Why I don't eat pigs at all.
I stopped eating pigs after getting myself sick at around age 12. Greeezy pork chops were never my thing, and the fat is slimier than beef or chicken fat. That film of fat is what led me upstairs to puke in the pot. Since then it's become more reasonable, and the top reason is the factory farm with its pig-shit lagoon. But don't forget the prolific way pigs can incubate and promote diseases other animals can't. I've made exactly two digressions since.
As a waiter, I realized the grilled cheese sandwich with tomato and bacon was something important. I worked in a semi-fancy Atlantic City Casino Restaurant, and that was a top seller. Also a top smeller. My gastric side took the lead, and I ate one. It took about two bites. So I understand. I know about bacon.
The other time was a little after that. I had returned to school, resigned myself to the occasional survival moment. I've always been skinny, but after leaving that restaurant and going back on the student financial plan (Always subtract ) there was a good chance I'd waste away. Mom made bean soup, in which she used some ham and bacon to get the stock going. This was permissible, since dying would be a poor alternative.
I like pigs. If I were a farmer, I'd probably raise a few. I'd build a little smokehouse and make bacon, and I'd learn to make salami. And I have seen and smelled a gigantic pig on an equally big barbecue- holy wow! 2But there would only be a few of 'em, because a rational society has to understand they can't use part of the planet to spoil with pig shit.
We can't tolerate the scale required to feed enough of the world, and there are tastier proteins that cook up better. Once again, it's the corporations. They can only survive on Wall Street if they can amass the scale and customer list necessary to turn what was once a dignified profession into the factory farm of today.
Stop eating pigs, and stop buying those small bottles of tap water. How is that not obvious ?
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Count me in! Top 10 reasons not to eat pigs...
April 30, 2009 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Co sign, big time! But then I'm a veg so what do I know?
April 30, 2009 1:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Miguel you are safe.
April 30, 2009 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Of all the animals on our farm growing up, I was most impressed with the pigs. Smart. Smart. Smart.
Those factory farms are abominations. Beyond what they do to pigs, the threat they pose to public health - antibiotic resistant bacteria, just for one - long ago convinced me that they should be shut ASAP.
Power to the pigs!
April 30, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
When I was at university, I spent one summer on a friend's farm, sharing farm chores, (slopping pigs, milking cows, tending chickens, etc.), for my room, (actually a cool remodeled three story log cabin circa 1783! by a stream no less!), and I would agree with you wholeheartedly. The bovine intellect pales in comparison to the porcine. I'm not sounding too haughty here, am I?
April 30, 2009 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh please, living in farmland Ohio I can assure you that pigs are as stupid as they look, cows are dumber than hell and chickens are mean as shit and they all taste good fried.
April 30, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
LOL. I still think pigs is smatah than cows.
April 30, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hmmmm, seems to me that the one thing shared by these unusually dumb animals is that they all, ummmm... live in Ohio.
By the time they cross that Northern border, I can assure that the average Ohioan émigré pig tests out at a 140 IQ, compared to the average Nebraskan homo sapiens (93) and a good Border Collie (160.)
Ohio - Hoof Rot Of The Brain! ;-)
April 30, 2009 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ohio pigs are geniuses and republicans - the only time they lift their snouts out of the trough is to squeal for more and if they don't get it they'll eat each other.
April 30, 2009 10:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ohio is the most normal state in the Union.
May 8, 2009 8:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, I've always said that while shoveling pig shit out of the sty and hosing it down that I feel like I spent the afternoon with a bunch of Stephen Hawkings - at least compared with cows - which is like spending the afternoon with a bunch of Paris Hiltons, although the cows have more charm. (And the capacity to chew and walk at the same time...)
April 30, 2009 10:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ohio! Thanks for the comment. When something like this comes up, industrial, agricultural, political, it always seems to have heavy boots on Ohio soil. I think pig farms are big biz in Ohio, and it's a drag to think that I'm arguing against an industry and a livelihood.
However, more people would be employed in raising pigs if they were raised at more sites in smaller numbers.
