Northern Ireland May Be Forced to Export Poo From Chicken / Pig Farming

​www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jun/23/poo-overload-northern-ireland-could-be-forced-to-export-a-third-of-its-animal-waste

A booming pig / chicken industry is generating big bucks for Northern Ireland but creating an environmental disaster for politicians. While the industry continues to boom, phosphate and nitrate levels are rising astronomically, threatening Northern Ireland's waterways and pushing the UK's ammonia levels over the acceptable threshold. Naturally, the solution to this problem is to export their feces to another country to deal with, certainly not to address the fact that perhaps they are producing meat at an unsustainable level.

As much as 35% of the animal's waste needs to be exported to protect the country's waterways and soil from the harmful effects of the waste produced. When you hear something like this, you would think that the country would be willing to address the sustainability of their animal agriculture industry, but it seems that addressing the root cause of the issue is rarely the solution. Instead, only 1 of the 21 recognized lakes in Northern Ireland is considered of good quality. indicating that the other 20 are suffering because of the environmentally destructive waste the animal ag industry is producing.

I recently posted about human entitlement and how we are often motivated by personal gain at any cost and this is a perfect example of that. Northern Ireland is raking in the profits from their recently booming chicken / pig industry, doubling their export income between 2011 - 2018. With that, it is evident that their waterways are poisoned and their levels of destructive gases are exceeding acceptable targets. So, we know that it is not sustainable to produce this level of animal ag and long term, this will continue to plunge Northern Ireland into a state of toxicity. Instead of addressing the fact that the country cannot continue to produce at this level without further destruction to their environment, they choose to export the feces to other parts of the world to manage. This does nothing to address the root problem here which is the unsustainability of Norther Ireland's animal ag industry.

Look, it's naïve to believe that profits and revenue are not an important factor to consider in these situations, but the facts presented are alarming and indicative of a serious problem. Northern Ireland cannot sustainably maintain their animal agriculture industry and this won't address itself over time as production continues to increase. How will we ever achieve net zero emissions if country's aren't willing to address the fact that animal agriculture is single-handedly destroying our environment. As our waterways reach levels of toxicity never recorded, wildfires ravage our forests, and hurricanes continue to become stronger and more destructive, we refuse to address the very serious issue surrounding animal agriculture and the problems it causes for our planet.

If we do not accept that we need to shift our production to more environmentally friendly crops / production, we will continue to see issues like the ones Northern Ireland currently face. If we're all looking for places to send poo because we've reached critical levels of toxic emissions, where will we go from there? Why isn't anyone willing to address the very clear fact that animal agriculture is an environmental disaster? Quite simply, it's all about the money. 

I leave y'all with one simple question. What good is that money going to be when we have no water, no land, and no animals except for the ones we produce for slaughter?

HAPPY VEG