Pigs to take care of leftovers

The pig is a common animal in the rural areas particularly in the hinterlands of the Philippines. The rationale is the appetite of the pig to eat anything. For a family of 4, there is always some leftover food particularly the rice since Filipinos are rice eaters. And when there is a pig, the disposal of the leftover food is not a problem. In fact, there are neighborhood collectors of leftover to be feed to their pigs.

The pig is one of the most common food in the country. And butchering a pig in the rural areas means festivities because the owner of the pig would share the meat to his neighbors, particularly to those who gave him leftover food. Even in the urban areas, there are some people who raise pigs because the feed is almost free as long as you have the effort to collect leftover food from the neighbors.

 

Don't forget that pig's manure has It's uses. Farmers of old used to dig pig manure into their soil in the fall and let it decompose into nutrients for the next spring’s crops. The problem with that today is that too many pigs carry E.coli, salmonella, parasitic worms and a host of other organisms in their manure. But is still useful for compost, as long as you add pig manure to your compost pile and allow it to rot long enough and hot enough. It will break down and kill all the organisms it might carry that are a danger to your health.

 

First of all, in a survival situation, there wouldn't be any left over food that you give away to your pigs. Pigs can eat vegetation. That is there natural food, and table scraps is suppose to be consumed by humans first.

In this day and age people throw food away or buy specialize feeds for their animals. Pigs have done well for thousands of years without table scraps. Let chickens eat bugs and seed. Let horses eat grass and weeds, and let pigs dig up roots of the plants you don't want in your garden or yard.

 

I don't know that you would have leftovers to feed them. If you get your pig nice and fat it will definitely feed you for awhile. We butchered a pig when I was a teenager. I was fond of him so I refused to eat his meat. My family ate on him for months while I ate salad. Besides who doesn't love a good pork steak.

 

I think the leftovers one can talk about in a survival situation is refuse that collects after one has peeled veggies and other food items. These shouldn't pose a problem in a survival situation since there is alot of space to throw them away and there are many scavengers in the wild. I think vermicomposting worms would do a good job in the wild and leave premium compost which is their excreta. Such worms can be easily collected in the wild.

 

I guess if you have a farm it makes sense to have a pig as well.
We do not eat pork because it has been scientifically proven that pork is not healthy for you.
Therefore, we would rather have the pig around as a pet for the kids to play with and when it is old enough to get butchered we could always sell it.

 

As long as you cook pork properly, it is a fairly healthy (or not unhealthy) meat source, especially a pork tenderloin and pork sirloin which are fairly lean and relatively low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Basically, the scientific evidence given for not eating pork is relatively sparse except for the fear of trichinosis which can be alleviated by proper cooking and preparation. I'd definitely let the pigs have some of the leftovers although I'd steer clear of giving them things like pastries, cakes and some fattier meats. Leftover pasta, vegetables, bread, fruits and even chicken and fish would be some of the leftovers I'd give my pigs.