Bush EPA Gives Factory Farms a Free Ride

So here's yet another piece of evidence that, under Bush, EPA stands for "Encouraging Pollution Association." Factory farms, which stink up the Midwest (formerly a very sweet-smelling region) with their mounds of animal shit, are going to be exempted from the Clean Air Act for two years if they provide data about their emissions. Wow, good idea. Especially since the Clean Air Act already requires polluters to provide data about their emissions. Methane, one of the main emissions of these farms, is one of the worst greenhouse gases, so I'm sure this won't kill us or anything.

Ahh, yet another good reason not to eat meat. (And no, saving poor animals is not a good reason. We're omnivores, life feeds on life, and meat is occasionally delicious.) These farms are a direct result of our overconsumption of meat, and exist solely to keep the price of meat low enough and the supply plentiful enough so that the moo people can continue to buy McHeartAttacks for less than $5. There are so many problems with factory farms, I don't even know where to start. They pollute badly, not just with methane and other air emissions but the shit seeps into groundwater. Plus it's f-ing cruel to the animals. They're like concentration camps for pigs. (And just because I think it's OK to eat meat doesn't mean I think it's OK to mistreat animals. Our ancestors paid respect to the animals they killed, and we should, too, damnit. Eat free-range, people.)