Why I believe mangalista pigs as a livestock animal and food source, are of the highest quality one can find.
Quality has been a mainstay of my life. Whether it was the food I ate, the products we bought or the way that I interacted with others. Level of quality is paramount. I learn to appreciate quality through parental osmosis. My mother and father met each other while working in the same jewelry store. Eventually they fell in love and decided to not only share their lives with one another, but their lives work as well. The result was two kids, a marriage still going after forty years and a very successful family owned jewelry store. The store is where I experienced works of art and labors of love being created by two people who refused to produce anything but the finest craftsmanship. They were always producing award winning designs, some national first place winners, continually reinforcing their reputation for being world class artists. Growing up in this atmosphere allowed me to have a front row seat and back stage pass to all of what it took to make these outstanding achievements possible. It was a combination of incredibly long hours of hard work, using the finest quality metals and precious stones, along with unwavering dedication to only producing the best work and nothing else. Add in the mix a direct honest way of handling customer service and you have a business model for success. Here’s another thing I have learned as well. It’s a very old very and wise saying that goes something like this ” Try all you want, you can’t polish a turd”. What do these statements have in common. Your product is only ever going to be as good as the material it’s made from and the people involved. If you compromise these two things, than everything else that comes after cannot help but be negatively influenced. You have crippled your ability to produce excellence because you laid down a sub par foundation. This is how I view most things, especially when related to my health and diet. I take the ultimate seriousness when it comes to what I eat and how it will affect me. For me food is my foundation for quality, my platform to increase my potential and improve my life. High quality food has been the center piece by which I have built my life around thus far, which brings me to my interest in the mangalista pig.
The mangalista pig as a food source is the definition of quality. A rare and unique breed set apart from not only genetically altered commodity pink pigs, but most specialty breeds as well. The reason for this outlier to exist is it’s still very much a wild boar at heart and physically. Brought into existence by royalty of Hungary around 1833 through crossbreeding hardy types of Hungarian domesticated pigs with European wild boars. This new breed was found to not need any special care and grew in popularity because of it’s amazing rich red meat, superb taste and plentiful fat content. Covered in a thick wooly coat it has retained many of its ancestors boar like characteristics. It has a thick powerful neck and shovel like head, which it uses extremely effectively to root out wild vegetables and other natural food sources. It can sleep out all night in the snow if it needs without flinching. Giant tusks jut out of full grown boars mouths and their babies are born with stripes on their backs just like wild boars in the wild. Mangalista’s are now being considered a delicacy and sought out by renowned chefs worldwide.
Pigs have been part of humans diet for 10,000 – 12,000 years and in that time we have domesticated the shit out of them. So much so that they barely resemble the fine, fierce, hardy and powerful creatures they once where. Considered to embody warrior virtues by many ancient cultures the wild boar was the raw force of nature personified. Killing a wild boar was seen as proof of ones valor and strength. Look up any Greek hero and there is a good chance he had fought a wild boar at some time during his storied career. The boar was looked on by the ancient peoples with respect and fear, I doubt they would respect or fear the common pig of today at all. In fact I would argue that they probably wouldn’t even recognize the shared ancestry. Commodity pinks resemble their forebears about as much as a golden retriever resembles a timber wolf. Now I want to make it clear that I love golden’s as much as the next and Old Yeller still brings a tear to my eye, even as I write this… He truly was the best god darned dog in the west. That aside golden retrievers have none of the raw power, speed and killer instinct that it would take to survive in the wilderness. They couldn’t hunt in coordination with a pack and definitely don’t posses the power and tools to take down a wild elk or moose. The wolf is superior in almost every way and that is because it’s wild. It’s still got all of the hard fought and won traits that evolution has bestowed upon it. The wolf is fit and in excellent health because it lives in accordance with natures principles. Wildness hasn’t been bred out of it like it has with most commercial pork. Pigs today have been forced to relinquish there power in exchange for higher profit margins for investors and cheaper bacon for the consumer. Where once there was powerful cords of muscle, now there are only layers upon layers of unhealthy fat. Sharp fierce eyes shining with intensity replaced by glazed over cataract ridden dullness. Powerful necks that used to dig up tubers and other treasures of the forest floor, are now just sagging fat and flesh moving in the direction of the literal slop dumped in the feeding trough. It is a very sad fate and perversion that has befallen the pig. Which in a way I see as a metaphor for many things we humans do in the name of progress.
