Those of you who know me - or at least know my online presence - are aware that I am very much a believer in
incorporating liberal ideals into our daily lives.
Why? Because we can't vote every day, and all the other stuff we're up to is great - credit unions, video ads, protests, blog journalism - big thumbs up. But those are sometimes pie-in-the-sky goals, and it feels good to do something and know that right away, you are making (however small) a difference.
So - after that shameless bit of self-promotion - here's my cause du jour:
If You Eat Pork, Buy Organic
The Senate is back in session again this week, so while they work on bringing home the bacon, here is some information about some bacon that might affect the environment near you.
Here's why pork is on the radar. I first heard about this issue on Bobby Kennedy's radio show, Ring of Fire (if you click the link you can listen to the show segment).
The blurb on the site reads:
The pork industry is now one of the worst polluters in the U.S., thanks to massive "hog factories" that spew animal waste into vast lagoons, fouling the air and water with dangerous bacteria. Bobby talks with North Carolina fisherman Rick Dove, an ex-Marine and former Republican who now patrols the Neuse River as a water quality monitor for Waterkeeper Alliance.
The fisherman on the show had noticed significant (bad) changes in the Neuse River and he went looking for the cause. The cause was the corporate pig farms. There is a way to deal with the amounts of waste generated by the pigs - that's how we deal with human waste. Corporate pig farms choose not to deal with the waste properly though. It would cost them so much money to do so that they would no longer have any advantage from economies of scale over individual family pig farms. Instead they use what they call the "lagoon" method, polluting North Carolina's natural environment.
If you've got a minute, I highly recommend you take a listen to the pig farm segment of the show.
How to Help
If you're not up for a total lifestyle overhaul (such as going vegetarian), here are a few easy choices. If one idea's too extreme or difficult for you, pick the next best one that you can do.
1. Give up pork.
2. If you can't do that, buy only organic pork at home and make sure in restaurants you either eat organic pork or none at all.
3. If you can't do that, buy only organic pork at home, but eat whatever kind of pork the restaurant serves.
4. If you can't do that, at least limit your portions of pork to a reasonable serving. Americans eat very large servings of meat, but nutritionists say that one serving of meat is only 3-4 oz. A serving of meat should be the size of a deck of cards.
There's often a price premium attached with buying organic, but if you can afford it, it's worthwhile. There's a price premium attached to conventionally-grown food too, but it's an environmental price that we pay instead of a monetary one. Fortunately, though it's still not a big enough market segment to make the changes we need, organic food's market share is growing.