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The Mad Hatter world of industrial agriculture has announced another victory: the University of Guelph in Canada has genetically engineered pigs whose manure contains 30-70% less phosphorus than that of regular pigs.

If you're one of those crazy soil-gardeners who believe that manure is heavenly and should be revered, well ... clearly you don't manage an intensive hog operation. These factory farms are dealing with an environmental (not to mention ethical) crisis: phosphorus pollution of surface and groundwater, as a result of the massive manure lagoons and run-off.

Developed in 1999, and now on its way to commercial production and a place on grocery store shelves, the EnviropigTM is apparently the solution. Perhaps we should instead question the problem. Intensive hog "farms," cattle feedlots, and intensive egg production and poultry facilities are creating toxic wastelands, treating the animal inmates as nothing more than animated foodstuffs.

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© Friends of Family FarmersHog confinement operations typically consist of a sow barn containing an average of 5,000 sows, a nursery barn with about 19,000 piglets, and a finishing barn with 12,000 to 14,000 pigs.
In contrast, small-scale agriculture sees manure as a necessary part of building healthy soil and producing nutritious, healthy food. "Everything in moderation" is the key to a sustainable model of agriculture, and clearly the intensive, industrial models we've adopted are not working.

So, What's For Dinner?

The Enviropig is now on its way to landing on Canadian plates, with Environment Canada recently determining that the Enviropigs are in compliance with the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, and therefore can be produced outside of the research context in controlled facilities. Submissions have been made to Health Canada and other federal agencies - including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2007 - to have the pigs approved for human consumption and commercialization. At this time, no country has approved products derived from genetically engineered animals for human or animal consumption.

But given our North American governments' laissez faire attitude toward genetically modified food, Enviropigs will no doubt soon appear as bacon, sausages and ham on grocery store shelves. The best part? We won't even be able to tell, because both Canada and the U.S. refuse to require mandatory labeling of genetically modified food.