Wayne Pence leaned against the wall, between the entrance to the factory and the time card slots, and chuckled.
"Something new causes cancer every day," he said. "A few years ago they said milk caused cancer and there was a big milk scare ... It'll help Chick-fil-A, when that cow comes out and says 'Eat more chicken.'"
Pence, the general manager of Gunnoe Farms Sausage and Salad Company in Charleston, had heard the news - a report released last Monday by the World Health Organization declared processed meat a "Class 1 Carcinogen," a group that includes both tobacco and sunlight and is limited to agents proven to cause cancer, and listed red meat as a "Group 2A Carcinogen," noting that foods like beef, pork, goat and lamb have "limited evidence" to support the idea that they cause cancer in humans. The WHO defines processed meat as meat "that has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavor or improve preservation. Most processed meats contain pork or beef, but processed meats may also contain other red meats, poultry, offal, or meat by-products such as blood."
Gunnoe, founded in 1949, has never had a recall or an instance of foodborne illness reported to it, and only purchases hogs from the U.S. - mostly in Ohio, said Morgan Sheets, the company's food safety point person. For Sheets, who has been cutting back on red meat himself to improve his cholesterol levels, the choice to eat red meat, which has had proven health effects for decades, is just that - a choice.
"I think West Virginians are set in their ways, and if they're going to have sausage for breakfast on Sunday, they're not going to listen to anything the World Health Organization has to say. They're going to go about their business," he said.
The experts cited in the WHO report concluded that each 50 gram portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent. In contrast, tobacco use increases a person's risk of developing cancer by 2,500 percent, according to WHO.
Mike Brooks, the kitchen manager at B & D Gastropub in Kanawha City, said he'd read about the study, but it wasn't going to stop him from eating or cooking red meat.
"I eat a lot of white meat also - lots of fish," Brooks said. "The way I look at it is, I'm going to be dying of something, but it isn't going to be starvation, that's for sure."
Jane Johnstone, a Kanawha City resident who stopped in Sam's Hot Dog Stand for lunch Friday, said she doesn't often eat processed meat, or even meat in general, but does indulge occasionally, which falls in line with the study's recommendations.
"My daughter's a vegetarian, and she's always eating veggie burgers and things like that - I couldn't go that far," Johnstone said. "She raved about how good they were, and I thought, 'not good to me.' It's great, though, that's she's stuck to her guns; She's in medicine, so she's very health-conscious. We eat meat very sparingly - we usually have seafood a couple of times a week, but not meat every day."
Dr. Jamie Jeffrey, medical director of Charleston Area Medical Center's HealthyKids Pediatric Weight Management Program, said it's not new information that red and processed meats are not good for people. Often, consumption of red meats has been discouraged so as to promote heart health and there has been a push to have people stay away from processed food, too. What's changed is the way the World Health Organization classifies consumption of red and processed meat, she said.
"What I know about processed food is that they have more fat, salt and sugar," she said. "All processed foods [not just meat] have more fat, salt and sugar. My challenge for everyone is to read the labels of what they're eating. No wonder [processed meat is] causing cancer and no wonder they cause us to have an unhealthy weight," she said.
Jeffrey said she encourages people to shop in the perimeter of the store, where often the produce, meat and seafood sections are located, and to follow the MyPlate guidelines for food listed on the United States Department of Agriculture's website.
"Just eat your fruit and veggies, people," she said.
Darrell Chapman, of Chapman Swine and Poultry Farm in Genoa, West Virginia, said the announcement could actually help his business.
"It's just something new they come up with," he said. "Every time they come with this stupid stuff I get a hundred emails about getting a pig."
Chapman's farm sells piglets that people raise for meat. The animals he raises are grass fed and don't have hormones or any of the other "junk" that's often found in meat, he said.
"You can still get that meat," Chapman said. "The butcher shops, the local meat markets, that's all local stuff. I guess people would rather go to Walmart and not know what they're getting than go to the butcher shop and get something good for them."
Chapman and said he and his family won't stop eating meat. Besides an occasional package of hot dogs for the kids, the family eats meat they either raise or hunt, he said.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much," he said of the announcement. "It's a phase. It will pass."
Ron Cole, owner of T&M Meats in Cross Lane, said the announcement from the World Health Organization may actually help his business. All of his meat is sold fresh and isn't processed.
"I think it will drive [customers] to be more focused on the quality of the meat they're looking for," Cole said. "... I think it's going to help smaller butchers."
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter. Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @lorikerseyWV on Twitter.