Super Eco

I'm in mourning. I've visited Ireland three times, and one of my sustaining non-vegetarian memories from those visits was the bacon. Very different from what we're used to as bacon in the U.S., Irish bacon is substantial: big slabs of porcine deliousness covering half your plate. Which goes well with eggs and the toast that comes to you in little toast racks with an assortment of jams. And now that memory has been tainted: Irish pork products are being recalled by the barrel because of high levels of dioxins. Gulp.

Dioxins have been linked to cancer in humans and the levels found in Irish pork are 20 - 80 times the safety limit. So I won't be ordering any online Irish bacon this month (yes! available online! how cool is that?), perhaps not for a long time.

It's a huge blow to the Irish pork farming industry; Irish agriculture is still reeling from a foot-and-mouth epidemic that affected beef in 2001. Word is that Irish pork products could have been tainted with dioxins as far back as September, which surely is bad news for farmers as well as for a bacon-reliant population. I could say "I told you so, you carnivores," but I'm happy with my own bacony hypocrisy. And sad for the pigs and people of Ireland. This is just bad news all around, both for farmers and for the millions of mostly Irish folk who've possibly been consuming dioxins without knowing it.

At present it's not known the extent of the problem, but as a precautionary measure all Irish pork has been ordered either destroyed or recalled and the public is advised not to consume it until more is known about the problem. And there goes the full Irish breakfast I was planning upon my return to the auld green sod.

(Photo credit: SXC)