Hello and welcome back. So far we’ve looked at whether or not chicken or beef is natural food for humans, that is: are humans designed to catch, kill and eat these foods. We are also asking whether this is ethical.
Humans, as spiritual beings living in animal bodies are torn between making choices for physical survival and gratification, and making moral choices that will hopefully leave this world a better place. We understand the meaning of harm, and we can choose to inflict it, or relieve it. We certainly can choose to cause the least harm possible when it comes to our lifestyle choices, including food.
So, this post is about pork. Is eating pork natural and ethical?
Did you know that pigs love to have their bellies scratched? And, that they are smarter than cats and dogs? They learn new tasks as quickly as chimpanzees, which puts them in the same league as primates … and humans. They also have many physical similarities to humans (1).
And, apparently human flesh tastes a bit like pork
Just saying.
Investigation
Is it natural?
Can we (human primates, equipped only with our bodies and natural items such as rocks, sticks, soil, fire, etc) catch, prepare and eat pork?
It is possible to catch domestic piglets without tools, as seen in the video below, but the adult pigs in the area might make make this difficult or even dangerous, as pigs have fangs.
But, if you did manage somehow, you would need to restrain it and, then, how would you kill it? You might have to stun it with a rock, or rip through its thick skin to cut its throat with a sharpened stake. So, I would have to say that we are not designed to eat pork.
Is it ethical?
a) Has it suffered the least harm?
As we said with beef, even if you did manage to catch and restrain an animal without causing it harm, you would have to kill it to eat it, which then makes it unethical as you have caused it the most possible harm.
b) Has it had the best life possible?
Only if the animal has been living a completely natural life would you be able to say yes to this. Currently, pigs bred for human consumption live terrible lives, on the whole, and are fed unnatural foods and drugs.
Not only this, but they are kept in cages that are so narrow, they cannot move, only stand or lie down. They certainly can’t turn around. They never see the sky, or green grass, or breathe fresh air.
This is not ethical. If you’re not convinced, have a look at this:
If you can, watch this video below for a view into the life of a pig bred for meat. I couldn’t get past the first few seconds, it was so awful.
Even some so-called free-range pigs have a terrible life:
c) Is this food good for us?
Because pigs share similar physical characteristics to humans, they also share many of the diseases. This means that diseases can be passed from pigs to humans. The most notable of these is swine flu.
Toxins are another very important issue here. Pigs kept in caged conditions are injected with antibiotics and other chemicals to keep them ‘healthy’. These are, in turn, ingested by humans who eat this pork.
And this is before we even start talking about the effects of the genetically modified foods these animals are given to eat, and which are transferred to humans who eat the meat.
When a pig is killed, the stress it suffers causes the meat to be infused with adrenaline. Adrenaline in excess in the human body can cause premature ageing, ADHD, increased heart rates, high blood pressure, and aggression, among other symptoms.
Final verdict
Pork is not natural food, unless it has been found already dead. And, even then, unless another animal has broken through the skin beforehand, without the right sort of teeth, humans wouldn’t even be able to start eating the meat.
And neither is it ethical unless, again, it has been found dead due to natural causes and has lived wild since birth.
So, pork is off the list.
What do you think?
Next post: Lamb
Bibliography
1. https://www.goshen.edu/academics/biology/pigbook/human-pig-comparisons/
Natural Ethical Food 