How do you save a bizarre rare breed of pig once in danger of disappearing? Apparently, you eat it.
- No shit. It’s a sheep pig.
Such is the strange case of the sheep pig (a.k.a. Mangelica), a wooly porker once favored by Hungarians for their deliciousness and ability to thrive in cooler climates. Problem is, they can’t be kept in confined spaces and don’t take well to industrialization. Therefore, numbers dwindled… Until foodies stepped in.
Now Spanish cured Mangelica fetches $83/pound in New York specialty shops. That keeps the breed’s Spanish champion, a company called D’Artagnan, well funded and able to keep the sheep pig on earth.
But the Mangelica isn’t unique. The save-it-by-eating-it strategy is in full force among many different so-called “heritage breeds”. The idea is that more breeds mean more biodiversity and a larger variety of pork with unique characteristics. The way to get people interested in these breeds, it is thought, is to prove their worth as yummy pancetta or delicious rillettes. It’s not a bad idea. Certainly it’s better to have access to non-factory raised meat that’s been bred to handle specific climates and agricultural areas.
Still, there’s something strange about consuming an animal in order to ensure its survival. Not to mention the price. Yikes.
How do you feel about this, Blogtownies?
We’re on top of the food chain. That’s what I think about that.
Save the endangered pig, by eating the endangered pig…It’s just might work. We’re can we get some of this delicious and furry looking pig around Portland?
Do they also sell the wool?
OMG FLUFFY PIG!!
I want a sheep pig.
When you think about it, there is nothing the least bit shocking about the “eat them to save them” strategy. In fact, ALL farm animals are around today precisely because we eat them or otherwise use their by-products.
If we didn’t see the value in breeding them to use them thusly, they would exist only in much smaller wild populations in the old country, or be hunted to extinction long ago.
@ Blabby: Man, we’re really doing all those animals a favor by mutilating their genetics, raising them in disgusting conditions calculated to ensure the bare survival of just enough of them to maintain predetermined profit margins, and slaughtering them by the billions, usually after letting them live for just a few harrowing and wretched months.
We’re awesome, if you think about it!
I guess you never had a Kobe burger.
How has no one written “sheepig” yet? Fine, I’ll do it. Sheepig.
CC, I’m not denying anything you’re saying. I’m just saying the question “should we eat it so it will survive” is being put forward as something peculiar to the Sheepig (h/t atomic).
I’m just pointing out that that is basically the situation we have with all farm animals.
I personally find this predicament troubling.
We can get wool and bacon from the same animal? Surely this must be some sort of magical beast!
(On the subject of bacon, ham, and pork chops)
“Dad! Those all come from the same animal!”
“Yeah, right Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.”