Here's Why Billions Of People Don't Eat Pork
From diseases to religious tradition to centuries of oppression, there's a multitude of reasons why billions of people don't eat pork.
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00:00From diseases, to religious tradition, to centuries of oppression, there's a multitude
00:06of reasons why billions of people don't eat pork.
00:09The root of why many people avoid pork can be found in the Bible, particularly the Hebrew
00:14Bible, or what is known to Christians as the Old Testament.
00:18The Book of Deuteronomy is explicit in its prohibition of pork consumption.
00:22As Chapter 14, verses 5 through 8 state,
00:25You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof and that chews the cud.
00:30The pig is also unclean.
00:32Although it has a divided hoof, it does not chew the cud.
00:35You are not to eat their meat or touch their carcasses."
00:38This is just one of many dietary laws mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.
00:43This subject also comes up in the New Testament, as there's an incident in the Gospel of Matthew
00:48in which Jesus drives a horde of demons into a herd of pigs.
00:52Go back home and tell what God has done for you."
00:57In ancient times, the land we now know as Israel was inhabited by several different
01:02populations, including the ancestors of modern Jews.
01:06Around 1000 BCE, European settlers called the Sea Peoples migrated to the southern part
01:12of the region, bringing pigs with them.
01:15The most prominent Sea Peoples culture, the Philistines, established a tradition of pork
01:20eating.
01:21Traditionally, it has been argued that the ancestors of modern Jews who lived in southern
01:25Israel abstained from pork to differentiate themselves from the Philistines, though this
01:30may not have been a universal rule.
01:32Israelites in northern Israel, on the other hand, seem to have eaten a fair bit of pork
01:36during this time period.
01:38However, many Israelite refugees had to move south when their kingdom collapsed in the
01:437th and 8th centuries BCE.
01:46According to the scholarly article Iron Age Pigs, new evidence on their origin and role
01:51in forming identity boundaries, the biblical pork taboo may date from this period as a
01:56tool to assimilate Israelites into the pork-abstaining culture.
02:01Islam is a religion that shares many important beliefs, prophets, and traditions with those
02:05of Judaism and Christianity.
02:08And just like the Bible, the Quran explicitly forbids the consumption of pork, as well as
02:13certain other types of meat.
02:15One passage declares,
02:16"'Forbidden to you are carrion, blood, the flesh of swine, the animal slaughtered in
02:22any name other than Allah's."
02:24There is, however, an exception to this rule if a believer is in danger of starvation.
02:29As in the Hebrew Bible, no explanation for this rule is given other than that God commands
02:34it and that pigs are unclean.
02:36Regardless, abstaining from pork remains an important practice for many Muslims in the
02:41modern era.
02:42As for modern Islamic practices, importing pork into Iran is a jailable offense, and
02:48a 2021 Pew survey conducted in India found that 77 percent of Muslim respondents said
02:54that someone who eats pork cannot be Muslim.
02:57The relationship between Hindu practices and eating meat is complex.
03:02For one thing, beef is prohibited, as cows are considered sacred, and vegetarianism is
03:07encouraged by Hindu theology.
03:09Although, according to a 2021 Pew survey, a majority of Hindus in India are not vegetarian.
03:16Regardless, most Hindus in the country do restrict their meat consumption in some way.
03:21For some, this includes avoiding pork.
03:23Although pork is not banned by Hindu religious texts, it has historically been viewed as
03:28unclean meat in India.
03:30But as in Israel, this wasn't always the case.
03:33Actual evidence suggests that in ancient times, pork consumption was somewhat widespread
03:38in India.
03:39However, this changed in the 16th century, when the country was ruled by the Mughal Empire.
03:44The Muslim Mughals initiated a cultural shift around pork that pervaded Indian society and
03:50led a majority of the population to consider pork to be unclean.
03:54In modern times, attitudes among Indian Hindus are starting to change again, as pork is becoming
03:59a gourmet treat.
04:01And in 2022, India began allowing the importation of American-raised pork into the country.
04:08The underlying reasons why the populations in the Middle East have turned against pork
04:12are a matter of debate.
