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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How long does it take a pig to seep all the way through to the water table? 🙂
Don’t laugh, I’m sure that happens! Chickens, too.
^^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.
Seeping pigs? Corking them prevents seepage, increases weight, and provides a big surprise at the slaughterhouse. Always good for a laugh.
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?
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.
Bambi was not shown as a pig. You need to go back and rewatch the whole video but pay closer attention.
Did anybody get the part about bullets? I missed whatever it was that pigs contribute.
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.
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.
I loved it.
Thank You.
A vague memory: wasn’t the Cawnpore Mutiny partly related to the use of pig (or cow) parts in munitions?