When we were invited to Hudson Ranch last week and learned that Chez Panisse sourced their pork from there, we knew we had to go. Their heritage breed pigs nibbled at our pants and snorted in our faces. For us city folk, it was fascinating to see how agile they were in their rocky terrain, ceaselessly searching for acorns and roots. The mama of many of them was 740 pounds and tame enough to hold eye contact. These were all kind beasts, which rendered us solemn as we prepared to take one home, not alive, for our Silverlake Wine Tasting. For those of you who eat pork, this is the most humane way to do so and a standard we should all insist upon by way of our purchasing power so as to end corporate meat processing plants that dominate this country’s food industry (see expanded description here).
I am really quite sad after reading this and now I don’t think I can eat pork again. The look on that first piggie’s face, oh my gosh, my heart is breaking. 🙁
Your photos are really lovely though!
You and me both. I debated over publishing that photo. Her eyes are so soulful and I knew people would react to that. However, if you are a meat eater, an animal must die, and it is so much more humane to slaughter on site where an animal ate off a pasture and had plenty of space to move around and was not injected with hormones and antibiotics. Check out the link to the Mother Jones article that I have at the bottom of the post for how most meat is processed.