04:14In fact, thinkers have been trying to explain this taboo for centuries.
04:18Philo of Alexandria, a first-century BCE Jewish scholar, asserted that pork was too
04:24delicious and would lead to sinful eating habits.
04:28Now, of land animals, the swine is confessed to be the nicest of all meats by those who
04:33eat it.
04:34Moses has forbidden with all his might all animals, whether of the land or of the water
04:38or that fly through the air, which are most fleshy and fat, and calculated to excite treacherous
04:45pleasure.
04:46Maimonides, a 12th-century CE Jewish philosopher, argued in favor of the pork taboo from the
04:51opposite perspective.
04:53He claimed that pigs were the most disgusting and loathsome of all animals because they
04:57live in very dirty conditions.
05:00He also claimed that pork is unhealthy for people to eat.
05:04Pork sometimes contains a parasite called trichinella worms, which can make people sick
05:09with an illness called trichinosis and can even lead to death.
05:12The parasite and its connection to pork were discovered in the 1800s.
05:17Soon afterwards, some people pointed to this disease as a rational explanation for the
05:21pork taboo.
05:23After all, if pork makes you sick, it would make sense to prohibit eating it.
05:27However, as anthropologist Marvin Harris explained in his book Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches,
05:33the trichinellosis hypothesis has some serious weaknesses.
05:37For one, the parasites are only a risk if pork is undercooked, and pork wasn't significantly
05:42riskier than any other meat in the ancient world in this respect.
05:46Undercooked beef, for example, could expose people to all sorts of nasty parasites like
05:50tapeworms, and goats, sheep, and cattle in some ways posed greater risks of disease than
05:56pigs did.
05:57There's also considerable evidence to suggest that people in biblical times knew that ruminant
06:01animals carried these infections, but no compelling reason to believe that they were aware of
06:06trichinella worms in pork.
06:09Marvin Harris theorized extensively about the source of the pork taboo in Jewish and
06:13Muslim cultures.
06:15For example, in a 1977 piece for The Washington Post, he wrote that the ancient Middle East
06:21experienced a period of widespread desertification as the population rose.
06:27What had once been fertile, forested land with many water sources turned into an arid
06:32desert with scarce water.
06:34This made the region poorly suited for raising pigs, as they competed with humans for food
06:38sources like grain.
06:40Cows, sheep, and goats, meanwhile, could forage on grasses that still grew naturally even
06:45as the region dried up.
06:47Furthermore, the hot, dry, sunny climate may have contributed to ancient Middle Easterners'
06:52perception of pigs as unclean animals.
06:55In those conditions, pigs have to wallow in mud or even feces to stay cool, whereas in
07:01temperate, shady climates, pigs can stay much cleaner and don't need to wallow.
07:06As Harris noted, pig consumption declined all over the Middle East between 2000 and
07:113000 BCE, and not just among Israelites.
07:14This suggests that pig avoidance emerged out of practical concerns, not just cultural factors.
07:21As noted by archaeology professor Richard W. Redding, pigs may have been essentially
07:26replaced by chickens in Middle Eastern agriculture.
07:29Chickens didn't arrive in the region until sometime around 1000 BCE.
07:34In many ways, they serve a similar function to pigs in the food system, as they eat the
07:39same food sources as humans do, but transform them into nutritious meat that can play a
07:44valuable role in the human diet.
07:46However, chickens may have been better suited to this purpose than pigs were, at least in
07:50the Middle Eastern climate, as they convert food and water into protein more efficiently.
07:55They're also small enough that it's easy to eat a whole chicken before it goes bad in
07:59the heat.
08:00Furthermore, if you keep chickens alive instead of eating them, you can utilize them to produce
08:05eggs.
08:06Mm, tastes like chicken.
08:09While these practical arguments are compelling, they're ultimately unproven theories.
08:14Cultural factors may have played just as important a role.
08:17An article in the Journal for the Study of Judaism argues that pork avoidance didn't
08:22take on a special significance for the Jewish population of Israel until the territory came
08:27under the control of pork-eating Romans.
