I read with shame and sadness the stories out of Egypt yesterday describing the ordered mass slaughter of 350,000 hogs due to fears over swine flu. I am an omnivore and love the flavor of meat. It seems to me that humans are part of an evolving food chain stretching back millions of years. Yet, I also believe that given our position at the top of that chain, with our intellectual, emotional and spiritual capacities, we Homo sapiens have a responsibility to ethically and humanly care for all the life from which we draw our sustenance.

I have long worried about the impacts of the massive confined animal feeding operations, the so called CAFOs. They worry me because of the stress they create in animals, the pollution problems that effect air and water quality around each CAFO, and the need for continuous sub-therapeutic feeding of antibiotics to suppress disease and stimulate growth. The antibiotic issue is of particular concern to me due to the virulent infections that seem to be emerging like MRSA,Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, which are antibiotic resistant.

Whether or not these stories out of Mexico about the Smithfield hog CAFO prove to be true, if this pandemic spurs a swine holocaust my sense of shame over our mistreatment of a long allied species will be deep. I suspect I will not be the only human feeling guilty. It happens over and over. Chickens, sheep, cattle and hogs suffer slaughter when we feel threatened. We kill in mass numbers to stem the source of infection or so we think. The mass killings seem more like an ancient ritual, perhaps more psychologically therapeutic, than preventative in these modern times.

The farmers and ranchers suffer too. Their long-tended herds are lost and they must start again. This is costly in time, money and emotion. A quote from an Egyptian Agriculture Ministry official in a news story today was especially troubling. He said the farmers would not be hurt because they can sell their meat. Obviously, this official has little understanding of supply and demand pricing in a commodity system. The price will crash when 350,000 hog bellies hit the market in one week.

The root of the problem is that we are treating biological systems as if they are factories. Yes hogs like herds, but not in confined places. The herds are sometimes very large. On more than one occasion, I have seen dozens of feral pigs running together in the coastal mountains of California. Hogs have been domesticated for 7,000-10,000 years. So we have lived with them in villages for millennia. But only in recent decades, have we turned hogs into cogs in our meat manufacturing sites that house tens of thousands of animals in one place. The industrial hog factories forgo the chance to provide every hog with heaven on earth before the hogs provide nutrition to people. Hog heaven before slaughter seems like a better deal for all involved in light of recent developments.

There are still some farmers willing to pasture their pigs. It costs more, but the pigs, farms, and communities are happier and healthier. The Niman Ranch farmers in Iowa and Poly Face Farm in Virginia are two of the best known, but there are many others, particularly family farmers serving regional buyers. Perhaps if the world got back to pasturing pork and hog heaven, the stress, pollution and pandemics – today’s clear and present dangers – would no longer be so closely associated with swine. That is my hope anyway for the “other white meat” so many of us love to eat.