my first thread: join me in abstaining from pork?

[aphrodite-gone-awry]

i dunno, guys. i've always kept my opinions to myself, for the most part, but in posting a pic today, i was alerted (reminded?) of how much i like pigs, how much i detest commercial processing, and how lazy i can be when it comes to eating conscientiously.

i'm not advocating vegetarianism, although think it's a pretty good idea. i'm not advocating gun control--we are a hunting family. i have simply decided i cannot abide eating pigs anymore. ironically, i raised a hog in ffa years ago in high school. although i loved her and cared for her for many months, i was not very invested in her life, and wasn't too sad to see her sold, although i knew what it meant, of course. i have, for years, annually bought a 'whole hog' from my local butcher up the road, although i cancelled my order a couple years ago when i drove by on 'processing day' and saw all the pink (seriously--pink) pigs awaiting their execution.

i love pork. it is my favorite meat. when i got on the mad cow bandwagon years ago, i found my culinary meat salvation in pork. peppered bacon, jimmy dean sausage, eckrich dinner sausage, bratz, dogs, pork roast, ham, pork chops, hot pork rinds, and, yes, even pickled pigs feet when i was a kid (yuck, daddy!) you name it, i eat/ate it.

so. i am posting this video and perhaps a pic or song or something to raise awareness of the plight of the piggies. won't you join me in leaving the pork off your plate?

GoVeg.com // Cruelty to Animals // Pigs (http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_pigs.asp)

YouTube - Pig - Weezer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCtrle7oC_s&feature=PlayList&p=73369C45451B1137&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=12)

[kyuuei]

No.

[Oberon]

My woman is a good woman. She cooks good salt pork in the dead of winter.

So no.

[OneWithSoul]

I am very strongly against unnecessary harm and cruelty to animals and the planet, but I have no problems eating any meat, or cutting down any tree.

I find no problem with it. It's apart of life. It's balanced, everything is fair game. This is a dog eat dog world, and we forget this, we forget that we are just another animal inhabiting this earth.

But that's my opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own, and I will not lose any respect for you if you are apposed to this. I don't think this will get far, though..a lot of people enjoy pork. If you don't want to eat pork, than that is fine. Just know that some people will probably disagree with you..and of course, some will agree.

[Tiltyred]

I'm in. Thanks for this thread.

[Sytpg]

If I stop eating pork will I help stop animal cruelty? No.

If we were so inclined, we could easily trace the manufacturing/preparation of most of our capitalist society's goods/products and find that, somewhere along the line, someone did something morally reprovable.

[YourLocalJesus]

Pork meat is the best meat, as far as i'm concerned.
If there was just one pig left, I would eat it. ;)

[aphrodite-gone-awry]

My woman is a good woman. She cooks good salt pork in the dead of winter.

So no.

i forgot about salt pork. mmmmmmmm.........with a good pot o' beans.

:tongue:

I'm in. Thanks for this thread.

aw, thanks. i was starting to feel a bit lonely here.......:)........i don't usually do things like this, so it is quite weird. i'm fixing peppered bacon for breakfast for my family (cuz i already bought it, right?) and it will feel good to not indulge.

[Jeremy]

I couldn't live without bacon.

[Ivy]

Why avoid eating pork altogether? Why not simply resolve to eat only humanely farmed pork? Your post makes it sound like the reasoning is your personal fondness for pigs. Which is a fine reason to avoid it altogether for yourself, but not much of a reason to implore others to avoid it. "Don't eat pork because I like pigs!" :)

[aphrodite-gone-awry]

Why avoid eating pork altogether? Why not simply resolve to eat only humanely farmed pork? Your post makes it sound like the reasoning is your personal fondness for pigs. Which is a fine reason to avoid it altogether for yourself, but not much of a reason to implore others to avoid it. "Don't eat pork because I like pigs!" :)

good point. did you watch the video? there is just something wrong to me, and i'm not pushing this on anyone else at all, with raising commercial animals and walking them over to the kill area, and slaughtering them.

i feel like this actually about beef and chicken and mutton too, but i only chose pork for this thread. i eventually hope to only eat venison or other wild game, but i am still weak and spoiled, and not quite ready to give up my commercial chicken from costco.

how about this? eat pork if you hunt and kill it in the wild. i can see that as more humane.

thanks for the input.

[Ivy]

I didn't watch the video- I don't need convincing that commercial farming (of any food animal, not just pigs) is inhumane. I don't see a problem with humane, small-scale farming, though. We sometimes get pork from a local farm where my daughter went to summer camp last year, where I happen to know the pigs are treated very well and killed as close to painlessly as possible.

