as the effects eating those animals, and fish, can have on the human body. Freedman and Barnouin point out the way in which factory farm animals are treated: “There are no vast meadows or lush, green pastures,” (44). Chickens and hens are laid on top of one another in wire cages too small for them to even spread their wings inside dark buildings. This “overcrowded, stressful environment” leads to the birds getting their beaks cut off with a hot knife, because if not, the birds will angrily peck at each other (45). Cattle, on the other hand, are kept in stalls that they cannot even lay comfortably or turn around in. They are also branded, creating third-degree burns, and castrated. Even further, their horns are ripped out. Pigs experience branding and castration, but instead of losing horns, they lose their ears, tails, and teeth. Both cattle and pigs live in their own urine, manure, and vomit. This is where the use of half the antibiotics made in the US each year come in. An overuse of antibiotics causes both the animals and the humans who consume those animals to become resistant to medications. Chemicals such as, benzene hexachloride, chlordane, heptachlor, etc., all found in meat, poultry, seafood, and dairy products, correlate with obesity, cancer, liver and kidney failure, reproductive and nervous system disorders, birth defects, and miscarriages. Furthermore, chicken and fish have both been connected to colon cancer. Then, the use of pesticides began, and eventually, “...bologna and other luncheon meats had 102 different industrial pollutants and pesticides, fast food hamburgers had 113 residues, and hot dogs had 123…In comparison, meat contains 14 times more pesticides than plant foods...” (47). The European Economic Community has rejected meat from the United States multiple times, because of the contamination processes and excessive growth hormones uses. Growth hormones are used to produce more meat, which in turn

Slaughtering horses for human consumption in the United States started in the early 1970's. Americans do not eat horsemeat; we consider horses to be favored animals, just like dogs and cats. The idea of eating a horse, a cat, or a dog just goes against our very culture. It was foreign interests that brought the horse slaughter industry to the United States and built equine slaughterhouses here. By the 1990's, there were at least sixteen equine slaughterhouses operating all across the United States. At that time, most Americans did not even realize that such an industry even existed in their country. Over the years, the industry grew larger and people began to use slaughter as an opportune way to get rid of their undesired horses. Rather than take responsibility for their horses by either taking the time to place them in a horse sanctuary or by paying a licensed veterinarian put them down humanely, owners would ship them to a slaughter house and get paid for doing so. In today’s United States there is a debate ensuing on whether to lift the ban on equine slaughter which was enacted in 2007. There are practical as well as commercial arguments that can be made in favor of horse slaughter, and there are ethical and environmental reasons to oppose it. In this paper I plan on addressing both sides of the debate as well as explaining each sides main points.

Are factory farms actually telling the truth about how workers treat the animals?In 2011, at pig factory farms, there were much more than 5.8 million extremely small gestational crates used for mating in the United States of America. (Farm Sanctuary. N.p., n.d. 1)The community should stop purchasing Smithfield Farming products because of how the pigs are mistreated. People that buy from Smithfield are risking possibly getting food poison or sick.The average person needs to be made further aware of Smithfield’s acts.Smithfield Farms harm the animals, as a result, society should rethink buying Smithfield’s products.

Factory farms pigs are not so happy. Tails of pigs are snipped of at birth and weaned off their mothers ten days

The hog slaughtering plant located in Brendon, Manitoba has the capacity to slaughter 2.5 million hogs per year, around 50,000 per week and 10,000 per day. Hogs arrive at the slaughter plant from all over Manitoba and certain parts of Saskatchewan by trucks. Every farm is located within a different distance from the slaughter facility and delivery lead times vary from as low as half an hour to as high as three and a half hours.

Many meats that are eaten today comes from domestic animal including pork, which is derived from the animal pig. Due to the increasing demand, improvement in pig breeding technologies in the last ten years have resulted the commodity of pig production into a high-input, high-output industry (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2016). Pork has become the leading meat consumption all around the world thus accounting for over 36% intake as followed by poultry and beef (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United States, 2014). Pork’s global production is recorded to a 111 million tons. According to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agriculture Service (2016), the top ten pork producing countries are as listed from the largest to the smallest production respectively: (1) China, (2) European Union, (3) United States, (4) Brazil, (5) Russia, (6) Vietnam, (7) Canada, (8) Philippines, (9) Mexico and (10) Japan. A map below has been placed to show the top 10 pork production in the world that illustrates each countries thousand metric-tonnes of pork production in 2016.

Imported pork meat are transported to the factory where it is stored and ready for processing

what pigs eat affect quality of meat (Funk, “How to Start a Small Pig Farm” - MotherEarthNews)