08:29Thus, it was a way for Jews to set themselves apart from their conquerors.
08:34And so, pork consumption became viewed much more unfavorably.
08:38The cultural separation between Jews and their pork-eating rulers became very pronounced
08:43over time.
08:44In some historical contexts, pork avoidance was synonymous with Jewishness.
08:49The king Antiochus tried to crush Judaism by feeding pork to the Jewish high priest
08:54and pouring pork blood all over the temple.
08:56His persecution led to the revolt by the Maccabees that is commemorated during Hanukkah
09:01every year.
09:02A Maccababy's gotta do what a Maccababy's gotta do.
09:06And in medieval Europe, Christians used pigs as anti-Semitic symbols, while Jews viewed
09:11pigs as embodying the negative qualities of their Christian oppressors.
09:16Long after pork avoidance served any potential practical purpose, such as when Jews moved
09:21to temperate Europe, it still had deeply entrenched cultural and religious meanings.
09:27Just as pork had a multifaceted role to play in ancient Israel and the Middle East, its
09:31place in modern Israeli society continues to be hotly debated.
09:36While many observant Jews still follow the biblical prescription against pork, there
09:40are also many secular Jews who do not.
09:43Not to mention that there are also Christians in Israel who have no religious reason not
09:47to eat pork.
09:48Pork was banned in the country in 1961, but the law was quickly amended to allow Christians
09:54to raise it for their own consumption.
09:57In the 90s, secular immigrants from Russia brought their taste for pork to the country.
10:01Then in the 2010s, a rising gourmet movement reportedly made pork a hot meat in Tel Aviv
10:07restaurants.
10:08Since importing non-kosher meats to Israel is still banned for the most part, the country's
10:13increasing appetite for pork must be fed by domestic producers.
10:17And supplies are limited, so the meat is something of a luxury.
10:21Despite its recent trendiness, there is still a lot of opposition to pork consumption within
10:27the country, and debate continues over whether it is acceptable to serve it.
10:31Not everyone who rejects pork does so for religious reasons.
10:35For example, during the mid-20th century civil rights era, many Black Americans began turning
10:40their backs on pork.
10:42In some cases, this decision did have a religious component, as it became common for African
10:47Americans to convert to Islam during this time.
10:50However, the reasons went beyond religion, and many non-Muslim African Americans also
10:55stopped eating pork as well.
10:57Pork was a staple of the slave diet forced on captive Black Americans.
11:02It later became a popular meat and soul food, a cuisine that evolved from the traditional
11:07dishes that were cooked during the time of slavery.
11:10Some politically conscious African Americans in the mid-20th century began to perceive
11:14soul food as an extension of the slave diet, a relic of colonialism and oppression that
11:20needed to be rejected.
11:22Pig feet.
11:23I want some pig feet and four pounds of grits.
11:27Pork was also viewed by many as unhealthy in general, and vegetarianism became popular
11:32during this period as well.
11:34And so, rejecting colonized cuisine and choosing to eat healthy food came to be viewed as pillars
11:40of culinary Black nationalism.
11:42The lingering effects of this movement continue to complicate the narrative around eating
11:46pork in America to this day.
11:49In addition to political concerns, there's another relatively modern reason why some
11:54people may choose not to eat pork — opposition to animal cruelty.
11:58Notably, the vast majority of pigs in America are reportedly raised in extreme confinement.
12:04Whatever consumers think about the ethics of eating meat in general, they may have some
12:08qualms about the specific practices used by the American pork industry.
12:13Of course, factory farming is not limited to pork production, but some people may be
12:17reluctant to eat pigs in particular because of their intelligence.
12:21A comparative review published in the International Journal of Comparative Psychology concluded
12:27that pigs have deep social and emotional lives.
12:30The study's authors compared pig cognition to that of dogs and chimpanzees.
12:35The decision of whether or not to eat pork is ultimately a personal one, but one of the
12:40study's authors told HuffPost that she hopes her findings will indeed convince some people
12:44to give up pork.
12:46That'll do, pig.
12:52That'll do.