can we change the picture on this one? that's very disturbing. i mean, i know it's reality, but that doesn't make it necessary to show a very cruel image.

I hope every omnivorous Treehugger remembers this picture every time they bite into a ham sandwich.

I hope this wasted food isn't other animals. Wasn't BSE and nv-CJD blamed on bovine canabalism? The pig carcass picture and the vague pig-free text suggest you think it is the porcine equivalent.

This is truly the metaphorical 'lipstick on a pig'.

I would ask all readers to take a closer look at the environmental impact of eating meat.

This is particularly true for feedlot beef.
Even if you don't believe in GW due to GHGs, the benefits of cutting way back on meat consumption are many, including; aquifer depletion, nitrate depletion, phosphate depletion, excess use of fossil fuels, animal waste runoff, damage to freshwater and marine ecosystems, etc. etc. and so on.

I totally accept the author's last point to go VEG. I mean environment includes everyone (pig too). Lets conserve everybody and lets not deny its life to exist.

Thats green too.

Venu

If it's cruel, but reality, maybe anyone who perceives it as cruel yet eats pork (or other animal flesh) might think of reevaluating their choice on ethical grounds...

I'd have to agree with Sam. Please change this photo. It's seriously disturbing.

Just think of all the meat vegans are wasting!

Thank you for posting that picture. I hope that people who choose to eat animals are offended by it and choose otherwise. It is very unappetizing to see the pork as it really is, a pile of dead pigs.

Few people know that they are eating babies on their pizza, in their sandwich, most pigs are harvested at 6 months old.

be an example - do it for the animals - do it for us all.
GO VEGAN!!!!!!!!!!

What's cruel? The carcasses are obviously dead. Aren't you a member of the "reality-based community"? Not really? Oh.

I get the same reaction from many people I talk to. They never want to see pictures of what they are eating, let alone seeing bones, or veins, or skin that reminds them they are eating something real.

I think that if people can't accept (relatively tame) pictures of what they are eating, they aren't mature enough to eat meat.

Actually, the picture on this one inspired my first question: which wasted food will be used? Plant or animal? I think we've already learned the lessons of forcing farmed animals to be cannibals.

Well, some of us have: the USDA seems determined to not find Mad Cow disease in American beef—so determined it reduces the percentage of animals tested every time another case is discovered.

Thank you for posting the photo. Treehugger shouldn't shy away from the real issues. That photo shows how the modern food industry functions, or at least one small part of it. Sad, isn't it.

As for BSE, the original article clearly states that the recycled food waste (from shops and convenience stores, not from personal homes) is not used for cattle, due to strict Japanese feed rules. Let's hope the people involved are honest enough and respecting the rules.

- Martin

First off that's not disgusting it's one tasty looking pile of bacon. Second those pigs would not exist because someone was going to cut them up and eat them.
The farmers fed them all their lives now it is their turn to feed the farmer.

I actually did see this image and think of a ham sandwich. As an omnivore I see nothing wrong with the picture above. I would prefer Berkshire pork being processed by a local butcher in small batches but the above image isn't as repellant to a knowledgeable omnivore as some here may think.
As to the issue of processing scrap and waste foods containing meats into feed for chickens and pigs, I think it is a bad idea. Japan has laws against allowing sheep and cattle to consume sheep and cattle meat but allow it to do so with chickens and pigs. BSE is not the only prion disease and allowing any animal you eat to consume its own kind is a bad idea. Especially one as genetically similar to humans to pigs are.

Here is somethign that should be noted about feeding food waste to pigs, which has been banned in the US since the 70's.

Trichinosis, which is caused by a parasitic worm is a lethal infection humans (and bears) can get from eating undercooked infected pork.

Utilizing food waste was the biggest distributor of this disease in north america.

I know vegan's are against meat, but utilizing animals is one of the ways humans can turn material we can't normally eat (cellulose and grass) into food sources. Now, current methods (feed lots and grain) are energy intensive, free range animals take resources that humans can't normally use and turn that into food. Very important in a world going to 8 billion people.

As humans, we have to learn to utilize every sustainable resource on the planet.

As an omnivore, even I have to admit that the picture above was disturbing. However, I think vegetarians and vegans should stop with the moralizing because plants are life too! They grow and are susceptible to sickness and death, just like animals are. So really, what's the difference? That we can't hear a plant screaming when it's cut?

Now, giving up meat because it's resource-intensive to raise cattle and the like--that's a different story.

Americans are 4 generations from the farm, and tend not to think of the realities of farming. My own animals that I raise specifically to sell or eat are treated with kindness and respect. The pigs have a pen that is moved every week so they can dig up more soil, the chicken like thier fenced area and feel safe there. They Want to get back in if the escape.
The best steak I have ever had was from stears I raised my-self. The truth is they eat what I can not, and produce food that I can eat. They would not exist if I had not raised them. If I cut down the fences and set them all free the Mountain lions and cayotes would eat them in no time. They eat my weeds, garden and kitchen waste, and fertilize my soil and feed seven of us.