I don't hunt and I don't plan on taking it up. I don't see that as more humane than responsible farming.

[aphrodite-gone-awry]

I didn't watch the video- I don't need convincing that commercial farming (of any food animal, not just pigs) is inhumane. I don't see a problem with humane, small-scale farming, though. We sometimes get pork from a local farm where my daughter went to summer camp last year, where I happen to know the pigs are treated very well and killed as close to painlessly as possible.

I don't hunt and I don't plan on taking it up. I don't see that as more humane than responsible farming.

yes, besides ethical hunting, i think local meat is the only way to go if you're gonna eat meat too. :yes:

[MacGuffin]

I wanna try "long pig" sometime.

[Ivy]

That's messed up, man.

[MacGuffin]

That's messed up, man.

If no one suffered... I'd try it.

[Oberon]

If no one suffered... I'd try it.

Well, head on down to the funeral home and see what they've got that's fresh.

[MacGuffin]

Well, head on down to the funeral home and see what they've got that's fresh.

That's not too fresh.

[Oberon]

If it's a quick highway accident death on a winter day, then straight to the hospital morgue, then to the funeral home, it would be fresher than most of the meat in your supermarket cold case.

[Oberon]

Dang... can I kill a thread or what? :D

[Tiltyred]

I can't quite get to vegetarianism, but I'm pretty much down to chicken, although every time I eat it, a baby chicken being debeaked flashes before my eyes. Whatever the logic, it just doesn't feel good to me anymore to eat too much animal flesh, and I'm afraid of fish because of the mercury. I realized after I agreed to this thread that I haven't eaten any pork since I saw a movie about how pigs are treated in commercial pig farms a couple of months ago, so this would just be actually making a formal commitment to something I'm already on the road with. I don't have convenient access to humanely treated animals, so I've pretty much just stopped eating them. A little bit of chicken one meal a day is all the animal product I eat anymore.

Aphrodite, good for you for speaking your conscience. If nothing else, 'm sure your arteries will thank you.

[Oberon]

I can't quite get to vegetarianism, but I'm pretty much down to chicken, although every time I eat it, a baby chicken being debeaked flashes before my eyes. Whatever the logic, it just doesn't feel good to me anymore to eat too much animal flesh, and I'm afraid of fish because of the mercury.

Eat farm-raised freshwater fish (such as tilapia or catfish), and mercury won't enter into the picture.

[OneWithSoul]

If I stop eating pork will I help stop animal cruelty? No.

If we were so inclined, we could easily trace the manufacturing/preparation of most of our capitalist society's goods/products and find that, somewhere along the line, someone did something morally reprovable.

Exactly. If this isn't personal than it's a lost cuase. If you rightfully don't believe in the killing of animals, then I respect you for not eating it. But if you stop eating it, just know that just as many pigs are going to be killed and eaten around the world.

[Tiltyred]

Eat farm-raised freshwater fish (such as tilapia or catfish), and mercury won't enter into the picture.

I love catfish!
But I've seen pictures (damn these pictures! sometimes I wish I didn't know) of fish farms where the water is really dirty and the fish are overcrowded in there, too, so I wonder how healthy the fish can be.
But that's a good point, there's no need to worry about mercury in farmed fish. I'd forgotten that.

[Kangirl]

I buy as much meat as I can from local farmers whose animals are free range and slaughtered locally/humanely. I don't have a problem with eating meat, plus it's fucking yummy.

What goes on in certain systems, though, is pretty gross, from a moral standpoint.

EDIT: I so want to try catfish! I saw some footage of them being caught (some dudes were just feeling around on the bottom of a lake and hauling these fish out of their hidey holes) somewhere in the US South and they were huge.

[aphrodite-gone-awry]

I can't quite get to vegetarianism, but I'm pretty much down to chicken, although every time I eat it, a baby chicken being debeaked flashes before my eyes. Whatever the logic, it just doesn't feel good to me anymore to eat too much animal flesh, and I'm afraid of fish because of the mercury. I realized after I agreed to this thread that I haven't eaten any pork since I saw a movie about how pigs are treated in commercial pig farms a couple of months ago, so this would just be actually making a formal commitment to something I'm already on the road with. I don't have convenient access to humanely treated animals, so I've pretty much just stopped eating them. A little bit of chicken one meal a day is all the animal product I eat anymore.

