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Poop problem from Industrial Hog Farming

Hi Everyone! In today’s post, I would be sharing a short discussion around a Hog farming pollution problem in North Carolina. This post was inspired by a youtube video created by Vox. Do check out the video below

The video described a massive problem with industrial Hog farming, where a large number of animals are kept in small places producing large amounts of manure. The manure is then sprayed into a nearby crop field as a waste disposal strategy. However, this releases a large amount of Methane, Carbon dioxide, Ammonia and Hydrogen Sufied into the air. This was found to increase rates of Asthma, Respiratory diseases, headaches and even premature death in the area.

Furthermore, when manure enters groundwater and water bodies, this releases nitrates, phosphorus and Fecal bacteria that cause illnesses in people and algae blooms.

Currently, one of the potential solutions to this poop problem is to process and treat the waste before using it for irrigation. See the diagram below provided in the video. However, this solution is not economically viable and has not been implemented.

This incident illustrates the complexity of solving pollution from food production. As long as consumers are price-sensitive, producers have little incentive to reduce the intensity of farming and properly manage waste from food production. Stay tune for more blog posts on food production.

References:

Vox (2022). Hog farming has a massive poop problem. Retrieved on 20th January, 2022 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsUNylsiDH8

How pollutive is food production?

Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Pollutive Food, where I share updates and discussions around the pollution arising from food production. Since this is one of the first posts, I would be sharing some statistics and existing research on the topic.

From beef steaks, lobster rolls and even white rice, there is an entire trail of environmental pollution behind it’s production and eventual distribution. Food production which involves the use of fertilisers, management of animal manure and even electricity, produces a vast amount of pollutants.

Past studies have found that the Agriculture sector produces 30% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, 2.5 times more than global transport (Smetana et. al., 2015).  Apart from greenhouse gases, manure from livestock rearing also produces a large amount of phosphorus and nitrogen pollutants (Michel, Hartmann & Siegrist, 2021).

Worse of all, global food production is expected to increase by 70% in 2050, worsening the already enormous amount of pollution from food production (Smetana et. al., 2015). Therefore, there have been urgent calls for the transition towards less pollutive methods of food production. But are those alternative food production methods better? Stay tuned for future discussions.

 

References:

Smetana, S., Mathys, A., Knoch, A., & Heinz, V. (2015). Meat alternatives: Life cycle assessment of most known meat substitutes. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 20(9), 1254-1267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0931-6

Michel, F., Hartmann, C., & Siegrist, M. (2021). Consumers’ associations, perceptions and acceptance of meat and plant-based meat alternatives. Food Quality and Preference, 87, 104063. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104063

Feature Image from https://unsplash.com/photos/x4QaRXytmow

Introducing Pollutive Food

Hi Everyone! I am Joel, a Geography Major from the National University of Singapore (NUS). As part of GE4237 Environmental Pollution, I would be maintaining this blog on pollution from food production.

For the next 12 weeks, I will be writing regularly on the production of various foodstuffs ranging from crops, livestock and even meat alternatives. I will be discussing the various types of pollutants, environmental/human impacts and evaluate potential solutions. Hope you will have a good time reading this blog. Do feel free to comment and share your thoughts

Signing off,

Joel Ng

Featured Image from https://unsplash.com/photos/sJ7pYyJFyuA

 

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