Fourteenth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

The association between pigs and filth, and pigs and disease are both grounded in social and lived experience and can be understood as existing discursively and scientifically. Pigs, and especially feral pigs, carry many zoonotic diseases. Beyond disease, pork in both fresh and cured form, from pork belly crackling to sausages and bacon, came to be associated with high fat diets. The species of pig consumed globally is the same, and yet, Australia imports its pigs from Denmark, and the United States. Though China is the world’s largest pig producer, cultural attitudes limit geographically connected food sources. Racial blinders criticise Chinese food safety, while corn-fed, drug-fattened pork products are imported from the United States. The safety and desirability of consuming the flesh of pigs is, as we might imagine, historically and culturally constructed. This paper traces the genealogy of cultural attitudes toward pig consumption in Australia. I facilitate a thorough examination of pigs within Tasmania placed within a larger pan-Australian contextualised historiography. The unique geographic isolation is examined to illustrate how interconnected cultural perceptions can manifest and have diverse consequences depending on where they land. This micro-historical account placed within the broader macro context reinforce the concerns of food safety and how smaller isolated populations are unevenly affected by the global food system. In so doing, it shows how environmental and public health issues are linked to the historical legacies of colonialism, empire building, industrialism, and capitalism.