Hans Noeldner's posts often chide us for our lifestyle choices. An editorial from
The Thomah Journal picks up on Hans' theme:
In Monroe County, it’s wind turbines.
In Vernon County, it’s hogs.
Vernon County residents are debating whether to allow a confinement hog operation, and the issues wind turbines and hogs are remarkably similar. In Monroe County, the controversy over wind turbines exposes the gap between how much energy we want to consume and how little tolerance we have for living anywhere near where energy is produced. In Vernon County, the proposed hog operation exposes the gap between how much meat we consume and how little tolerance we have for living anywhere near a facility that efficiently produces it.
Jeff and Bonnie Parr want to build an operation with 2,400 hogs in the Vernon County town of Sterling. These operations can’t help but generate controversy. Thousands of pigs squeezed into a small area create runoff and manure problems, groundwater contamination, and extremely pungent odors. While the magnitude of the environmental and health impacts are subjects of debate, the belief that large hog operations make unpleasant neighbors is not.
Yet confinement hog operations produce something that consumers clearly want: cheap pork. Americans are voracious meat eaters, and free-range agriculture can’t begin to satisfy a population that places hamburgers, hot dogs and bratwursts at the base of the food pyramid. A population that eats more fruits and vegetables maintains a cleaner and prettier environment, but Americans have displayed no inclination to forsake a meat-first diet.
The stories of windmills and hog farms confront citizens with an uncomfortable truth: Our energy and food consumption patterns produce unpleasant consequences. There is no clean or aesthetic way to satisfy our demand for energy. There is no clean or aesthetic way to satisfy our desire to eat meat three times per day. Until we confront these facts like honest adults, disputes over wind turbines and hog farms will be a way of life in rural Wisconsin.
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