To All The Pig Farmers And Wannabe Pig Farmers

[bina]

jsut a reminder that there is a pinned topic that u can add pertinent 'hard' info i.e. links, price quotes, feed/barn/breeding info... if its is fairly strictly informative....

that will help keep all pig stuff in one place : the pig sty -- in pigs 101...so that info doesnt get lost in the shuffle of forum topics.... it will make it easier for poeple to search in the one thread for relavant up to date basic info.

if there are other topics that need to become pinned subjects besides cassava pigs boreholes and feed, let me know...

bina

a cute article about pigs here in israel...tried putting it in as a link but didnt work....

Home / Articles / On Israel’s Only Jewish-Run Pig Farm, It’s The Swine That Bring Home the Bacon

On Israel’s Only Jewish-Run Pig Farm, It’s The Swine That Bring Home the Bacon

Letter From Kibbutz Lahav

By Jeffrey Yoskowitz

Published April 24, 2008, issue of May 02, 2008.

I stood beside the road with a traveling backpack and a yarmulke, my arm extended, hitchhiking to the junction from Ramat Raziel to catch a bus home. I was singing “Lev Tahor,” a verse from Psalm 51 meaning “pure heart” that I’d been singing all Sabbath long. A car stopped, and a bearded man in a knit yarmulke picked me up. As I entered his car, he turned to me: “I’m Oren… So where you going?” dam_n. I’d begun to hate this question, especially when asked by religious people. “Kibbutz Lahav,” I answered, expecting a gasp. Unfazed, he further inquired, “And what do you do there?” Again, I hesitated, this time with dread. “Uh, well… I work on their pig farm.”

Grunt Work: Jeffrey Yoskowitz handles a piglet at Kibbutz Lahav, where the meat is treyf but some of the farmers keep kosher.

STY TOWN: The author, seen here on Kibbutz Lahav, moved to the collective to understand the phenomenon of pig farming in Israel.And just like that, I managed to overwhelm and confuse Oren, as well as myself, while simultaneously expressing the contradiction that pig farming in Israel played in my life for the two months I spent working at Kibbutz Lahav. Luckily, Oren was an open-minded man whose parting words to me were: “God put you on the pork farm for a reason.”

The kibbutz and its pigs sit comfortably in the northern Negev, just 30 minutes north of Beersheba, surrounded by the Lahav forest, Israel’s largest manmade woodlands. Pine trees, scattered acorns and orderly planted “wild” grasses and flowers seem somewhat out of place in the desert hills. The iconoclastic kibbutz similarly appears incongruous in a Jewish part of a Jewish country, next door to religious Kibbutz Shomeriya. As I learned over the course of two months, though, the kibbutz, just like the forest, fits into the complex web of Israeli and Jewish identity in more ways than one.

Toward the end of January, I moved onto Kibbutz Lahav in an effort to understand the phenomenon of pigs in Israel. While there are a number of similar farms in Israel, Kibbutz Lahav is unique because, as its slogan suggests, it is “the meat from the Kibbutz.” All the other pig breeders operate in a zone in the North dominated by Christian Arabs, the only place where raising pork is legal, according to a 1962 law. Kibbutz Lahav, a Jewish-run farm, proudly operates outside the legal zone.

Lahav’s pig breeding gained widespread notoriety because of its legal loophole, almost talmudic in its ingenuity, in which the kibbutz is exempt from the law and can rightfully raise pigs for research as a part of its Animal Research Institute. Thus, the kibbutz raises pigs for science and eats the excess, developing over the years a rather staggering excess. For many years the institute was no more than an ad hoc veterinarian research institute, which, on the scientific side, boasted little more than the successful splicing of an ibex with a goat.

“Israelis weren’t ready to pay more money for it,” said Dodik, a kibbutz elder whose last name I never learned, as was the case with most people on the kibbutz.

Today, as a result of the recent biotech boom, the institute is the center of Israel’s most spectacular medical advancements, where religious Jewish scientists are among the hundreds of researchers who use the pigs for innovative experimentation.