However this is not to be the fate of the mangalista. Put side by side a wild European boar and a 3 year old mangalista boar and they could be cousins separated by maybe a few mountain ranges. The resemblance is extraordinary. Recently I came face to face with my oldest friends head breeding boar Rocky and I can tell you I felt the respect and fear my ancestors held for wild boar. Here I am standing in front of a literal animal tank. Pure muscle and attitude, a snorting brutish monstrosity, oozing raw animalistic power. Tusks jutting our from under a long broad nose around which a constant stream of foam is emanating. My friend explained to me that this foam contains many of his male hormones, this animal is so masculine he is literally spitting testosterone. When patting his sides you get the feeling he is wearing a kevlar vest under his skin, its so dense and unyielding. What a creature.
Whenever I am around Rocky I am definitely on alert. I understand that this is a very powerful creature and is still very wild at heart. This is precisely what I love about this breed of pig, they scare me into respecting them. What a truly awesome discovery this was for me. I was raised in the suburbs of lower eastern Michigan in a city considered at one time to be one of the safest places to live in the U.S. I love farmington hills, it will always be home to me, however there wasn’t alot of opportunity to connect with the raw wildness of nature. Sure I went camping, fishing, to the zoo etc.. But I never went hunting for wild game, camped in the Alaskin wilderness or spent my days trying to survive in any way. Seeing these semi wild animals on my friends farm has brought about a re-connection with some of what I feel is missing from life, natural wildness. Part of it was Rocky’s power but part of it was realizing how much of that wildness has been lost by the commercialization of the common pig. For 17 years I have studied food, nutrition, health and the environment and I have become very familiar with how the corporate food industry operates. Because of this I am aware of the differences between natural foods and the doppleganger or frankenstein like replicas the commercial food industry trys to pass off on all of us.
I pride myself on eating very well and my holistic knowledge even still it took seeing a mangalista to help sink some of that info in. Connections have been made in my mind that weren’t there before. First, I feel more connected to my ancestors through respect. They used to hunt this animal or probably something even more powerful with nothing more than spears and arrows, which I am deeply impressed by. Another thought was realizing the vast difference in the pig, I had been brought up to think was a real pig and the actual thing. Being in the presence of Rocky and all of the other mangalista full breeds and half breeds allowed me to bridge some gaps in understanding. I have preached for so long about living naturally, eating naturally blah blah. Realizing and knowing this mentally is very different from experiencing them for real. Before seeing Rocky at this prime, I only had an image of a friendly pink pig rolling around in mud and shit, happily eating slop that farmer John brings him. Think Wilber from Charlotte’s web or Babe from well the movie Babe. On top of that I am well informed about all the nasty things animals are fed to fatten them up and make them grow unnaturally quick. You see this is the only image I had ever known that represented pigs and I knew it wasn’t the truth. Mangalista’s changed all of that for me, like Neo in the matrix I ate the red pill and all my info concerning what a pig was suddenly changed and now the difference was clear. Not only the difference between what a real pig is and isn’t but alot of other things as well. Like my metaphor before about the commodity pink representing human errors in judgement and living. Now I see myself in a different light as well. Maybe I am alot more like that pink pig than I realized. Maybe most of us are just degenerated versions of what we used to be. Weakened by excess, indulgence and easy living, we have become our own versions of the difference between the pink pig and the boar. While humans have been busy trying to commercialize the natural world, without knowing it we have commoditized ourselves. We eat junk that isn’t even as good as the slop pigs are fed and most of us spend our time in small cages all day called cubicles.
I want you to try an exercise for me that will do two things. First it will help you see the point I am trying to make crystal clear. Second it will give you an chance to use knowledge and make it functional by taking action and looking up these two different viewpoints.
