Pig Shit Study Gives New Meaning to the Term Pork
As I have written about before the $410 billion omnibus spending bill contains over eight hundred earmarks. They range from funding la Raza to mosquito research to “mormon” crickets in Utah. (For a list of some of the more outrageous earmarks check out this article.)
As despicable as I find the nearly $1 million that is headed to la Raza I wanted to focus on another earmark that is in this bill. I think it sums up the bill quite nicely.
There is nearly $2 million designated for “swine odor and manure management.”
Two million dollars to manage the smell of pigs, and I assume the removal of pig shit. Just for the record this pork belongs to Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa. This is where our tax dollars are going. What are they currently doing with the pig shit and why can’t they continue to do what they are doing with it? Why do they need this money? Can’t they use it for fertilizer? (The pig shit not the money, but really does it matter which?)
This is the type of spending that just makes a person shake his head in amusement. It is of no use to even get angry at this type of waste. You just have to laugh when you see this to keep from crying at the thought of how these people are spending our money.
And I thought that during the campaign then candidate Obama said this about Sarah Palin “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig.” You sure as hell can buy quite a bit of lipstick with $2 million.
This particular earmark in this bill is symbolic of what is wrong with Washington, the bill is full of shit, literally. And the man who claimed that he would veto any bill with any pork is going to break his promise and sign this bill, one could probably also apply that last sentence to the man who will sign this bill.
America's Watchtower 
I must respectfully say that your argument is extremely shortsighted. The waste produced by modern agricultural practices represents an enormous problem, one the government is in a unique position to solve.
Have you stopped to consider what a colossal problem waste from large swine farms presents? Arguments for or against factory farms withstanding, it certainly cannot be debated that lots of pigs equal lots of waste. tons of it.
The waste from these large pig farms are a horrendous challenge to deal with. It can leach into the water table contaminating drinking water. Nutrient rich waste can also wreak havoc on the balance of environmental systems. For example, when massive amounts of nitrogen get into ponds, it triggers explosive plant growth. They grow so much in fact, they end up killing off basically all the other life in the pond, creating a dead pond (this happens on larger scales in rivers and streams and lakes). Additionally, as you alluded to, pig farms STINK. And not the precious, 20 head of cattle, just get used to it smell. The stink is a community crippling, noxious stench that extends for miles upon mile upon miles.
Again, dealing with this problem is really a problem of scale. The waste of a few pigs is easy to deal with, just go spread it on the fields. The waste isn’t a natural disaster because nature is actually pretty good at taking care of animal waste in smaller more natural volumes. But when you have an incredibly unnatural amounts of waste, like a lagoon system containing a half million gallons of pig poo, you actually need a fairly sophisticated system of distribution to move the waste, and to help deal with the waste as it is created.
To get these sophisticated systems you need to pay experts to study the problem and develop these systems. As I see it you can either fund this R&D through private or government monies. Government studies funded by government money are uniquely appropriate for this task because they are less likely to be swayed by individual interests within the industry. Moreover their results will be accessible not only to all farmers within the industry, but also to the public ensuring that what they find and develop is more likely to be implemented. Additionally, the government can provide subsidies to farms to put in more modern equipment, something they wouldn’t have the monetary incentive to do on their own, but would help the community in the long run.
So yeah, in my opinion the government can put all the money they want to solving practical problems.
here’s a positive example of government funded research developing new ways to deal with pig poo:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/mar05/pig0305.htm
here’s an example of a town ruined by a local pig farm:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/09/24/soo_wee__phooey/
The next time you write a blog post, you might want to do a 10 second google search to answer your own questions.
“What are they currently doing with the pig shit and why can’t they continue to do what they are doing with it? Why do they need this money? Can’t they use it for fertilizer?”
LikeLike
they are all animals,,,,,, get the f***ck away from sh*t sticks, they all suck,,,,,,and this it seems will never channnge,THEY NEED IT ALL!!!!! THEY WANT IT ALLLL!!!!!!GREEDY F***CKS GOD AMN !!!!! And Im just try in’ to live …man what a bitch!!!400-00a gallon fuck u peopleel im gonna find an alternative and im gonna have a life if you cock suckers like it or not!!!! fuck the nsa> fbi and all the rest of you over paid cock sucks!irs ECT.
LikeLike