Albert Einstein is said to have said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and hoping for different results.

            A Sept. 18 article in The Guardian titled "A 12 story pig farm:  Has China found a way to tackle animal disease?" explains an insane response to pig diseases.  In case you missed it, China lost and killed 200 million pigs last year due to African Swine Fever.  But it's been hit with H1N1 swine flu and foot and mouth disease as well.  Some of these diseases are jumping to humans. 

             Why China?  According to one expert quoted, it's due to the "enormous density of pigs and chickens, most produced by small-to-medium-sized farms with poor biosecurity . . . "  Other culprits:  not enough vets and overuse and misuse of antibiotics, transport networks, wet markets and poor slaughterhouses.  For the record, none of this has to do with scale; the insinuation that scale has anything to do with hygiene and sanitation is completely false. While small outfits can be filthy, they certainly don't have to be.  The prejudicial scale argument is false.  It's like saying you can't keep your pet as clean as a kennel.  Hogwash.

             A Chinese director of animal hygiene explains the shift to large farms "for better hygiene and pollution control."  The article introduces us to the answer, which is 12 story massive pig factories with 1,270 sows per floor on a farm cranking out nearly a million pigs a year. 

             As if that were not enough to curl your toes, imagine being employed there.  You come to work and go through a 3-stage multi-day quarantine process of swab cultures and disinfectants.  Finally you get to go to the employee quarters, where you must live until your next day off.  You can't leave the farm, go to town, nothing.  Oh, they provide recreation options on site.

             Please realize that these are the people who bought America's Smithfield pork company.  Also realize that extremely smart people, absolutely well intentioned and sincere, believe with all their hearts that this is the answer for food security.  One of the farm's (I shudder to use the term) signature innovations is a separate pipe network to send dead piggies into a biosecure area for incineration.   Not a stitch of carbon is in this operation; no bedding, no composting.

             Quit reading.  Look up, close your eyes for a moment, and imagine what it would be like to work in a place like this.  Now imagine being a pig and living in a place like this.  Go ahead, let your imagination run for a bit.  Imagine the stench, the concrete, the hardness, the clanging, the steel, the mechanical motions of everyone and everything.  Sterile.  It's like sci-fi, except it's real.

             Now ask yourself this:  "If I were trying to contain a virulent disease coursing through my city, is this what I would do?  Would I cram everyone into a hospital?"

             Folks, nothing about this model makes sense philosophically, morally, or scientifically.  And yet the brightest minds on the planet not only conceived this as a solution, but built it and have faith in it for tomorrow's food security. Pod cast hosts ask me with giddy excitement:  "Are we winning?  Are people waking up?" 

             In our foodie silos and our know-your-farmer-know-your-food support groups, it's easy to lose perspective that we are still a tiny subculture.  Most of the world worships at this pig factory church.  I'm not pessimistic; I'm simply realistic about where we are in a continuum.  We have a long way to go.  So don't quit.  Don't get discouraged.  You still have plenty of time to change the world.  If this were a game of football, we'd be in the first minute.  That means much opportunity awaits, so let's be diligent to play well, consistently and persistently, until we win.

             Do you think in all their research to come up with this plan that anyone thought to ask the pigs what they'd like?