Today's freedom from trichinosis comes at a high cost. Just ask farmers and ranchers who are downstream from a modern disease free pig farm and have to deal with the thousands of gallons of pig effluent washing down from the concrete and steel pens where the pigs are kept by "farmers" who dress in scrubs similar to those worn in surgical suites at the local hospital.
That flies in the face of the European experience which has never gone the route of the massive pig barns with horrible husbandry practices. In North America, due to repeated public exposure of 'bad' practice, much is changing today.
The reason for the sanitary practices is to prevent epidemics of viral pig diseases (most of which are in the USA and have been kept at bay in Canada due to such practices).
The piglets are born by cesarian section so they will not be contaminated by the birth process and will spend their entire lives on a sterile concrete pad.
Maybe that's true where you are, but it sure isn't the practice above the 49th.
... Of course that might also make a substantial dent in the carbon footprint and global warming as well.
This is whole different kettle of shite – and probably one requiring its own thread.
Global warming is a myth – prevarication and delusion at their finest. The evidence adduced contradicts the theories, such as CO2 and other greenhouse gases cause warming; the relationship is in the opposite direction. The whole issue is now so highly politicized with vast amounts of money involved that it borders on hysteria, with science taking a back seat to vested interests.
The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) reports pretty much tell the same story, but the summaries of same select out only the doomsday scenarios.
A short-and-sweet exposition of the facts can be had in the 2007 documentary
The Great Global Warming Swindle (available on DVD – 60 minutes of documentary + 60 minutes of additional material from leading climate scientists).
There has
always been climate change — some gradual, some abrupt — and here we are. As for global temperature variation over the millennia, it's pretty clear from the scientific evidence that its proximate cause is cloudiness and its ultimate cause is solar activity.
Go back in history and look at the Medieval Warm Period (ca AD 900-1500) followed abruptly by the Little Ice Age (ca AD 1550-1850) and draw conclusions based on real measurements. The MWP, when temperatures were even higher than today or 'predicted' to be, was a time of wealth and creativity (eg, massive cathedral building).
Most of the world's ills could be resolved, as suggested, by a halving of its population.
Ignore the keening climate-change Jeremiahs. Fixing Earth's woes won't cost a penny. Just look around to witness how troubles are being resolved. The medium is the message.
Gaia (or, if you will, Mother Nature) has everything under control: Of course people are the problem, and her favorite means for self-preservation and to cure the problem are war, famine and pestilence. Once she culls the herd to effect a reasonable carrying capacity, environmental degradation will cease and all will be well. So ...
Don't worry. Be happy. Carry on regardless.
Simply put: Overpopulation is the disease. All else abusive to Gaia constitutes merely symptoms. Symptomatic relief does not cure the disease.
