This Little Piggy Went To Market. This Little Piggy Went...
by Linda Marte
"Workers say they are overwhelmed as they attempt to drag nearly 7,000 pig carcasses from a river in Shanghai...
"Meat producers in China sometimes sell animals that have died from disease, instead of disposing of them, amid lax food safety laws.
Around half of the world's 1.3m pigs slaughtered annually for meat are raised in China, many of which are reared in intensive farms which have been accused of promoting the spread of disease.
In 2007, an outbreak of high fever blue ear disease in pigs in China affected 50 million animals."
(Photo image and news credit: news.sky.com)
And this coming on the heels of discovering more than 3,300 dead pigs in the Shanghi River within a matter of days before this! We are blessed to live in a country where laws are enforced to prevent such things from happening here in the US... Right? And our laws protect us, because they are enforced, from the effects of such news stories that we are seeing happening in other parts of the world like China...Right?
"10.1
DISPOSAL OF DEAD ANIMALS
Commercial livestock operations are normally subject to mortalities and therefore generate many carcasses for disposal. Proper disposal of dead livestock is extremely important to protect the health of both people and livestock. Any animal carcass may contain bacteria and other disease organisms that can infect humans directly or through contamination of a residential water supply. Disposal of dead livestock must be in accordance with the Waste Materials Disposal Act. Mortalities must be kept in a secure and frozen state if not disposed of within 48 hours of the time of death. A secure state would be one where scavenger animals such as coyotes, wolves (in Labrador), dogs and birds are prevented from access to the mortalities. Disposal is specified to be by delivery to a rendering plant, burial, composting or incineration. Leaving mortalities outside for scavengers to feed on is not an acceptable method of dead animal disposal. Rendering Delivery of the carcasses to a rendering company is the preferred method for disposing of dead animals..." (source nr.gov.nl...)
"6 Any animal that has a separate hoof that is completely divided and also chews the cud, these animals you may eat. 7 But you are not to eat those that only chew the cud or only have a divided hoof. For example, the camel, the hare and the coney are unclean for you because they chew the cud but don't have a separate hoof; 8 while the pig is unclean for you because, although it has a separate hoof, it doesn't chew the cud. You are not to eat meat from these or touch their carcasses." Deuteronomy 8 CJB
From 1980 to 2011, the number of hog operations in the U.S. dropped from 666,000 to roughly 69,000, yet the number of hogs sold remains almost the same.
About 70% of U.S. beef cattle come from farms with at least 5,000 head of cattle.
Ten large companies produce more than 90 percent of the nation's poultry.
"Giant livestock farms, which can house hundreds of thousands of pigs, chickens, or cows, produce vast amounts of manure, often generating the waste equivalent of a small city. A problem of this nature and scale is tough to imagine, and pollution from livestock farms seriously threatens humans, fish and ecosystems....
Facts about Pollution from Livestock Farms
Giant livestock farms, which can house hundreds of thousands of pigs, chickens, or cows, produce vast amounts of manure, often generating the waste equivalent of a small city. A problem of this nature and scale is tough to imagine, and pollution from livestock farms seriously threatens humans, fish and ecosystems. Below are facts and statistics that tell the story.
Livestock pollution and public health
California officials identify agriculture, including cows, as the major source of nitrate pollution in more than 100,000 square miles of polluted groundwater.
In 1996 the Centers for Disease Control established a link between spontaneous abortions and high nitrate levels in Indiana drinking water wells located close to feedlots.
High levels of nitrates in drinking water also increase the risk of methemoglobinemia, or "blue-baby syndrome," which can kill infants.
Animal waste contains disease-causing pathogens, such as Salmonella, E. coli, Cryptosporidium, and fecal coliform, which can be 10 to 100 times more concentrated than in human waste. More than 40 diseases can be transferred to humans through manure.
Manure from dairy cows is thought to have contributed to the disastrous Cryptosporidium contamination of Milwaukee's drinking water in 1993, which killed more than 100 people, made 400,000 sick and resulted in $37 million in lost wages and productivity.
In this country, roughly 29 million pounds of antibiotics -- about 80 percent of the nation's antibiotics use in total -- are added to animal feed every year, mainly to speed livestock growth. This widespread use of antibiotics on animals contributes to the rise of resistant bacteria, making it harder to treat human illnesses.
Large hog farms emit hydrogen sulfide, a gas that most often causes flu-like symptoms in humans, but at high concentrations can lead to brain damage. In 1998, the National Institute of Health reported that 19 people died as a result of hydrogen sulfide emissions from manure pits.
Livestock pollution and water pollution
Huge open-air waste lagoons, often as big as several football fields, are prone to leaks and spills. In 1995 an eight-acre hog-waste lagoon in North Carolina burst, spilling 25 million gallons of manure into the New River. The spill killed about 10 million fish and closed 364,000 acres of coastal wetlands to shellfishing.
In 2011, an Illinois hog farm spilled 200,000 gallons of manure into a creek, killing over 110,000 fish.
In 2012, a California dairy left over 50 manure covered cow carcasses rotting around its property and polluting nearby waters.
When Hurricane Floyd hit North Carolina in 1999, at least five manure lagoons burst and approximately 47 lagoons were completely flooded.
Runoff of chicken and hog waste from factory farms in Maryland and North Carolina is believed to have contributed to outbreaks of Pfiesteria piscicida, killing millions of fish and causing skin irritation, short-term memory loss and other cognitive problems in local people.
Nutrients in animal waste cause algal blooms, which use up oxygen in the water, contributing to a "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico where there's not enough oxygen to support aquatic life. The dead zone fluctuates in size each year, extending a record 8,500 square miles during the summer of 2002 and stretching over 7,700 square miles during the summer of 2010.
Ammonia, a toxic form of nitrogen released in gas form during waste disposal, can be carried more than 300 miles through the air before being dumped back onto the ground or into the water, where it causes algal blooms and fish kills. (source: NRDC)
I think this is "why" and I think it is safe to say all of the above information is the "cause & effect" of "Torahlessness." We were given all the "safe handling" and the list of "clean and unclean meats" according to YHWH's Laws. Will the US make teshuva (repentance)? Will the Chinese and the rest world repent? I think it is a pretty "safe guess" if we can say, No.
For more information regarding; "Facts about Pollution from Livestock" visit:
http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/ffarms.asp
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