In Videos: The Whole Hog Project
A year and a half ago, Mike Sula of the Chicago Reader embarked on a project. The Whole Hog Project would follow three mulefoot pigs (Edna, Erma, and Endive) from birth (on a Wisconsin farm) to death (at a slaughterhouse) to an afterlife (at Chicago's Blackbird restaurant). The hairy oinkers, known for having uncloven hooves like mules, would be spotlighted in a fancy six-course dinner.
"I've never seen my food walking around before," his friend and and videographer throughout the project, Mike Gebert of Sky Full of Bacon, admitted. Why were they putting themselves through this? Mulefoot pigs are an endangered American breed that, two years ago, only had 200 to their name. While eating an endangered animal seems like a bad idea, farmer Linda Derrickson debunked this theory: “If you treat them like a zoo animal they’ll become zoo animals." To foster the animal's genetic vitality, you actually should eat them.
In an era of blogging and meta-blogging—when old-fashioned reporting can fall by the wayside—it was touching to stop and watch Sula's story unfold, in both words and Gebert's videos. Watch both parts of the Whole Hog Project, after the jump.
The Whole Hog Project, Part 1
The Whole Hog Project, Part 2
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4 Comments:
My first reaction was 'uncloven hooves? Would that make it kosher'? But then I realized that no- they don't chew their own cud. (Though I imagine they wouldn't be against chewing other animal's cud...)
comicsan at 2:02PM on 11/21/08
Thank you piggies, for giving us bacon.
juliebugsmama at 2:03PM on 11/21/08
I still would like to know what would happen if you took this breed of pig, and generically altered it to be able to chew cud.
The concept of Kosher bacon just humors me more than it ought to.
pcrackenhead at 2:14PM on 11/21/08
Actually, Kosher animals must have CLOVEN hooves. Accordingly, standard pigs are in fact "half-Kosher," while the mulefoot pig is especially un-Kosher.
GinBlossom at 12:25PM on 11/24/08