Is It Ethical to Eat Pig Meat?

Posted on 10/21/2015 by Guest Blogger in Beliefs and Practices

by Rabbi Goldie Milgram

The other day at breakfast five of the six Jews present ordered bacon with their eggs. I was torn about saying something, as it disturbed me. Prospectively speaking, Judaism got it totally right -- it is unethical to eat pig meat. Listen to neuroscientist Lori Marino of Emory University and The Nonhuman Rights Project: “We have shown that pigs share a number of cognitive capacities with other highly intelligent species such as dogs, chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins, and even humans. There is good scientific evidence to suggest we need to rethink our overall relationship to them.”

Yes, keeping kosher helps to keep the Jewish culture, but the purpose of our culture is to ensure we live mitzvah-centered, not self-centered, lives. The mitzvah of maintaining K'vod HaBriyut--giving "weight", "honor" to that which is a sentient being, is huge when it comes to pork. And on the scale of sentience, our sages got it, pigs are right up there -- they are neither to be worshipped, nor eaten.

The scale of inhumanity coming across on the news these days must be mitigated. The principles of new paradigm Judaism include the practice of being Eco-Kosher, paying attention to the animal's ability to freely live its life, environmental costs of producing its feed, reducing methane produced (pig manure decomposes into methane and methane is 35 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over a 100-year timeframe, and over 20 years, it’s 84 times more potent), humane methods of slaughter, shipping and packaging carbon footprints, recycling issues, and much more. To be a humane human means a lot of reflection before ordering or activism. There may be little any individual can do about ISIS, so let's begin where we have the choice of what to eat, which is entirely in our hands.

Learn more in New Mitzvah Stories for the Whole Family which includes stories by forty contributing authors and a free Sacred Text, Discussion and Action Guide. Co-edited by Goldie Milgram with Ellen Frankel, Arthur Kurzweil, Batya Podos, Peninnah Schram, Danny Siegel, Mindy Shapiro and Shoshana Silberman.

Rabbi Goldie Milgram is the Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief of Reclaiming Judaism and Reclaiming Judaism Press

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