How Big Government And Big Ag Made Pork Chops Taste Like Worn-Out Shoe Leather Crossed With Fat-Free Lunch Meat
Karen De Coster explains why in an excellent piece at Mises.org:
...The aggressive marketing campaign titled "Pork. The Other White Meat" made its debut in 1987. This campaign focused on presenting pork as an alternative "lean protein" to help eradicate the public perception of pork as a high-fat meat. Dietary fat had become synonymous with "unhealthy" as varied pop studies were trotted out by the medical establishment linking dietary fat to cardiovascular disease. According to a page from the National Pork Board website, this campaign was aggressively aimed at consumers with the goal being "to increase consumer demand for pork and to dispel pork's reputation as a fatty protein." Accordingly, industrial pork became the politically correct alternative to chicken and turkey, neither of which were demonized by the government's intensifying war on fat.However, the government's food pyramid was not founded on science, but rather, it was based in politics and serving special interests. The food pyramid is a purely political animal developed by politicians to serve political ends. It was Senator George McGovern and his Select Senate Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs that gave us these politicized and destructive federal dietary guidelines.
The food politics of the Committee were set in motion as McGovern's Dietary Goals for the United States were hammered out at the hands of federal politicians and a journalist who wrote the final draft. The guidelines were heavily influenced by lobbying from the food industry foot soldiers who vilified animal fat and won, in spite of the numerous, highly qualified scientists who debunked their political agenda with the power of science. The Dietary Goals for the United States (The McGovern Report) were issued in 1977, leading to the 1980 publication of Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, first edition.
Since that time, the government has had a non-scientific lock on dietary-nutritional central planning. The nutrition central planning model has held steadfast on the notion that dietary fat is the enemy, and thus planted the seeds for the low-fat revolution.
As a response to the low-fat craze, the pork industry began utilizing new feeding and breeding techniques. Essentially, the animals have been genetically altered to produce a white, lean, dry meat product to adapt to the political-nutritional health models that were sweeping the mainstream media and consumer consciousness. The pork industry's website admits to claims that:
Today's pork has 16% less fat and 27% less saturated fat as compared to 1991. Many cuts of pork are now as lean as skinless chicken.Additionally, the same website page notes that this new pork meets the government's "guidelines" to earn a declaration of "lean." The new "lean" meat is produced not only through the production of a leaner animal with reduced fat, but also a reduction of intramuscle fat that cannot be trimmed.
Consequently, modern pork is artificially pale and unexciting, hence the "white" designation.
At the link, read the real reason we were told to cook pork so it was no longer pink -- the risks of industrially raised pork.
"Small-farm heritage pork" is the answer, as @DrEades tweeted along with the link to this piece.
I am a first time responder but a big fan of all your writing! I just wanted to say that this is disgusting and I am terribly bummed out. I love bacon!
Lindsey at January 9, 2013 7:33 AM
Very sad. :-(
Tony K at January 9, 2013 7:52 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis
This is the reason not to eat undercooked pork.
Predates industrial farming by several thousand years.
Isab at January 9, 2013 8:27 AM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/01/how-government-1.html#comment-3547239">comment from IsabUgh! Re: Trichnosis, we just had a professional chef talk to us about how ridiculous it is to think you will get trichnosis from pork today.
More:
http://www.chow.com/food-news/53540/will-i-get-trichinosis-from-eating-undercooked-pork/
Spread information, not misinformation!
Amy Alkon
at January 9, 2013 8:38 AM
It just furthers my contention that almost nothing useful or factual has come out of the field of nutrition since about 1960.
Cousin Dave at January 9, 2013 8:49 AM
And for every physical change in an animal, comes a neurological change. Farmers refer to these pigs as "Meaner, leaner" animals which are prone to attack one another as well as humans. Breeding for big breasts in chickens led to a several generations of rape and kill roosters when the genetic snippet that tells the rooster to do the mating dance was eliminated. Hens are submissive, but without the little dance they don't know what the rooster is demanding and thus resisted advances... Temple Grandin addresses these issues in her books about animal behavior in a straightforward and fascinating way. Her books should be required reading for every person who eats meat.
I buy meat at a small-town, small volume slaughterhouse. We drive about 80 miles every two months to buy beef, pork, lamb. The lean and mean pork genetics are not yet totally dominating the area, and heirloom pork is easily recognizable by the color and fat distribution. The "angus" beef that is all the rage today is also not the same as the "Black Angus" cattle we used to raise on the family farm. It is much leaner, so dry that we avoid it. It tastes like "Baloney Cow" which is a skinny, boney old Dairy cow gone to slaughter.
bmused at January 9, 2013 11:27 AM
Ohhh-kay, that explains why it's been so hard to get good pork chops to fry up right. I thought I was losing it.
It used to be so easy to drop a bunch of thin chops in some grease, and have them come out great. Now they're either dry or undercooked..ugh.
My husband likes the thick ones but they're even worse. And never enough fat.
carol at January 9, 2013 1:46 PM
Brining.
Gotta brine today's pork.
Salt, some honey or molasses, and at least a few hours - overnight is better.
Makes up for a LOT of the lack of lard hogs.
(And you don't have to worry so much about overcooking it.)