Aphrodite, good for you for speaking your conscience. If nothing else, 'm sure your arteries will thank you.

thanks so much for your support, tiltyred. i just wanted to raise awareness and give those who have been undecisive about this issue, a nudge. but people LOVE their meat!! not taking your meat away, Type C Peeps!! haha.
:bye:


EDIT: I so want to try catfish! I saw some footage of them being caught (some dudes were just feeling around on the bottom of a lake and hauling these fish out of their hidey holes) somewhere in the US South and they were huge.

i had thought farm raised fish might be the way to go too, but then i thought about, and researched a little bit, the fish food they fed them, and i believe it is just other 'trash' fish that could also have mercury and other contamination. that's why many won't buy farmed fish, preferring wild harvested fish.

but then there is overfishing of our oceans, which, for me, is almost a bigger issue. i avoid fish in costco because i believe people eat way more fish than our oceans can sustain. look at cod. it was overfished. now they are doing the same thing with tilapia. then it will be something else.

you also have to watch out for those BIG fish. especially down south where there are a lot of refineries (i'm from texas) and tons of pollution in texas waters, and all along the gulf coast. but even lakes in the north are notorious for the bigger fish having toxic levels of contaminates because they simply have lived longer and have stored more bad things in their flesh........

just a little info i've picked up along the way. why i mainly eat venison now. it lives freely and is plentiful around here. virtually organic grass, etc. then it's killed quickly in the wild with one shot, and very lean meat. but if you have a local farm and know what feed they feed their livestock, that's pretty good too i think.

i didn't fix that bacon this morning. i didn't have the heart.

[MacGuffin]

Catfish is okay, but there are better tasting fish out there.

Most people fry it.

[Tiltyred]

Catfish dipped in corn meal with salt and pepper and fried quickly over high heat so it crisps, cook it just till it's opaque and no longer ... ye gods, it's good. Crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, mild and sweet-tasting. A little squeeze of lemon and some cole slaw and I'm a happy girl.

I throw tilapia in a pan and pour green salsa over it, put the lid on, and let it cook for 10 minutes. Goes great over rice.

[d@v3]

I don't really eat bacon or ham or any of that often but it DOES taste good! :yes: I'm a hunter as well, and I don't see myself not eating meat any time soon! You kill the animal (preferrably in the most humane way possible so it doesn't suffer) and then you cook it and eat it. It's a fact of life.

We wouldn't be here if the cavemen decided long ago that "ohh I think I'll only eat greens." Why? Because if a pregnant women doesn't eat a balanced meal which includes meat, their baby will be nutrient deficient. Thus, vegetarian mothers usually take nutrient suppliments. From a scientific perspective, our teeth are shaped so that we can be omnivorous (eating greens and meat). ;)

[Morgan Le Fay]

If I stop eating pork will I help stop animal cruelty? No.

If we were so inclined, we could easily trace the manufacturing/preparation of most of our capitalist society's goods/products and find that, somewhere along the line, someone did something morally reprovable.

That's a weak argument. Consumer demand does change farming practice. Aside from legislation, it's the only thing that will. Look at the organic movement, or the fur industry.

And since when did a lack of conscience in others excuse morally reprehensible behaviour in oneself? Assuming you believe animal cruelty is morally reprehensible.

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing". ~Edmund Burke

[Samvega]

I raised a pig last year, didn't do anything to it I wouldn't have done to or eaten myself. Well, with the exception of putting a bullet in it's head. Anyway, I decided if I couldn't buy a baby, raise it up, treat it well and slaughter it myself I had no right eating pork. I felt like I needed to earn that right instead of just walking into a store and buying whatever all neat like in a package.

It turns out I had no troubles what so ever with any of that so I eat pork with a clear conscious now.

It's not something I wanna do again really but it also isn't something I would avoid. If I had a bigger family and enough wasted food to feed a pig I would keep one for that reason all the time.

[Haphazard]

I would recommend eating kosher meat if your want your animals slaughtered humanely, but you won't find kosher pork anywhere.

[lane777]

I already abstain from pork for health reasons.

[nozflubber]

Oh plz, more estranged maxims from the alienated pseudo-moral vegan impulse .......

Tell me, those of you planning on dying someday - are you going to care when something consumes you, be it an animal, a crematory fire, a slury of worms or a colony of bacteria? Are you going to put up some big fuss as YOUR biomaterial gets renewed and reused?

You're damn right if you say you won't care, and a pig doesn't give 2 shits what you do with his body after you kill the poor bastard.

The whole moral problem is about their suffering as another legitimate lifeform, not the fact you eat their meat.


That being said, more pig for me the more that abstain, so keep that pig chow up, so i can chow down more pig.

[Ivy]

I would recommend eating kosher meat if your want your animals slaughtered humanely, but you won't find kosher pork anywhere.

This is true, but if you buy from small local farms (try your farmer's market) you can be sure the pigs are treated much more humanely than those in a factory farm.

[Lateralus]

I like ham and bacon too much. No thanks.