Environmental Issues Tour

We took a field trip around Louisville to learn about the history of sustainability in the area-- the huge strides we have taken since the 30's, and the persisting shortcomings in the present. Our first stop was the Bourbon stockyard in Butchertown, now unused. The stockyards were used to hold cows in the city before they were butchered and sold. At the time of establishment, there were no effective means of preservation so meat had to be bought fresh daily. But the high concentration of animals in such a small space was unsustainable and created large amounts of waste. The waste was, creatively, dumped into the Ohio River, until residents complained of the smell. The solution was to reroute the stream which was carrying the waste. Not to reduce the waste, or develop a more effective means of removing it.

Although the stockyards are now closed, the Swift Packaging plant across the street is fully operational. The plant kills and packages pig products, to be sold in supermarkets. In the 15-20 minutes or so we were discussing the stockyard and the waste issue caused by mass production of meat, we saw multiple truckloads of pigs pull into the factory lot. A small metal barn, partly open, is used to hold the animals and slaughter them. As we stood across the street we could hear the screams of pigs as they were being killed. Honestly, this disgusts me. While I know this kind of mass killing is common across the US, I have never been blatantly confronted with it. If I wasn't already a vegetarian that experience would have been enough to make me one.

I could talk about injustice in the meat and dairy industry until my mouth falls off, but if you're interested in learning more about the industry I'd recommend Diet For A New America by John Robbins, and an old classic The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. While both of these are not entirely contemporary works, they shed light on the industry that provides most of America's food, and I think you'd be surprised to learn how much of this still goes on.

The main focus of the tour was on waste disposal (landfills and sewage systems), and how our current methods have made some places nearly uninhabitable, and inducing widespread health issues to the people working in chemical plants and rubber plants, and those living around them.