Despite the institute’s success, raising and processing pig meat is the main purpose of the farm, as the 10,000-plus animals suggest. Most workers commute from Beersheba each morning. Jewish immigrants from Argentina and Russian immigrants with little Jewish background make up the largest proportion of the 50-something workers. On any given morning, the workers are spread out among the 15 or so indoor buildings, administering antibiotics, slaughtering and butchering, inseminating sows and moving pigs to the fattening rooms from their weaning rooms.

Eshai, a proud Israeli-born pork eater — and self-proclaimed messiah (he was born on the Ninth of Av, the prophesied birthday of the future messiah) — was my supervisor for most of February. He seethed with a cynicism toward all things Jewish and traditional. I once asked him why nobody collects and sells pigs’ milk. He answered me, grinning: “Pigs’ milk isn’t kosher.”

One day after work, when changing out of my coveralls and knee-high boots, a new immigrant from Brazil, Yehoshua, was discussing his former religiosity with Marcos when he mentioned in passing that he still didn’t eat pork. “Me neither,” I interrupted their conversation, excited to discover I wasn’t alone. “I keep kosher.”

Then Marcos chimed in, in his equally broken Hebrew: “Yeah, neither do I.” And there we sat, three confused Jewish pig farmers, when Imat, the Palestinian Muslim pig farmer, who also didn’t eat pork, entered the room.

How can you spot a kosher pig farmer? We blended in — except for Yehoshua, who always wore facemasks in a last-ditch effort not to inhale or ingest the same air as the pigs, or the floating fecal dust. Early on I also donned a facemask, but unlike Yehoshua, who can hardly understand Hebrew or English, I got the jokes and insults, such as “Jewboy” and “rookie,” from the Sabras, not to mention Eshai’s looks, which implied “pansy.”

It was when I learned from co-workers that our manager doesn’t eat pork, and that his manager and the head of the entire pork operation has a pork-free home, that I first felt at home, comfortable as a kosher Jew on the kibbutz. Through such revelations I saw the pig-breeding center as home to the same neurotic Jewish traditionalism that courses through my veins.

Such contradictions shed light on the beautiful and confusing Jewish identity of Kibbutz Lahav and its pigs. On Friday night in the kibbutz dining room, there is a Sabbath display of candlesticks, a challah cover and a Kiddush cup. Kibbutzniks thus have the Sabbath on their minds as they eat their special meal of braised pork or ham on the ceremonial white Sabbath linens. During our celebratory barbecue just prior to Purim, management handed out mishloach manot, traditional Jewish gift baskets, to all the workers, with a note wishing everyone a “happy Purim.” Most workers ate the hamantaschen as dessert after the grilled pork spare ribs. One Thursday, while I was shopping in the kolbo — the kibbutz grocery store — a panicked woman ran behind me to speak to the cashier, urgently asking if she could leave a ham in the freezer and collect it tomorrow for Friday’s dinner. When she left with permission to do so, I turned to the cashier woman, smiled and asked her if the meat was “for Shabbat.” She nodded, and we both laughed.

According to Dodik, one of the kibbutz founders, Lahav embarked on pork production by chance. In 1952, the year of the kibbutz’s founding and a period of major food shortages in Israel, the struggling Lahav received a gift of one boar and two sows from a neighboring kibbutz. After a number of years, and thanks to the will of a few kibbutzniks, those pigs became the kibbutz’s financial linchpin. As kibbutzim have been failing and Lahav, in particular, has had trouble, the pigs have remained a stable revenue producer, an unlikely friend to a Zionist institution.

