A Grape In The Sun: Call it, Cerdo (Part 1)

I really dislike the food industry in the United States, pretty much from top--the White House decides what gets planted every year on a huge portion of American farmland, and offers subsidies to encourage/discourage the growth of certain crops on the rest of America's land--to the bottom (the way animals are raised, fed, killed, packaged, et cetera). For this reason Emily and I have for a few years now been very invested in the food we eat: where we get it from, who is producing it (and how), and how we cook it. We are big advocates of farmers' markets, and were proud member-owners of the Lexington Co-op in Buffalo, and also jumped at the opportunity to get any of Larry's (Emily's father) venison to use in lieu of beef. Such habits have always made us feel healthier and closer to the food we eat; also, it happens to taste a whole lot better.

One of the things I really love about the lifestyle in Spain is that people as a whole have a much more intimate relationship with the food they eat. Emily has written about this more extensively on her blog, but suffice it to say it's something we are both very enthusiastic about. Today we witnessed the slaughtering of Chelo & Gonzalo's pig (cerdo), Chirrichin. I've never watched an animal get butchered in person before, so I relished the opportunity to have a more intimate experience with the food that I will be eating. I'll post several pictures and links to videos below...***WARNING - Many of these images are graphic*** If you are squeamish and/or offended by images of conventional, humane animal butchery, you should probably turn away (I would recommend checking out Disney's website, perhaps, or else here is a link to the classic meat industry propaganda film from The Simpsons--the joke from The Simpsons really kills me, because it exposes the hypocrisy of people who love to eat meat, but who are upset by the reality of how it all arrives so neatly packaged at the supermarket, opting instead to pretend it's something other than dead animal flesh [I'm looking at you, Mom]).

Chelo and Gonzalo used to slaughter the pig themselves, but it was recently made illegal to slaughter and bleed it with a knife, so they pay a friend with a cattle gun 40 Euro (about $55) to come and kill and dress it (remove the innards). They also had a few neighbors come by and help, whose children were towed along for good measure; the group atmosphere really added a kind of charmed sentiment to it in my eyes, taking the grotesquerie out of it and really normalizing the idea that, hey, I'm going to eat this food so I ought to have a hand in it's life & death.

It's a pretty simple process: first, the cattle gun shoots a small bullet (not a piston-action bolt as in "No Country For Old Men") into the pig's brain, then, while the pig is stunned and seizing, the slaughterer slits the carotid artery to bleed it out; then the hair is removed, it is dressed, and hung until tomorrow, at which point it is properly butchered (I forgot to ask why they hang it for a day, but I will be sure to ask when I return tomorrow for the butchering).

Fernando, the slaughterer, suiting up for the job.

Gonzalo happily showing off the cattle gun (hence the inevitable "No Country For Old Men" references...sorry, couldn't help myself)

Immediately post death

Using a makeshift flamethrower to singe all the hair off the pig's body. I had never seen or heard of this step, but it's quite a sensory overload: loud, hot, bright, and produces an interesting burnt hair/skin smell.