I bet you didn't know that this thread would have a part 2

You probably know, recently was the Chinese New Year, starting the Year of the Pig.

The Year of the Pig symbolizes wealth and good luck, but not only in the Chinese horoscope but in many cultures. In Germany for example you’ll get a little pink marzipan pig for New Year, sometimes adorned with a four-leaved clover (symbol of luck) or a little black card-board chimney sweep (likewise symbol of luck).

The sentiment is understandable. In the not so good old times it was a sign of good luck if you still had a pig to make pork in the middle of winter. Until today it’s an usual saying in German “Schwein gehabt”, translated as “have got pig”, meaning, I was lucky or had a lucky escape. Or you would know the famous piggy bank, a reserve fund for hard times.

The pig was first domesticated about 8000 years ago in Mesopotamia. It was especially appreciated in Iran, Palestine and Egypt – that was before Islam by the way. It not only provided meat but was used to cultivate fields because it was always digging up the soil.
Only when the Hebrews moved into this area, who as semi-nomads couldn’t rear pigs (pigs are very domestic after all), the consumption of pork was dismissed because the animals were seen as possessed by impure spirits. Which wasn’t that wrong because the pig carried and still carries diseases that could kill humans. The Islamic peoples later adopted these rules and made it a law according to the Quran.

For the old Germanic peoples the pig was a ritual meal (and sacrifice) in honour of the Earth Mother and the fertility demons. And they served as a kind of barometer: If pigs started to carry straw into their sty you could count on rain and bad weather.

Now the Christian Church as per usual didn’t like all this Pagan nonsense. They spread the rumour that pigs are the mounts, or riding animals, of witches and devils and that cursed souls (like female adulterers) would be transformed into pigs.The pig therefore wasn't honoured anymore, but dismissed as the most inferior animal (beside cats).
Somehow the poor pig got a bad reputation under any monotheistic religion.

Anyway, the original Caribs didn’t eat pork, because they believed, that eating pork would give them small eyes. They weren’t all that wrong. Pigs have a similar tissue structure as humans and that’s why porcine cardiac valves are (or were, I’m not up to date) used as tissue tolerant implants for humans. Humans and pigs are very similar, in many (genetic) ways.

But for all the luck that pigs provide for humans, it was the downfall of the pig. This highly intelligent animal was finally so overbred that it carries potentially even more diseases than the original breed.
Not only is it fed and mistreated in tiny stys were it can hardly move and reaches it’s slaughter age after around 175 days (around 1700 it was after 5 years and in freedom), it is injected with so many antibiotics that the impact on human health is immense.
Apart from that the farmers administer psychotropic drugs, because of their appalling living conditions the pigs start to eat the tails off each other. They get hormones as well to artificially swell the meat, which means that your pork chop shrivels when frying. Not to forget the beta-blockers they get, because they suffer from immense stress in their lives. And a pig that dies of a heart attack is of no use for a pig farmer.
The chemical content in pork is surely a delight for humans, isn’t it?

So the Chinese Year of the Pig should not only be celebrated for good luck and wealth for us humans, but maybe for at least a better life for the pigs as well.

This is a quickly translated summery of a feature article I’ve intensively researched, written and published as a young journalist. I’ve never eaten pork ever since.

On pigs/pork.....

I remember my mum telling me that, in her day, you could never eat pork unless there was an ‘r’ in the month. Bit like oysters.

Ipso wrote: »

I thought it had to do with tape worm, if you undercook pork you can have a nice long visitor in your intestine.
Doesn’t the word pork share a root with orc (linking tonwhat was said about evil spirits)? I think this is also where Orca for Killer Whales comes from.

If you undercook pork that is infected with Trichinella spiralis you can develop something called Trichinosis. Pretty nasty apparently.

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

If you undercook pork that is infected with Trichinella spiralis you can develop something called Trichinosis. Pretty nasty apparently.

And apparently way less common than it used to be. Vanishingly rare in Europe and North America, so that the advice that you have to cook the absolute bejesus out of pork no longer applies. It's fine to have it a little bit less well done (and way, way tastier).

As an addendum to my pig story further up and as an addition to artists in general I want to introduce you to Pigcasso, the pig that paints and even sells its paintings:

https://pigcasso.org/gallery/

Even Swatch designed an arty watch after Pigcasso's work.

And you have to admit, that Pigcasso's paintings are comparable to many a modern human artist's output.

Ipso wrote: »

Likewise shellfish is considerd an abomination, desert regions back in the day weren’t known for their refrigeration.

Surprisingly enough, refrigeration was a thing as far back as 2,500 years ago in Persia. They built these huge mud construction conical towers called Yakchals, connected up to under ground aquafers.
Their shape funnelled air downwards over the walls of the tower and as it descended it was chilled by the evaporation of the water from the mud, it eventually pooled in an underground store (some of which were quite enormous - think 5000 cubic metres) resulting in temperatures inside being comparable to a modern day fridge, even in the height of the Persian summer. Year round ice was even possible in some cases.
Some of the structures are still standing after hundreds of years. In fact the word Yakchal today just means fridge in that part of the world kind of like hoover means vacuum cleaner here.