And even though most kibbutzniks no longer “work in the pigs,” the porcine influence on the kibbutz is nearly impossible to miss. Ten thousand-plus pigs howl throughout the night, along with the desert jackals. There’s a dreaded western wind here that brings with it the inescapable and potent scent of industrial hog waste that cannot possibly be ignored. In the dining room there is almost always a pork option. The kibbutzniks find no need for the silly euphemisms used by greater Israeli society, like “white meat” and “white steak.” Pork, or at least the right to raise it, serve it and eat it, is no doubt a point of pride at Lahav today, and part of the kibbutz’s national legacy

after putting int he article i realized that the guy writing it was actually starting his hitchhke right outside my kibbutz...near jerusalem... a good long way to hitchhike to where he was going... anyhow, pork is super expensive here; the thais order their live pigs fromt eh christian arab villages in the north, but now many places dont allow them to slaughter on their own, so the slaughtering makes the price jump sky high.. oh well...

Edited November 9, 2010 by bina
added teh article full lenghth cause link didnt work...

[IsaanAussie]

Bina,

It seems that wherever you go there are always obstacles which through human need are usually accomodated one way or another. The common thread with pigs between Isreal and Thailand is religion. One doesnt favour the eating of pork and the other dislikes the killing of large animals. I have no doubt the the Thais will dispatch their Isreali pigs in a very early hours of the morning, before the neighbours or the plastic buddhas are awake just as they do here.

Arh, the human being, the ability to justify and rationalise to suit our own ends, what a strange animal we are? The fire that burns others, warms us. The tall poppy grown by the achiever must be cut down. Oh for simpler days, I was borne in 1952, the year mentioned in your quoted article and despite being a child in those years I was looking at a much more achievement based community spirit than I see now with all its consumer must have competitive drive.

Whilst we pollute and heat the planet, we justify our actions by issuing carbon credits. By turning the need for increased productivity into money? God save us all from lobbyists and politicians who make their living by facilitating the industrial mainstream. I was a high flying corporate player once and it all made sense, not now.

All I hope for now, is a continuation in the ability to share what I learn in this much simplier life, and to learn from others, TV Farming Forum gives me the opportunity for just that. Thank you for that opportunity and I hope TV can continue to offer the same sense of community to so many different interest groups.

Isaan Aussie

[jazzbo]

Whilst we pollute and heat the planet, we justify our actions by issuing carbon credits

Agriculture is responsible for an estimated 14 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. A significant portion of these emissions come from methane, which, in terms of its contribution to global warming is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

The (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization says that agricultural methane output could increase by 60 percent by 2030. The world's 1.5 billion cows and billions of other grazing animals emit dozens of polluting gases, including lots of methane. Two-thirds of all ammonia comes from cows.

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/methane-cow.htm

[grimleybob]

Whilst we pollute and heat the planet, we justify our actions by issuing carbon credits

Agriculture is responsible for an estimated 14 percent of the world's greenhouse gases. A significant portion of these emissions come from methane, which, in terms of its contribution to global warming is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.

The (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization says that agricultural methane output could increase by 60 percent by 2030. The world's 1.5 billion cows and billions of other grazing animals emit dozens of polluting gases, including lots of methane. Two-thirds of all ammonia comes from cows.

http://animals.howst...methane-cow.htm

I concurr But isn't it worth it for a nice juicey T-Bone

[jazzbo]

Sure ... I eat a rib-eye steak once or twice a day nearly every day I am back in the USA usually for about 3 weeks each year -- The difference between plants and animals according to the British Philosopher Alan Watts is that " ... the plants want to be eaten, so that seeds will be distributed through the alimentary canals of bugs, birds, or people." (his italics) ...

He also said but I cannot find exact quote that another difference between plants and animals is that the plants, upon being deprived of their life-force, do not scream as loud.

[grimleybob]

Sure ... I eat a rib-eye steak once or twice a day nearly every day I am back in the USA usually for about 3 weeks each year -- The difference between plants and animals according to the British Philosopher Alan Watts is that " ... the plants want to be eaten, so that seeds will be distributed through the alimentary canals of bugs, birds, or people." (his italics) ...

He also said but I cannot find exact quote that another difference between plants and animals is that the plants, upon being deprived of their life-force, do not scream as loud.

