A Defense of Pig Odor Research
EmailABC News’ Z. Byron Wolf reports: As Republicans and anti-government waste groups rally against so-called pork barrel spending in the massive government funding bill currently before the Senate, they have settled on the $1.8 million earmarked in the bill by Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin for the study and management of swine odor and waste as one of their favorite targets. A pork-odor related earmark in a bill being attacked as pork-laden. Its almost too good to be true. The money to study how to reduce pig odor and manage waste in Iowa through the Department of Agriculture was number one in John McCain’s list of "TOP TEN PORKIEST PROJECTS" in the bill, which he posted to the masses, Letterman-style, on his twitter page last week. Sen. Tom Coburn has offered an amendment to the bill that would strip the funding and decried it on his website as "$1.7 million to take the stink out of manure." He argued that $17 million has already been spent on the program over the past ten years. But Harkin, in a speech on the senate floor today, defended the funding, arguing that swine odor and waste are problems throughout rural America and present public health problems. "I suppose we’ll hear a lot of jokes on David Letterman and Jay Leno and a lot of other people will be making jokes about this money for manure. But keep in mind this is not wasteful or an unnecessary or frivolous. This is very important in the daily lives in the people of my state, in North Carolina and every other place where we raise swine," said Harkin, who pointed out that something in the neighborhood of 20 million pigs live in Iowa on any given day. "In farm country manure and odor management are profound, serious challenges which can be mitigated through scientific research," said Harkin, who pointed out that in Coburn’s state of Oklahoma the issue of pig odor led to a lawsuit by the governor against a neighboring state over animal waste – in this case from poultry. "I ask the senator to travel in his own state, ask farmers and their neighbors about whether it is worthwhile to do research into animal odor and manure management," said Harkin "If I’m not mistaken — and I may be here; I don’t know. if I’m not mistaken, I believe the attorney general of Oklahoma a few years ago brought a case, an action, I think, against their neighboring state, if I’m not mistaken — Arkansas — in terms of some of the effluent that was coming into Oklahoma. And this, again, raised questions of manure management, how it’s put on the land and things like that. and that’s what this research is about. people constantly complain, with good reason, about big farms, factory farms and their environmental impacts. so it makes good sense to fund research that addresses how people can live in our small towns and communities and livestock producers can do the same, and they can coexist."
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certainly this program would end the smell coming from the Rush Limbaugh Institute of Advanced Conservative studies, a major cause of pic odor.
Posted by: Paul Wall | March 4, 2009, 3:40 pm 3:40 pm
I don’t see how this smell could be worse than what is coming from the congress these days. Maybe we need to do a study on how to get rid of them.
Posted by: dsimms | March 4, 2009, 3:50 pm 3:50 pm
I’m not one to defend earmarks or wasteful government spending, but Senator Harkin is right. I live in the country. You can smell a hog farm miles away. The odor is overwhelming (especially in summer), and it affects surrounding property. Suppose you inherit a hundred acres, and you want to sell it to a residential developer. No one is going to build houses near a pig farm because people won’t buy them. I know city people find this problem funny, but it’s really not. Hogs and pigs are filthy animals, and they’ll eat absolutely anything. Their only saving grace is that they taste pretty damned good when thrown on a grill with a little Sweet Baby Ray’s barbeque sauce!
Posted by: JanaB. | March 4, 2009, 3:50 pm 3:50 pm
I appreciate McCain calling out specific projects for just this reason – give the supporters a chance to defend them. In this case, the research seems a reasonable use of governments funds. This sort of pollution clearly falls into the category of management of the commons, which is the most conservative definition of a government’s job.
Posted by: jhw539 | March 4, 2009, 3:51 pm 3:51 pm
jhw539 you would defend them if they said line up all the odor complainers and kill them. This would be for the common good. Your one of those people that will never believe he has ever done anything wrong. You probably believed Clinton when he pointed at you and said “I did not have sexual relations with that women”(Clinton’s legacy)
Posted by: dsimms | March 4, 2009, 3:56 pm 3:56 pm
dsimms: ? I certainly would not support killing all the odor complainers, are you daft? And I didn’t much care for Clinton, but my vote (Bush Sr.) didn’t win and by 1996 he was working well with the Republican Congress.
Not quite sure if you had any point or if just a random slanderous outburst on your part.
Posted by: jhw539 | March 4, 2009, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
That isn’t a pig smell, that is a Harkin smell.
Another fake soldier.
Posted by: Dave | March 4, 2009, 5:20 pm 5:20 pm
President Obama: Please VETO this earmark-laden bill! It is NOT yesterday’s business, it is MY BU$INE$$ today!
Pork is pork, and the “swine odor research” smells like PORK to me!
Do not let the old guard negotiate you out of following through on your campaign promises – there are no exceptions!
We voted for you to take actions like vetoing this bill. We are depending on you! Your second term is in the bag – don’t talk us out of it!
Warmest regards,
Harold and Gabriele Hannickel
Hampton, Virginia
Posted by: Harold Hannickel | March 4, 2009, 6:54 pm 6:54 pm
Why is it when a Republican senator does something stupid he is alway identified as Senator Joe Blow (R) Iowa. In this case it is Senator Tom Harkin Iowa instead of Senator Tom Harkin (D) Iowa. Double standard…
Posted by: Richard Bulgarelli | March 4, 2009, 9:01 pm 9:01 pm
What in the hell does study pig poop do for people who are out of work if you don’t like the smell move.And Yes I do live in the country.
Posted by: Dawn | March 6, 2009, 4:28 pm 4:28 pm
What in the hell does study pig poop do for people who are out of work if you don’t like the smell move.And Yes I do live in the country.I would like to see people back at work then spend money on some stupid pig smell maybe you could think about the people who are homeless or jobless.And get rid of the side shows of spending money on useless grap inclunding studies mice go buy some and put them in a gage at your house and watch them.There is your study.
Posted by: Dawn | March 6, 2009, 4:34 pm 4:34 pm
Enzyme Environmental Solutions Has the cure already!
Posted by: J | March 8, 2009, 10:59 pm 10:59 pm
I don’t own pigs, live in Iowa or on a farm, but I am in complete agreement with Harkin. If there is a scientific methodology or set of ideas that can reduce stench from pig production, then fund the research necessary to find it. However, I would have liked to see more money put to work finding manure digesters to produce clean energy that would enable some new useful and economical means to be found for Iowa’s pork industry.
Posted by: JT | March 13, 2009, 9:34 pm 9:34 pm
I want one of them earmarks so I can conduct a study on why congress is so stupid.
Posted by: ld | March 17, 2009, 4:46 pm 4:46 pm
Although I understand that pig waste from 20 million pigs may pose a health risk and should be taken care of, I also believe it is Iowa’s job to do so. We have to remember that our government is out of money and is merely borrowing an enormous line of credit. Instead of asking the federal government to help them, those living near these pig farms should have asked their own local and state government. However what would be even better is if farmers found a way to keep their own toxic manure in check just like power plants have to control their toxic chemicals.
Posted by: Jillian | April 22, 2009, 1:46 pm 1:46 pm
I want to talk about windows7 software phone. In my view, it’s not enough great yet No copy and paste. You’ll be telling me this thing can’t go on the web.What I meant to say what type of evolued phone is this ? Does it’s antenna even work?
Posted by: tshirt | September 26, 2011, 8:10 am 8:10 am