When copy is too tight

Brevity is a good thing, but not when it gets out of hand.

Heard this on NPR's "All Things Considered" a few minutes ago in a story talking about the EPA's offer to reach an environmental detente with the "factory farms" common in the livestock industry. The reporter noted that such hog farms "produce more waste than people."

That's probably a good thing, because we certainly have plenty of people and don't need factory farms making more of them.

Of course, insertion of that little word "do" after "people" would have prevented this little snicker moment.

Moral: Tighten, but not so much that it reads and sounds stupid.