New campaign SAVE PIGS EAT A VEGAN trouble is on the diet they eat they'll taste like SH*T Oh B*gger my house will be fire-bombed now!

[RedBullHorn]

How can you spot a kosher pig farmer? We blended in except for Yehoshua, who always wore facemasks in a last-ditch effort not to inhale or ingest the same air as the pigs, or the floating fecal dust. Early on I also donned a facemask, but unlike Yehoshua, who can hardly understand Hebrew or English, I got the jokes and insults, such as "Jewboy" and "rookie," from the Sabras, not to mention Eshai's looks, which implied "pansy."

Sorry Bina...i couldn't resist~ i laughted my head off just thinking about it .... LOL...

"Oink !...Here he comes...Quickly ! Put our swine gas mask on ! Oink~ "

Edited November 11, 2010 by RedBullHorn

[IsaanAussie]

How can you spot a kosher pig farmer? We blended in — except for Yehoshua, who always wore facemasks in a last-ditch effort not to inhale or ingest the same air as the pigs, or the floating fecal dust. Early on I also donned a facemask, but unlike Yehoshua, who can hardly understand Hebrew or English, I got the jokes and insults, such as "Jewboy" and "rookie," from the Sabras, not to mention Eshai's looks, which implied "pansy."

Sorry Bina...i couldn't resist~ i laughted my head off just thinking about it .... LOL...

"Oink !...Here he comes...Quickly ! Put our swine gas mask on ! Oink~ "

RBH,

I have a jealous neighbour who is constantly raising complaints about my pigsty. Now this guy worked on my sty and was paid for his efforts along with others in the village, but now we are operational that seems irrelevant. The claims are groundless and the authorities arrive out of duty and tick the boxes then leave. I have no idea where you got the image of the pig in the gas mask but I request permission to reproduce it. I will print it off and stick them along the property line facing his house, not because it benefits me but because I too, just want to fit in.

Isaan Aussie

[RedBullHorn]

I got it from googling with keyword "pig clip art"...

here's another one for you...

P.S: Ok...i found the link with the keyword " pig in gas mask"

http://www.google.co...ql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

Edited November 11, 2010 by RedBullHorn

[bina]

on a less funny side of the kosher pig thingy... the husband of a woman that i work with, morroccaan religious jews, has horrible heart problems. he recently had open heart surgery and had to get all new valves... so initially he was told that he was to receive pig valves. off they went , to consult with their rabbi (every sect has its own rabbi who is the 'final word' for medical/social solutions, permission, etc)... they were told that if there was no other choise, then human life takes precedence over problems of kashrut (being kosher). it took her two weeks to get used to the idea that her husband would have a non kosher heart!. in the end, he received a different set of valves anyhow... but the idea really bothered them until they got rabbis permission.

loved the pig in gas mask...

[grimleybob]

on a less funny side of the kosher pig thingy... the husband of a woman that i work with, morroccaan religious jews, has horrible heart problems. he recently had open heart surgery and had to get all new valves... so initially he was told that he was to receive pig valves. off they went , to consult with their rabbi (every sect has its own rabbi who is the 'final word' for medical/social solutions, permission, etc)... they were told that if there was no other choise, then human life takes precedence over problems of kashrut (being kosher). it took her two weeks to get used to the idea that her husband would have a non kosher heart!. in the end, he received a different set of valves anyhow... but the idea really bothered them until they got rabbis permission.

loved the pig in gas mask...

In the seventies I worked for a company that collected pigs pancreas glands for the production of Porcine derived Insulin. About 90% of all insulin dependant Diabetics relied on Porcine insulin. Due to allergies etc only about 10% was derived from Bovine/Ovine. I never considered,at the time, the problems this must have posed for other religious and ethnic groups.Then, there was no alternative, no insulin and you died. Now of course we have insulin produced bio-chemically

Edited November 12, 2010 by grimleybob