Blog Post #4: Environmental geography of your breakfast

    When reflecting on my breakfast of pancakes, bacon, hash browns, fruit, eggs and apple pie, it can be concluded that the product that is having the greatest environmental effects is bacon. Bacon production is a problem. Its production is having adverse environmental consequences that can be considered at many different scales. At the national and global scale, there are actions that can be taken to reduce the environmental impacts associated with bacon. More recently, pig slaughterhouses have switched from stunning them with electricity to gassing them with carbon dioxide. This production and release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions contribute to climate change which is a global issue. Banning the use of carbon dioxide in slaughterhouses would require a new method of slaughter for pork production which is a limitation to this. This source provides more information on the impact of gassing pigs in relation to climate change: https://sentientmedia.org/bacon-carbon-dioxide-link/    

    When considering the local scale of solutions to bacon productions' affect on the environment, the biggest issue is runoff from pig manure. Pig farms spread their manure on nearby fields which inevitably causes runoff into water sources, polluting them. Pig farms should receive an alternative method to dispose of the manure in order to limit this pollution. Alternatively, the manure could be spread at a rate that the soil can absorb without access. Policies by local government could be put in place in order to enforce this. A limitation to this alternative is that many farmers want to use this manure to help their crops grow, and they could have hesitancy towards the idea. 

*Image displaying how runoff from manure enters water sources

    At the household scale, for individuals to do their part in limiting their impact on the environment through pork production there is a clear solution. Bacon production is supported by the demand for it from the consumer, so if the demand for the supply is diminished, its effects could be limited. The best solution to this issue is for individuals to stop their consumption of bacon. There are bacon alternatives such as plant based bacon that have far less environmental consequences. Skipping one serving of bacon, which would be 4 strips, per week for a year would eliminate 1,050 lbs of manure. This statistic exemplifies the impact individual households can have.