But trichnosis *is* a *potential* problem, and a big one if you get unlucky.
Amy, your stat is citing "Americans"? In 2006 my wife had 5 Mexican nationals in her hospital with trichnosis. One small hospital in GA. And I think lots more have gotten it. Yes, a commercial farm should be safe.
It's one of those cases where it's better safe than sorry, IMO.
Slightly dry pork, or worms in the brain.
Unix-Jedi at January 9, 2013 6:39 PM
Over the years, I've just cut down on pork I cook or eat to pulled pork, roasts in a crock pot and ribs. The occasional reverse stuffed chops (pork chops in a pile of stuffing). I never quite realized why.
Chicken is done because it's cheap and a slightly different flavor.
The lowest on steak I do is a rib-eye, but I buy them from the butcher counter, not the pre-packaged crud in plastic.
I wonder if we (as a country and the farmers) could actually truly work if the corporate farms were encouraged, not forced, to go back to non-GMO seeds?
Jim P. at January 9, 2013 7:13 PM
Define "GMO", Jim.
Not at the moment, in the regulatory and other environments, not so much.
Some of this is political, some of this is capital - I have a relative who was heavily involved in the chicken revolution post-WWII.
Pre-WWII, chicken was very expensive, and not as common. Several groups spent a lot of time and effort convincing cattlemen, especially, that they could turn many more generation of chickens - instead of one make/break payday, spread out the risk and decrease startup costs, etc.
As people saw the benefits, chicken farming took off.
Pork's the same way - there wasn't a market for the lard hogs, due to the Pork Board's marketing and the anti-fat weenies.
If we start demanding larded pork, it'll be back.
(Got a lot of family in Florida, they're gobsmacked about the hype over Meyer lemons - used to be in every yard, and most were torn up in the 1950s.. because there was no market, then a infection hit, so no reason to replace...)
Unix-Jedi at January 9, 2013 7:32 PM
One of the things I like to make is a tomato salad. Essentially it is nothing but diced or chunked tomatoes, mayonnaise, and salt. Depending on the mood and ingredients on hand it might have homemade bacon chips with a little bit of grease, and/or finely diced onions.
Making it with store bought tomatoes I can enjoy it. The flavor just isn't the same as when I have (Italian, cherry, or other) home grown tomatoes from a neighbor's garden. The extra juices mixes in and just makes a difference in the flavor.
I refuse to call the GMO seeds evil or wrong. But there is some difference from selective breeding and making pigweed herbicide resistant.
Jim P. at January 9, 2013 10:49 PM
Wow, this is nuts. Apparently, because feeding pigs animal scraps is illegal, heritage farming is the answer.
No.
An option, sure - but the industry is shipping TONNAGE, not just a few chops for friends.
You flatly do not have the time or skills to determine any aspect of food safety. Though inspection of the process and the product is imperfect and expensive, you still can't protect yourself from the myriad of food-borne illnesses.
It was illegal to produce pet food with poisonous compounds, but a Chinese firm did it.
Good luck.
Radwaste at January 10, 2013 11:46 AM
@Jim P - my biggest complaint about store bought tomatoes is the lack of flavor and the fact that they are usually mushy and mealy inside. I remember when I was a kid, I would eat tomatoes like I would an apple, and the juice in them would run down my hands and leave a red rash (evidently I have a mild allergic reaction to the enzyme) and my tongue would itch like crazy. But oh, those tomatoes were delicious.
Also, as to the pork issue...I thought I had noticed a difference in how it tastes. I think that's why I don't buy it very often. I have a hard time getting a nice sear on a pork chop and then they are so lean, there's no fat to render down in the cooking and create those awesome flavors. Even bacon doesn't fry up like it did when I was a kid. Hmmm, now I have a taste for BLT sandwich.
sara at January 10, 2013 4:59 PM
Rad,
Here is a question that you might be able to answer -- have you ever looked at the food irradiation debate?
Because if there were reasonably priced irradiaters, then a lot of heritage vegetables and meats would be a lot more commercially viable. At least regionally and in season.
And even the safety of the "TONNAGE" would be a hell of a lot better.
@sara,
My company has lunch catered in three days a week. Today was carved roasted pork loin. If it weren't for the gravy/au jus -- it would not have been really that good.
Usually if I do a pork roast, it is in a crock pot, and is probably going to be five hours plus; with some of that with sauerkraut and chopped onion. (The cooked sweetness of the onions moderates the sour of the sauerkraut.)
Jim P. at January 10, 2013 6:54 PM
Making it with store bought tomatoes I can enjoy it. The flavor just isn't the same as when I have (Italian, cherry, or other) home grown tomatoes from a neighbor's garden. The extra juices mixes in and just makes a difference in the flavor.
Jim, you're a sick, sick, sick man.
Seek help.
And get some Better Boys.
:)
The single biggest reason I garden is tomatoes - because there aren't ripe ones in the store. (Save romas and the "Ugly" if you can find them).
The strains they're using aren't tasty - but all the tomatoes are picked green and then put in blast freezers to get them chilled to 34 degrees.
This stops the ripening process - permanently. They'll redden with enough ethylene, but not _ripen_.
They do make OK fried up like fried green tomatoes....
Unix-Jedi at January 10, 2013 10:42 PM
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