I do not eat kosher but I learned to cook kosher for friends and family when I was younger. I personally enjoy cooking and eating roast pork, barbequed baby-back ribs, pork sausages, pork chops and even bacon or prosciutto. (I’m not going to prepare a luncheon anytime soon for Temple Beth Israel.) About once a week I’ll eat some form of pig meat. I also eat a variety of other meats during the week but I prefer fresh seafood over any land-based protein. For economic and health reasons, I have one or two vegetarian-style meals a week – no meats (but I may succumb to eggs or cheese in such situations because I think tofu tastes terrible.) I ask readers – are ducks and frog legs considered meat, foul, reptile, seafood or what? If we all cut back on all meats – in weekly frequency and portion volume – we would all be healthier and improve our environment over the long term.
Pigs are very intelligent domesticated farm animals that happen to lack any gene to tell them to stop eating. (Some humans may have that genetic defect as well.) Certain pig organs (hearts, livers & kidneys) have been temporarily and successfully transplanted into humans while waiting for a human donor. Pigskin is frequently used to protect and treat burn victims as their skin is very similar to our own. In fact, extensive genetic mapping shows that pigs, along with many species of apes and rats, are remarkably similar to humans on many levels. Pigs also come in various skin colors including pink, black and various shades of brown – just like humans. These physical and personality similarities may account for the centuries-old habit of humans insulting each other with the all-too-obvious comparisons to our genetic cousins.
Many pigs are more intelligent than various dog breeds and quite a few 3-year-old children, but they don’t show the same level of loyalty and affection towards humans – which resulted in consigning most of them to the barnyard with the other delicious animals. Pigs originally were used to find truffles because they could accurately smell these underground fungi. But after too many fights with them over the valuable discoveries (pigs love to eat truffles as much as humans do) we trained dogs to locate them because they will not eat our potential culinary treats or future business profits.
Cannibals have told us that humans taste similar to pigs. Perhaps the Jewish and Muslim prohibition against eating pork is not only because the meat spoils quickly in the hot desert, but that we may be engaging in some sort of cousin cannibalism. We don’t readily eat apes and rats either for a variety of reasons. (Being of French background I also like eating rabbit, which is a type of cute rat with big ears and a short fluffy tail, but I digress.)
I am also appalled at the way we conduct our commercial production of various animals for human consumption, including pigs. We have not yet figured out how to remove and recycle the mountains of waste from these facilities so as not to damage the surrounding lands and water sources. Cows, pigs and chickens would not be so pervasive on our planet, and require so much agricultural production for their sole consumption, if we did not enjoy eating them.
I am not in favor of going vegan and closing these facilities, but just cleaning up these places and eating all types of meats and beans in some sort of long-needed moderation. Probably this will only be accomplished by having the market set the price of these food products much higher than they are today if we impose some comprehensive health and sanitary regulations.
The new H1N1 pandemic influenza virus was inappropriately named the Mexican “swine” flu but any connection between pigs and causing the virus in humans is not established. The virus is a blend of separate viruses that infect pigs, humans and birds, including our delicious chickens. The only way to contract H1N1 is through human contact – not hugging and kissing pigs. (I really don’t want to know or discuss what some lonely people do with their farm animals.) Many deadly human diseases – including some cancers – have been linked to living in close proximity to various factories producing man-made toxins and being in contact with untreated human waste and garbage. In many parts of the world, cows, pigs and chickens live with humans in the same households – all wandering around together in relative peace until dinnertime rolls around and then somebody’s number is up.
Most humans only see edible animals cut up in pieces, neatly wrapped in plastic, completely devoid of their original living characteristics in our various food stores. A friend argued that if you had a pet pig or chicken wandering around the house, you would look at them differently and would not be able to eat them. I countered that as the song goes (“Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam, and the deer and the antelope play…”) you’ll end up with a pretty messy house. And chickens and pigs are notoriously dirty and messy creatures. You’ll quickly realize that the perpetual household mess is unsustainable and you will promptly decide to slaughter and eat the damn chicken and fat pig since they are intrinsically delicious. And then we’ll be back to where we started – to a clean house and a full refrigerator. These creatures are rather dirty when they are alive so it’s better to find them dead, washed, and wrapped cleanly in plastic at our local supermarket ready to be cooked and eaten.
This is mid summer and all local, national and global politics and our economies are stagnating. Perhaps we should temporarily ignore Washington DC as we normally did in the past and not expect anything of consequence to happen until after Labor Day. Most politicians cannot handle more than one thought per day. We really can survive without the perpetual 24/7 Media/News frenzy of fabricated stories, buzz, rumors and triviality.
I am upset about the growing number of Americans without jobs, food, housing, healthcare, or hope, which will only exacerbate over the next 12 to 24 months. Our Federal. State and local governments have proven to be pretty incapable of and incompetent in preparing for and adequately addressing these basic human needs – unless you provide them with sizeable campaign contributions. Then they’ll borrow and give billions – even trillions – to bail you out. Perhaps when politicians constantly bless us in God’s name they are merely reiterating the sad reality that the Almighty may be the only one looking out for most of us.
7/24/09 – Wishing everyone “Bon Appetite” from hot, sunny Phoenix, AZ, this is Marc Pascal returning to TMV after nearly two months of silence but happily reading the other regular and excellent TMV contributors. (The Reverend Al Sharpton, groups representing the grossly obese and gravitationally challenged, and other irrational nut groups have already read way too much into this post – particularly the second paragraph – and likely consulted with attorneys to file libel suits against me for various perceived slights or insults. Wait – I hear a process server ringing at my door. I’m going to have to stop eating my watermelon to answer it. If I’m going down, it’s because they’ve found the words “Al Sharpton,” “watermelon,” “black” and “apes” somewhere in the same post and the politically correct blender has done the rest.)