Iowa's Senator Harkin defends federal research for hog smells. Harkin reasons: One hog produces as much odor as 8 humans. With 20 million hogs in Iowa that is the equivalent of 160 million humans in a state with 3 million "real" humans.
I agree with the research, but for a different reason: Americans love cheap, high quality meat. In the old days farmers - like my family - used to raise a couple hundred of hogs at any time. The smell was the smell. But rank air and water pollution were not a problem. As a kid I'd hear, "That's the smell of money." I never understood the phrase. Mom worked in a bank. It smelled much nicer.
Now hogs are raised in confinement in batches of thousands. Not a good thing, but it's reality. The resulting waste is choking our streams and creating an incredible stench across Iowa.
It is appropriate for the government to research hog manure. I'd prefer the research be funded more directly with a tiny tax on all pork. That way the pork spending wouldn't look so much like pork spending.
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