Now go to whatever search engine you use and look up pics of commercial chicken farm cages, take a second and just relate to the pictures you see. Is this natural, is this how these chickens are supposed to live, is this how you would want to live as a creature of earth? Meditate on it for a little bit. Then when you are finished look up free range chicken pics. See the difference, it’s almost hard to believe right. For most this should be an enlightening experience about how much of a difference exists between the quality of life between the chickens. Whats really scary is this is just a fraction of what is happening throughout the whole food system. This same type of difference exists at all levels of the food industry. The way cows live and are treated, pigs, goats, fish, vegetables, fruits and bees. Their is always this stark contrast between the mass produced sterile corporate system and the dynamic local naturally grown foods. Opposite forces of each other with the corporate system totally out of balance. From a spiritual point of view, I believe this imbalance effects us as humans all the way down the line. From the way we approach creating and building anything to how our relationships with each other play out. This dependence on such a unnatural system for something as important as our sustenance must of ramifications beyond the physical. Though the movement of being concerned about where and how our food is produced is growing, the majority have never spent the time to really delve into what their food is all about. If these people were to visit this massive corporate owned animal farms, I am sure after the smell and witnessing the living conditions that they would rethink eating that particular food. My hope is that they would then search out info relating to what the natural conditions for that particular animal might be and then find/visit a local farm that produces.
Let’s balance out this motherfucker people, restore some natural order, before mother nature does it herself. You can only shortcut nature for so long until she decides to cut you short. Being concerned with healthy living for so long and working in the field you see this situation played out alot. When I used to manage a health food store people would come to me with all sorts of problems that they wanted solved. I would discuss how they were living and let them know what I thought. They needed to re-examine how they were living and make some major changes. I suggested certain small changes at first and mentioned that greater change would be made later after initial steps were taken. Some would argue with me about my suggestions and like a market shopper talk me down on my price.” Im not feeling that bad, couldn’t I just do this instead”, or “I can’t stop eating that it’s my favorite”. I warned these people that the body only puts up with being treated unnaturally for so long and than changes are made whether you like it or not. Alot of these people decided they didn’t want to give up their bad eating habits and continued with their life. Eventually I would either run into them in my community or a friend would mention, that so and so had a heart attack or now has this, or had this organ removed. I remember one particular girl who was obbsessed with exercising. She exercised 4-6 hours daily and only ate the same 3 foods everyday. I worked on her in massage and I never felt a body so rigid. I mentioned that I thought she was heading for disaster, that the body was never designed for what she was putting it through. She got mad and I didn’t see her for 2 years. I ran into her, where at the gym, she looked terrible, I mean like the walking dead. I asked how she was and she told me that about a year ago she experienced kidney failure and almost died. When she was in the hospital she had also been diagnosed with some genetic disease that literally just showed up out of nowhere. I guess it was just a weird coincidence.
What I am about is waking myself up so that I can help others wake themselves up. The picture exercise and the farm are both consciousness expanding and are exactly what my goals are with my writing this blog, or articles or whatever it should be called. I want to help pass on these benefits. Reconnecting natures wildness back into our lives will help balance us back out, so that we don’t lose anymore of the strength and wisdom it offers. This is done by the things I have wrote about and will be writing further about. Working and living in nature, or at least visiting it often. even daily. This can be done through, growing a garden, visiting farms and volunteering or starting your own 1/4 acre or 1/2 acre farm. Going to the park for an hour long walk. Walking is our most defining physical trait for a reason, when you walk you exercise everything and strengthen your brain and nervous system. Plenty of studies have shown this and we are descended from people who used to walk minimum 10 miles a day just to eat, (both ways up hill, as our elders would say). Living naturally is also eating naturally, taking the time to seek out quality foods and spend the extra money to purchase them so you can reap the benefits. Sure good food costs a bit more, but you gain excellent nutrition, eat how your genes have been programmed to eat and support the natural food system. The more support the local natural food system gets, the easier it becomes to produce the food and get it to your table which reduces cost. It’s not hard at all, the internet has made this movement and lifestyle incredibly easy to find and adopt, it’s shifting your patterns that is hard. I believe most people already have a very good idea of what I am talking about they just need some exposure to living wildly. Thus my sharing experiences with working on a farm and mangalista’s demonstrating that wild power at work. Eating the free range chicken and mangalista meat has brought me in contact with what real meat is and tastes like. No exaggeration mangalista meat is the finest pork I have ever tasted. Its as dark as beef, tender as hell and has a incredibly clean wonderful flavor. When you have time check out Rocky Mountain Organic Farms and GreywolfResort.com in CO, our new projects, concerning livestock and lifestyle. Until next time.
You cant grow if you don’t know.
Matthew
DynamicEarthling.com 