How pig parts make the world turn

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Christien Meindertsma, author of “Pig 05049” looks at the astonishing afterlife of the ordinary pig, parts of which make their way into at least 187 non-pork products, from bullets to artificial hearts.

We seep pigs all the time on the highways. Of course, we live near Iowa.

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12 thoughts on “How pig parts make the world turn

  1. We seep pigs all the time on the highways

    How long does it take a pig to seep all the way through to the water table? 🙂

  2. ^^Pigshit (or any other species) can foul ground water surprisingly easily if there’s a problem with waste disposal at one of the big, modern factory farms.

  3. Seeping pigs? Corking them prevents seepage, increases weight, and provides a big surprise at the slaughterhouse. Always good for a laugh.

  4. Hmmm, you know some Muslims and Jews have a fetish about avoiding any contact with pigs, so what do they use in Kosher toothpaste and kosher glue and soap and so on? Is there a well differentiated stream of beef gelatin or halal gelatin (and other pig part alternatives) that they get to use?

  5. Can I just point out that Bambi is not a pig? I’ll just attribute that to a blonde moment (ouch! ouch! ouch! – my blonde girlfriend is punching me now – and telling her the other blonde is very cute doesn’t seem to be helping me either.)

    @omar: there are plant derived gelatines – you don’t have to use animal goo. I have no idea if there is any toothpaste etc. manufactured from plant gelatines though.

  6. She didn’t finish the bullets story, sadly. I hope it’s in the book, I am curious as well.

    I noticed that many of the products included one specific pig part, gelatin. Rather useful stuff, it seems. The part about pig-hair in bread flour was pretty interesting, too.

  7. I loved the video, but I have to say, having worked on major pig-related research project, nothing was a surprise to me. (And she only touched on the ways in which pigs infiltrate everything!). Gelatin is used in the process of loading powder into the shells.

    A different use may be ordnance gelatin, which is what you shoot at when conducting experiments with bullets. I’m not sure if she meant that, though.

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