Pork!

[randomness]

In response to the ridiculous bans on pork imports from parts of North America by at least ten different countries, I propose that those of us who normally eat pork incorporate it into one more meal than usual. I started this morning with bacon. Mmmm, bacon.

I suspect these pork bans are more about raising a trade barrier than anything else.

Who's with me? For tasty pork, and against panic and protectionism!

Edit: added the word "imports" and reworded first sentence for clarity.

Comments

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoyed your bacon. I myself have a perfectly reasonable ban on pork in my diet. (Kashrut, and the fact that I didn't find it tasty before the kashrut issue was an issue for me personally.)

It is a silly blanket ban, and I hope that people see that soon.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I hope you enjoyed your bacon.

Thanks! I did.

I myself have a perfectly reasonable ban on pork in my diet. (Kashrut, and the fact that I didn't find it tasty before the kashrut issue was an issue for me personally.)

Indeed! (Thus the caveat in my original post. :) )

It is a silly blanket ban, and I hope that people see that soon.

Yes. One might as well ban poultry, as the flu virus also has genetic elements of avian flu. Only I think I shouldn't give anyone any dumb ideas.

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

I should hunt up my gradmother's recipe for pork roast with sauerkraut and dumplings for you. I make it with seitan roast, and it's quite good.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Mmm, sounds great.

Thanks!

[theloriest.livejournal.com]

Mmmm... pork.

thanks

[cthulhia]

I was debating going to True Grounds for Coffee, and, they have really good bacon... so... now I have to go.

Re: thanks

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Enjoy!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Ooooo... bacon.

I love pork. *happy sighs*

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

I am, and I'm sure as this comes as a complete surprise to all, completely with you. More pork after 6.

In fact, for the duration of the crisis, I hereby declare that bacon is a vegetable for purposes of my vegetarian before 6 diet.

That's right, I said bacon is a vegetable.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

"Bacon is a vegetable" could be a winning slogan for this campaign.

[ceo]

I really should remember who it was who said "You can't get swine flu from pork unless it's undercooked. As in, so undercooked that it's still sneezing on you."

[signsoflife.livejournal.com]

It was kathrynt.

My problem is that kathrynt tends to respond to the current idiodicy before I've even been exposed to the idiodicy, and so I'm going, no, no, people aren't THAT dumb, are they?

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

Sadly, yes they are.

[sarakate.livejournal.com]

Ooh, ooh, I know this one!

It was kathrynt, in this very level-headed post.

[flit.livejournal.com]

I don't eat a lot of pork since I'm actually allergic to it, but it just so happens that our "big meal o' the week" for this week has pork sausage from a local rancher as a major component. This wasn't intentional but I'm sort of smug nonetheless. Also their sausage is delicious (though their bacon is even better. Oh so good.)

[digitalemur.livejournal.com]

Allergic to pork? Oh, you poor dear!

[flit.livejournal.com]

Not badly, but I try to keep it down to the "occasional treat" level; it's one of the foods I can rotate in and out and thus eat with few ill effects.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

pork and garlic sausage coming up for dinner tonight. mmm.
(Is *that* why it was on sale at whole foods?)

[holmes-iv.livejournal.com]

Oh, but who can resist the sweet, sweet taste of protectionism when mixed with the savory goodness that is grandstanding? <grin>

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Bacon still tastes better, though. :)

Unless you're a politician.

[cerebralpaladin.livejournal.com]

While some of it is protectionism, some of it is a different form of bad public policy. Egypt's internal pig cull will hurt their economy, not even help it in a "beggar thy neighbor" kind of way. That said, apparently most of the pig farming population in Egypt is Coptic (i.e. Christian), so this may be an aspect of crisis hits, so let's oppress the local religious minority! But my guess is that part of this is the "we need to be seen as doing something, even if the something is unproductive or bad."

Out of curiosity, have pork prices started falling yet in response to all this? That seems like a likely result, and provides an opportunity for the well-informed to get cheap and yummy pork products, but I haven't checked out the pricing.

[julianyap.livejournal.com]

Well, you know what they say, never let a crisis go to waste.

I note that Sibelius soared through after weeks of slow going.

[karakara98.livejournal.com]

So, as I've heard more about the pig cull, I can see the reasons behind it, even if I think the Egyptian government is going about it the wrong way. It sounds as if most of the pig herds in Egypt live not just within city limits, but in apartment courtyards. Talk about close contact with people! Given this, fears that the flu could spread between live pigs and people and then on to other people do not seem completely baseless.

Also according to the NPR report this morning, the Egyptian government has been dealing with the Bird flu for a while by trying to address by improving the hygiene of people handling birds. So a concern for how people are interacting with animals has been demonstrated previously. It also sounds like there have been calls to move the pigs outside city limits for a while.

All that said, killing every pig in Egypt does sound like a stupid thing to do (currently, the herd is healthy, they'll have to import more pigs who may be infected if they want to rebuild the industry!). I can also see how the fact that the industry is controlled by a religious minority enables this sort of across the board silliness.

I do support the "Eat Pork" campaign proposed above, and went out and bought a tenderloin last night. mmm, pork!

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, have pork prices started falling yet in response to all this?

As a matter of fact, yes:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKTRE53T5A520090430

"At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where cattle and hog prices are set daily, hog prices tumbled this week. The actively traded June hog futures was down 3 percent Thursday morning at 64.700 cents per lb, and down nearly 10 percent since Friday."

[bloodstones.livejournal.com]

Last night I had goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. I am of the opinion that everything is better if it's been stuffed with goat cheese and wrapped in bacon.

[irielle.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! I'll try to have a BLT sometime this week. Too bad I don't have a pig icon.

[fin9901.livejournal.com]

I call my favorite style of pizza "The Infidel": ham, bacon, and extra cheese.