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By Lindsey Konkel,
Staff Writer, Environmental Health News
Mahogany
and marbled, Sam Edwards’ thinly-sliced ham melts in your mouth, with flavor
that may rival even the finest European meats.
Once
referred to as prosciutto’s “redneck cousin,” the South’s country ham industry
is undergoing a transformation. Often served with grits and gravy, country ham
has become increasingly popular with chefs seeking a local alternative to
European dry-cured meats.
The
fate of the Southern delicacy, however, lies not on the fickle tongues of
foodies, but with environmental regulators and an international treaty.
For
more than 30 years, Edwards – like many country ham producers – has used a
single chemical to keep critters from infesting high-value hocks. That
chemical, methyl bromide, is being phased out under a 1987 United Nations
treaty because it is one of the most potent compounds depleting the Earth’s
protective ozone layer.
The
nation’s country ham producers – about 50 companies – are hanging on as they
scramble to find a pest-killing alternative.
“If
you were to take methyl bromide away today, we couldn’t produce our long-cured
hams,” said Edwards, a third-generation country ham producer in Surry, Va.
Gregg
Rentfrow, a meat scientist at the University of Kentucky, said the process of
creating country ham is a throwback to the way food was preserved before refrigeration.
Producers rub sugar, salt and spices into the meat. Water is forced out of the
fibrous tissue and the ham dry cures.
That
drawn-out process gives the product a rich flavor, but also leaves it more
susceptible to bug infestations than its quicker cousin, the wet-cured ham.
Wet-cured, or “city ham,” as Rentfrow calls it – think cold-cut
slices sold at deli counters – is injected with a curing solution and
takes only hours to complete.
Improved
sanitary conditions have kept most critters out of many production facilities.
“We don’t see a lot of problems with bugs like we used to,” Rentfrow said.
But
some ham mites always sneak in, said Thomas Phillips, an entomologist at Kansas
State University. “This group of pests co-evolved with human culture to
specialize on stored food. They’re very good at getting in,” he said.
Not
all country ham producers use methyl bromide. It’s the longer-aged,
high-quality niche products that are at stake in the search for pest control
solutions.
Mite
infestations begin when ham is aged around four months, said Wes Schilling, a
Mississippi State University food scientist. Country ham is aged anywhere from
about 50 days to four years.
“Methyl
bromide was like a sledgehammer,” Phillips said, adding that replacing it will
take “a number of new tools in the pest control toolbox.” Phillips and
Mississippi State researchers are mounting a three-year, federally-funded study to
come up with alternatives.
The
chemical was first introduced as a fire suppressant in the late 1800s, and used
in fire extinguishers until the 1960s, when it sickened workers. The
ability of the gas to snuff out fires by filling up every nook and cranny also
made it a desirable insecticide for fumigating soil, wooden shipping
containers, grain elevators and ham hocks.
Ham
producers fill a room of dry-curing meats with methyl bromide gas at first sign
of a mite. “The rule is if I see even one in a room with 5,000 hams, I am
supposed to fumigate,” said Edwards, who uses the chemical three to eight times
per year.
European
producers, Edwards said, are allowed to have mites on their products during the
dry-curing process, as long as they are removed before packaging and shipping.
Some kill off mites by dipping their hams in hot olive oil, he said.
The
phaseout of methyl bromide and other ozone-depleting chemicals has been hailed
as a great success. In September, the United Nations reported that after 30
years, the ozone layer is finally starting to rebound.
But
a few industries, for which governments deem “no technically or economically
feasible alternatives exist,” according to the treaty, are allowed to keep
using the pesticide.
There’s
no timeline for when the ham exemptions will expire. Each year the EPA solicits
applications for methyl bromide use. The U.S. government then nominates those
exemptions to the countries that signed the Montreal Protocol.
“The exemption
period is intended to be limited and temporary to allow time for the
development and implementation of alternatives,” wrote Christie St. Clair, an
EPA press officer, in response to questions.
Year-to-year
applications make it difficult for producers such as Edwards, who cures some
hams for up to four years, to plan for the future. Edwards grew up in the
business, learning the art of dry-curing from his father and grandfather.
As
methyl bromide has become scarcer, it’s also become more expensive. The rising
cost may cause some producers to phase it out before the government does,
according to Rentfrow. It used to cost Edwards – who sells his
Surryano ham for more than $3 per ounce – about $500 to fumigate a
room, while it now costs nearly $2,000.
Candace
Cansler, executive director of the National Country Ham Association, estimates
that 50 companies make country hams, which comprise about 4 percent of all hams
produced in the United States.
California
strawberry growers are the biggest group still using methyl bromide. In 2015,
they will be allowed to use about 370 metric tons. Country ham, in comparison,
will be allowed about 3 metric tons. All uses amount to just a sliver of
historical consumption. In 1991, the United States used more than 25,000 metric
tons of the pesticide.
About
13 percent of California’s strawberry fields are dependent upon methyl bromide.
But exemptions for strawberry growers will end after 2016, according to David
Doniger, director of the Climate and Clean Air Program for the Natural
Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C.
“Because
nearly all ozone-depleting chemicals have been eliminated worldwide, the ozone
layer is slowly mending, and millions of skin cancer deaths have been avoided,”
he said.
Experiments
with two new mite-killing chemicals already widely used for treating grains and
nuts have turned up mixed results. Phosphine gas killed mites in all stages of
development, but it’s also corrosive to copper and other metals used in heating
and electrical wiring.
The chemical did about $25,000 in damage in a trial run
at Edwards’ facility. Another option, sulfuryl fluoride, marketed as ProFume,
killed adult mites but not eggs and larvae. Early trials have indicated that
turning up the heat during fumigation may make ProFume more effective. However,
sulfuryl fluoride isconsidered a
potent greenhouse gas.
Phillips
also has created bait stations, using pheromones to draw mites away from hams
that are being tested in some ham facilities this year.
Researchers
at Mississippi State are experimenting with gels and other food grade coatings
made from seaweed to keep the mites off. “We’re testing what it does to the
quality and flavor profile of the ham,” Schilling said.
So
far, early tests of a new food grade coating have been promising, Edwards said.
After four months, there were no mites and the flavor was “on the money,” he
said. They still need to test the coatings for about another year to see if
they stand up to the challenge of his long-cured products.
For
producers, a solution can’t come fast enough.
“We
want to be stewards of the planet,” Cansler said, "but we also need to
make a living and employ the people that work for us.”
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