Green Ham?

The latest drug being trotted out to the agriculture industry is Paylean, a feed additive that causes an 8 percent reduction in pig manure and maintains pork production with fewer pigs. They say it's "green."

What they don't say quite as eagerly is that they've received reports from farmers on stressed out, hyperactive, vomiting, shaking, and downer pigs, plus a 10 percent mortality rate in animals who had been given Paylean-laced feed. The industry doesn't care about the increased death and disability rate in animals because they're getting more output per animal, which is the faulty logic they use to claim Paylean is a green drug.

Manufacturers note that the drug is FDA-approved for feed, but it is also labeled "Not for use in humans" and is banned in 160 nations. Protective clothing and eyewear, impervious gloves, and dust masks are recommended when handling the drug, particularly for people with cardiovascular disease. (All this for a little less manure!)

But once a farmer suits up to distribute the Paylean to his pigs, that's not the last he'll see of it.

Paylean is given close to slaughter, and up to 20 percent of the drug remains in the animal's tissue. At least some of the other 80 percent ends up in groundwater and runoff from the farms. Thanks, to the power of lobbying, similar drugs are also given cattle and turkeys, with similar pain and suffering for the animals and similar disregard for human safety.

Here's the other piece that factory farmers, and some sustainable food advocates, keep forgetting: Something is "environmentally-friendly" because it doesn't harm to the world around it -- not just the water and air, but also the people and animals. Some people tend to forget, or ignore, the "cradle-to-grave" aspect of environmentalism. In other words, the impact of the entire life cycle (a term that refers to products, which in this case are living things) needs to be considered.

If your practices continue to cause animal suffering -- whether it's pre-birth in the gestation crates or a crippled downer before death -- it doesn't matter if there are fewer pigs with less manure on the land during their lives. So in addition to being cruel, Paylean is decidedly not green.

I'd stay far away from that so-called green ham, Sam-I-am. The drug is used in 45 percent of U.S. pigs, so, like every other abhorrent factory farm practice, it's not easy to avoid if you're still eating meat, unless you're buying from a local farmer whose practices you can vouch for.

Photo credit: pvera