Potty-training factory-farmed animals in an effort to curb pollution? That’s what Taiwan’s Environmental Protection Administration is proposing. Last week, the government agency said that it wants to train free-range pigs to urinate and defecate in certain areas in order to prevent them from relieving themselves in (and thereby polluting) rivers and streams.
The problem is, the tremendous amount of waste produced by the 6 million pigs raised and killed annually in Taiwan still must be disposed of somehow. And this measure doesn’t even begin to address pigs’ carbon emissions. According to the United Nations, raising animals for food is a leading contributor to climate change.
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| Joost J Bakker IJmuiden/cc by 2.0 |
Maybe the Taiwanese government should take the lead globally and say, “Enough is enough.” The best way to curb waste and pollution and slow climate change is to say bye-bye to factory farms.
