The fate of a pig is determined by humans, not by the pig: the past and present of "pork belly"

Written by: Qi Zai

Editor: Li Xuewei

Today, I want to introduce to you a good friend of mankind - it is plump and round, cute and tender, shiny and delicious.

(Don’t worry, you opened it the right way)

That's right! It is a domestic pig, a domestic pig that has lost its dream . It has always wondered how its lovely self became a plate of fragrant braised pork.

With dreams in mind, it always feels that it is different from those pigs that only know how to eat, drink, defecate and urinate every day. It always believes that:

You can rewrite your fate of being eaten by humans! Reach the pinnacle of your pig life!

But no matter how hard it tried, it could not change its fate of being eaten.

On the Naihe Bridge, filled with anger, it decided to greet its ancestors:

Why?! Give up your freedom and become captive and domesticated by humans?

About the origin of Ah Zhu, which dates back more than 9,000 years

Studies have found that pigs appeared on Earth much earlier than humans.

Suids have been found in Europe since about 40 million years ago, and by about 15 million years ago , they were widely distributed across Asia, Europe and Africa .

According to the research and verification of pig bone fossils, the ancestors of modern domestic pigs were wild boars living in deep forests or swamps .

According to the characteristics of the skull, wild boars can be divided into Asian wild boars and European wild boars. Asian wild boars are distributed in mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and other countries and regions. European wild boars are mainly distributed in Europe, North Africa and the Tianshan Mountains in central Asia.

Wild boars were domesticated in Eurasia about 9,000 years ago. It is generally believed that Europe and Asia domesticated wild boars separately, forming two distinct breeds. The Yellow River Basin in China is an important domestication center for domestic pigs in China.

(Copyrighted image from the gallery, no permission to reprint)

There are many species of wild boar, but there is no reproductive isolation between them, so at the species level, the origin of domestic pigs is a single one.

But at the regional level, its origin and domestication are diverse. Domestication of wild boars was an activity carried out in different spaces at the same time.

In other words, humans from all over the world have discovered that wild boar meat is delicious.

(Pig is crying QAQ)

The various breeds of modern domestic pigs have gradually evolved from wild boars in different places.

The domestication process of the pig

The Neolithic Age marked the beginning of humanity's transition from a nomadic lifestyle to a settled one . Humans and wild boars, who had previously kept to themselves, now had "intimate contact" in a life-and-death situation.

In the beginning, humans’ fighting tools were relatively simple and they could not defeat the strong wild boars at all. They could only deal with some old, weak and sick fighters.

Maybe it was because wild boar meat was so delicious that our ancestors secretly swore:

We must work hard! We must make progress! We must eat more pork!

With the development of human society and the improvement of labor tools, human hunting technology has made great progress, and the number of wild boars killed has increased. Supply exceeds demand, and thus, there is a surplus of meat.

At this time, our ancestors came up with an idea: since we have successfully domesticated dogs, then pigs can also be domesticated ! Thus, wild boars transformed into domestic pigs.

Ah Zhu felt that his quality of life had suddenly made a qualitative leap. He had a place to sleep, food to eat, and no need to run around. He felt so happy that he began to live in peace with humans.

Because pigs would not throw tantrums or run away from home (actually they were just lazy), were fertile and grew fast, they gradually gained popularity among humans, which led to the domestication of pigs much faster than that of other livestock.

Like other wild animals, the domestication process of Azhu went through five stages:

Hunting-based detention;

Non-containment type based on domestication;

Wild stocking with limited space;

supervised grazing;

Confinement based on adequate feed.

Due to changes in lifestyle, feeding management, and the involvement of artificial selection, the habits, body shape, and physiological functions of the Azhu have undergone great changes, from "green face and fangs" to "small nose and small eyes" .

Ah Zhu's historical highlights

More than 2,000 years ago during the Western Han Dynasty , China bred a superior pig breed that created an epoch-making gap between captive domestic pigs and wild boars.

(Source: Internet, please delete if infringement)

Another huge change occurred in Britain in the 18th century : people used several ancient excellent pig breeds to breed modern meat pig breeds that are large, fast-growing and plump.

After the Opium War , more than a dozen foreign pig breeds from all over the world flooded into China. Many of these foreign pig breeds had a positive impact on Chinese pig breeds, such as Yorkshire pigs, Berkshire pigs, Landrace pigs, and Soviet Large White pigs.

It is worth noting that most of these foreign pig breeds are white pigs. On the contrary, most of the original domestic pigs in our country are black pigs.

Black pigs have strong reproductive capacity, strong resistance to adversity and good meat quality, but their growth performance and carcass traits are very insufficient. In order to make my country's pig breeds better, Chinese breeding experts have used local pig breeds and imported pig breeds to breed more than 50 pig breeds or new strains, greatly enriching my country's pig breed resources. White pigs have gradually replaced black pigs and taken over the main position.

(Source: Internet, please delete if infringement)

Pork has gradually become the most common delicacy on Chinese tables, and every part of the pig can become a delicacy.

For example: rice noodle meat, first-class meat, chestnut meat, jar meat, braised meat, braised meat, fermented bean curd meat, sun-dried meat, stewed meat, sticky meat, braised meat, braised pork, loose meat, jar meat, roasted meat, big meat, barbecued meat, white meat, red elbow, white elbow, smoked elbow, crystal elbow, beeswax elbow, pot-roasted elbow, braised elbow strips...

(Please stop drooling)

However, compared to domestic pigs, wild boar meat is still the king.

The study found that the protein content in wild boar meat is 242 mg/g, which is higher than the 132 mg/g of domestic pork. In addition, we can also see that wild boar meat is redder than domestic pork, which is also because wild boar meat has a higher iron content. The iron content in wild boar meat is 27.4 mg/g, which is higher than the 10.0 mg/g of domestic pork.

(Academic tip: Although wild boar meat is delicious, don’t try it lightly. Cherish life, peace & love)

Wild boars and domestic pigs are, after all, brothers from the same mother, but the former linger in the mountains and make a living on their own, while the latter are domesticated and kept in captivity by humans. Although they have no worries about food and drink, they cannot escape the fate of being served on the table.

If a domestic pig with a dream escapes from captivity and successfully escapes after a period of time, it will regain the habits of a wild boar and become more valuable meat!

To sum up, our friend Azhu still has a chance to regain his freedom and reach the peak of his life!

In fact, I don’t know if Ah Zhu has ever thought about this: calmly accepting being eaten, cooperating with being raised and cared for, and allowing the species to reproduce better, this survival strategy is very strategically significant!

Whether you are a human or a pig, you will always face death once you come to this world. You will die sooner or later. Wouldn’t it be better to focus on every day of your life?

Think about it carefully, pigs live like this, and so do humans. The wisdom of survival is indeed different. It is better to lie down and refuse to be involuted.

Written in the finale: Thank you very much to the B station up master **@画渣花小修复** for the video use and rewriting authorization. Welcome everyone to move to B station for one-click triple connection~

References:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1aq4y1p7Lg?share_source=copy_web

http://food.china.com.cn/2019-02/04/content_74426153.htm

https://www.ixueshu.com/document/a62411a4927ab2af318947a18e7f9386.html

https://www.zhihu.com/market/paid_column/1183752554424561664/section/1183762175117647872?origin_label=search