PhD in Pandering
There was an Op-Ed in today’s New York Times written by a professor of history at Texas State University — one James E. McWilliams. And damned if McWilliams isn’t a mouthpiece for agribusiness pork. But what do you expect coming from Texas State University? Also this guy wrote a book that is like the opposite of Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle,” called “Just Food: How Locavores Are Endangering the Future of Food and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly.” His thesis in the op-ed titled “Free-Range Trichinosis” is basically that free-range pork invites disease by allowing the pigs out into the outdoors that harbor all the dangers we brought the pigs inside to avoid. He even tries to combat the argument that heritage-bred free-range pigs taste better. But at least he does so with humor and flair, by relating advocates of the aforementioned to a certain particular breed of hunter in Texas:
It may be objectively true that animals living in a state of nature produce sweeter meat. There are hunters in East Texas who track wild hogs, slice off their testicles so the beasts will fatten and lose their gamy taste and then shoot them months later. These gentlemen swear by the superior flavor. Don’t count on me to challenge the taste assessments of people who thrive on such blood sport. If they say it’s better, it’s better.
Mr. McWilliams, let the Butcher be the first to say that you should have your testicles sliced off until you fatten and lose your gamey flavor.
