How often do you think about the pig that became your pork?
We’re a nation that has been passionately obsessed with bacon the past several years, but the pig that became that bacon? He’s not getting quite the same love.
It was national news yesterday when the Humane Society of the United States released video of alleged abuses at Oklahoma farms run by two of the country’s largest pork producers: Prestage Farms and Seaboard Foods (which is based out of Merriam, Kansas). The Humane Society staged operations wherein the video was shot covertly by employees near the end of 2011. Seaboard President Terry Holton released a statement on Seaboard’s website that disputed any allegations of abuse and noted the company’s commitment to the “proper and humane treatment of animals.”
The pigs, not the bacon, are in the news right now, but the news cycle will move on at some point. But while we’re here — how often do you think about the pig that became your pork?