May 8, 2009 8:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Of all the animals on our farm growing up, I was most impressed with the pigs. Smart. Smart. Smart.
You did not have to grow up on a farm to learn that, if your parents let you stay up late to watch Johnny Carson.
On the other hand, I find that one highly kept secret of farm folks is their irrational hatred of and prejudice towards geese...
April 30, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
IRRATIONAL? Are you shitting me, AA? Seriously, geese are THE most violent creatures I've ever met. Those bastards can BITE. And they're so bleeding stupid, it's scary.
Bastards.
April 30, 2009 3:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
And speaking of shit, they leave it. Everywhere.
April 30, 2009 3:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
.
I'm sure you've heard the cliche . . .
As full of shit as Christmas Goose. And that's a whole lot of shit.
~OGD~
May 1, 2009 4:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Next to a moose, geese have the greatest ratio of serious animal-human injuries for any animal, domesticated or wild. I couldn't find the link, but I'm sure I read it... somewhere. ;)
April 30, 2009 4:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mmmmm bacon.
April 30, 2009 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
…Porkchops taste goood!
April 30, 2009 3:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
mmmmmm....bacon, too!
April 30, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
All you bacon lovers will probably love this as well...
April 30, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
That film has some of the best dialogue of all time.
April 30, 2009 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
For shame people, the administration has basically been begging all folks worldwide to continue to eat pork, what kind of Americans are you to shirk your patriotic duty over a little gastrointestinal distress or squeamishness over height of the eaten on the food chain? You are once again going to let the Japanese do your work for you? (And furthermore, sunflowers and blackberry bushes have intelligence too, ya know, and how do you think they feel when you strip off and ingest their wombs?)
April 30, 2009 2:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nah. We pigs never let the relative position of a species on the food chain determine our palate.
April 30, 2009 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
I never eat pork. I cook everything myself and I am really not even sure how to cook it.
Now you tell me bacon is pork
DO NOT TAKE MY BACON AWAY. HA
April 30, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well then, you would only be taking baby steps, adventure wise, were you to try partaking of some of Quinn's cultural heritage. (Psst: They weren't raising those pigs just for little Quinn to play with.)
April 30, 2009 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pork in that lad's cultural heritage goes back even further than that.
April 30, 2009 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
See: Saladin's link re: "charmin' motherfuckin' pigs." Not insulting bastard pigs.
HAGGIS ROOLZ!
April 30, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ew. Haggis.
April 30, 2009 4:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
You haven't LIVED until you've seen the ceremony of the haggis in Scotland! OMG, When the guy got to the end of his screaming diatribe, stabbed the haggis with a big 'ol knife like it was an intruder bent on killing someone and the steam poured out, I thought we'd die!
April 30, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Haggis has its own ceremony? Seriously? Ya know, the part of me that isn't Indian is highlander Scot and I have the highest hope to be able to visit Scotland before I die. Now I will be sure to add the haggis ceremony to the itinerary.
And here all the time I thought tossin' telephone poles was awesomest thing ever. ;o)
April 30, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
The ceremony is called "Addressing the Haggis" and this Robert Burns poem is read in a VERY theatric way before serving it...
http://www.robertburns.org/works/147.shtml
Our host was a very rotund man w/ a deep, booming voice and he scared literally scared us!
April 30, 2009 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
hahahhahaha. In a pig's stomach!!!!!
April 30, 2009 5:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
On the "you learn something new everyday" front, another sassy domesticated animal is "the most widely consumed meat in the world."
April 30, 2009 4:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
dysfunctional link...
April 30, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
oops, it's so dorky to screw up the code for a "guess the answer" link. Here it is:
"the most widely consumed meat in the world."
April 30, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please pass the bacon--all pork--to someone else. I gave up pork it seems like a lifetime ago. I refuse to go back.
April 30, 2009 5:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I were a Republican, I'd say none of the 'factors' matter- it's just wrong and that's that.
But for me it's a matter of taste and pragmatism. It's unsustainable, this pig shit production economy.
May 8, 2009 8:36 AM | Reply | Permalink