Ham and sad sowsSmithfield pork
Just as we were finishing up this list, some late-breaking news knocked KFC’s Double Down fat grenade out of our top ten. Continuing to do the USDA’s job for it, the Humane Society sent an undercover investigator into a Virginia hog-breeding facility owned by Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer (and food-world villain). Frankly, we’re too wimpy to watch the video of the heinous abuses he found therein — just reading the report of the misery and suffering endured by breeding sows that spend their entire lives “in an airline seat,” as animal welfare expert Temple Grandin put it, has us curled under our desk in a fetal position. (Paula Deen, do you still think Smithfiield shares your family values?) We’ll be skipping the Christmas ham, thanks.