Are we seeing the beginning of the end of pork?

Chinese pig farm

Pork: the most consumed meat in the world, particularly popular across Asia.  Pigs: born to die, to feed this global hunger.

Two variables may put a huge cramp in this consumption, ultimately allowing more pigs to be born . . .  and live. In order of occurrence, the first is African Swine Fever, now spreading around the world (not in the US) killing huge numbers of pigs.  Already, a quarter of the global pig population has been wiped out, and millions of pigs are still dying in Asia.

“Harmless to humans, this virus kills nearly every pig it infects, and there’s no vaccine.”

Historically, pigs’ ability to “turn garbage -- long their traditional food -- into meat” made them indispensable to poor villagers from Southeast Asia to England and, after 1492, in the Americas as well,” the Washington Post reports.  

Chinese pig farm -- after swine fever

Wherever that feeding practice still survives, and food scraps including virus-laden pork are still fed to pigs, they are far more susceptible to catching Swine Fever.   

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/06/why-global-swine-fever-epidemic-is-hitting-poor-people-hardest/?utm_campaign=opinions&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Newsletter&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1

The second variable that may ultimately let more pigs live is non-pork “pork.” (You probably saw this coming, after the fanfare for  “Impossible Burgers” and their kin.)

Impossible Food will introduce two plant-based pork products designed to win over some of the world’s billions of pork eaters.  (Just think about that number of consumers, then the number of pigs it would take to feed them all.)  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/06/impossible-foods-is-finally-making-new-fake-meat-pork/?utm_campaign=todays_headlines&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Newsletter&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

Alba, freed lab pig

“Impossible Sausage” will start out at 139 US Burger King locations; there’s no release date yet for “Impossible Pork.” Impossible Foods has said its primary motivation for plant-based products is to decrease meat’s impact on the environment, which is why it started with “beef”  products, and eliminate animal farming altogether by 2035.  

Helping our environment while helping animals: if that’s not a win-win, what is?

Exercise or cruelty?  

On a cold, windy January day, a muffled-up man rides his bicycle while holding onto the leashes of two dogs running on his right side.  How do they know to stop when he stops, say, at a corner stop sign?  And what if they stop, to relieve themselves, for instance -- what then? 

Will they be dragged along for a while till the cyclist realizes what’s up?  And overall, how long is he going to run the dogs, considering the weather, their ages and health? 

To me, this looked like a cruel stunt.  Does anyone reading this know more about it than I do?  Is there anything redeeming to say about this 3-way exercise in which 2/3 of those involved are exercising involuntarily?    

Read on!

Tiger

In case you’ve already run through your holiday reading list, an animal-friendly librarian has let us know about this new book: Animalkind: Remarkable Discoveries About Animals and Revolutionary New Ways to Show Them Compassion, by Ingrid Newkirk and Gene Stone.  

The authors emphasize the importance of having "love, understanding, and respect for all animals," which includes not using them for scientific and medical research, clothing, entertainment, and food.  They discuss sea and air migration; communication among frogs, primates, and birds; cognitive abilities; courtship and fidelity; grief and mourning; animal empathy; and various forms of play.

Rats

"Animals love," they write. "They grieve.  They feel emotional pain.  They worry.  And they can anticipate pain."  Newkirk (PETA founder and president) and Stone also campaign against cruelty and exploitation.  Pointing out that animal testing is an "extremely wasteful" method of finding treatments for human diseases, they cite several effective noninvasive research methods. 

Not content to merely describe the injuries to sheep during shearing, they also advocate for  plant-based and synthetic alternatives to wool.  And, allied with both concern about climate change and the growing number of non-meat “meat” products (see elsewhere here on “pork”), Newkirk and Stone advocate "a whole-food, low-oil vegan diet" of plant-based substitutes for meat, eggs, butter, and cheese. (excerpted from a Kirkus review) 

Blue Shark

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