I think that now I've made up my mind, Salon has truely gone the way of swine. Try eating fish, it's the aquatic white meat.

Really, breed doesn't matter that much, a few generations of feral exsistence and they aren't that different from each other.

Fall after oaks drop their acorns is the best time to hunt. The pigs have fattened themselves on the acorns and the meat is at it's prime.

It's also much cheaper than buying internet order at $10.00 per pound. 100lb plus dressed is not at all uncommon.

Plus, you don't have to worry about how it's slaughtered, you were there.

I used to be vegan (purely voluntarily, not because I was raised that way). Now I'm planning my first-ever hunting trip, in pursuit of wild boar.

There are those who believe that meat in any form is inherently unethical to consume. Like all the chefs quoted in this article, however, I believe that there is a respectful and humane way to eat meat. It's not a new idea -- keeping kosher, after all, is predicated on the idea that there is a morally correct way to slaughter meat and prepare food, and there is a morally incorrect way to do so. As gavin pointed out, it is possible to be a conscientious consumer of meat, and in response to those who have cynically labeled the purchase and consumption of ethically raised pork a silly, superior, self-indulgent hobby of the upper-middle-class left, I say this: I bought Niman Ranch meat when I was on food stamps. I didn't (and don't) eat meat very often, but when I do, you can be damn sure I will shell out for meat that I can believe in -- and this in spite of the fact that I make under 20k. However much money any of us has, we can all choose to spend it on what we value, and ethics and progressive ideals are not, in fact, a luxury of the privileged.

And to be honest, I'm really excited -- though in an odd way -- about going hunting (which I have never done before). To take the life of any animal is a powerful thing, and I am preparing to use and store every single piece of that animal that I possibly can. Who knows; perhaps, after the experience of directly taking an animal's life, I will become a vegan or vegetarian again. What excites me is not the prospect of killing -- I dread having to pull the trigger -- but the knowledge that I will be participating in something so spiritually and ecologically (yes, ecologically) primal, a very basic but deeply felt engagement with life, death, and nature. Yes, there will be meat as an outcome, meat to be consumed -- and in its consumption, a reminder that this was once a living being, a part of nature, as we too are parts of nature; and our position at the top of the food chain is not a license to act with impunity, but rather a responsibility to act as ethical stewards of our foodways.

Eating -- which so many of us do so mindlessly -- is among the most profound and political acts that any person can undertake. I hope Salon continues to present articles exploring the implications of our gastronomic decisions as an intersection of taste, culture, and ethics. Pork is certainly a significant (and controversial) example, but it hardly stops there!

is the notion that vegetarians/vegans are unreasonable for espousing the principles of (wait for it) vegetarians and vegans.

We are being told that if we don't like a week of vapid, un-researched "stories" glorifying slaughter of intelligent animals, we should just not read them.

Absolutely, and if you're against rape and murder just DON'T READ articles about Darfur. If you're against it, then it's none of your business and you should butt out. Why do you think you have a right to take a stand against rape and murder?

But the absolute limit is telling us not to be so EX-TREME. Surely there must be some room for compromise, why are we so rigid and inflexible? Why can't we just shut up and eat our tofu and leave poor, defenseless little meat-eaters alone?

Absolutely again, I became a vegetarian because I believe it's okay to kill a LITTLE pig. Or to just chop the tasty pieces off a living pig. There is no compromise here. It's like asking an abolitionist to compromise and allow A FEW people to be slaves.

We believe animal cruelty and unnecessary slaughter is an absolute evil. We know it, because we've seen the videos. We know that intelligent animals fight for their lives. We know they experience pain and terror and confusion and betrayal. We will do our best to stand up for them, and we will unfailingly remind you that not eating meat is actually quite an easy choice -- I know that because I'm lazy as hell and I can do it.

You think the fact that bacon tastes good changes anything? I like bacon. But bacon's tastiness is not a moral argument in what is, whether you like it or not, a moral debate.

And the intellectual, moral dishonesty of Sarah Hepola in characterizing the anti-slaughter position as merely "I'm revolted" calls into question her qualifications as a writer (I won't dignify it be calling it journalism) and the whole sad, sick spectacle of Slaughter Week at Salon CERTAINLY calls into question Joan Walsh's judgment. What's next "Dog - the OTHER other white meat"? I can't wait for the whole parade of self-righteous ids screaming that we shouldn't judge them just because Lassie is so tasty, mmmm.

I thought I had seen the frozen limit of narcissism and self-mythologization, but you really exceeded previous records.

"What excites me is not the prospect of killing -- I dread having to pull the trigger -- but the knowledge that I will be participating in something so spiritually and ecologically (yes, ecologically) primal, a very basic but deeply felt engagement with life, death, and nature."

Normally to behold that much unrefined crap you actually have to be downstream from a pig farm. Beyond the absolute lying use of the phrase "HAVING to pull the trigger" you actually pretend to believe there is something primal about SHOOTING a boar? What is primal about that? The scope? The bullet? Just like cavemen used to do, huh?

"Yes, there will be meat as an outcome, meat to be consumed -- and in its consumption, a reminder that this was once a living being, a part of nature, as we too are parts of nature"

Yeah, brave boy, are YOU willing to get shot at to earn your place in nature? Didn't think so. All this primordialism is a definite one-way street in your comfortable, non-primal world.

And this piece de resistance:

"Eating -- which so many of us do so mindlessly -- is among the most profound and political acts that any person can undertake."

Really? And is the excretion equally profound? Do you actually think you are Jesus or Buddha? Or do you just want that much attention paid to each mundane act you perform that ISN'T special, that ISN'T profound, that is just the same thing everybody else does, every day, without thinking they're the second coming.

I knew this crazed defense of slaughter was about appetites, but I was missing how much it was about the glorification of SELF. You don't just want a hamburger, you demand burnt offerings, slaughtered sacrifice at the altar of your own self-declared Godhead.

I hope like hell you aren't a woman, otherwise we may have to bow and pray once a month at the shrine of your used hygiene products. That's pretty profound, myth-inducing stuff, that 52% of the world's population does, most of us without applause or hymns or anything.

This certainly explains the outrage. How dare we challenge your right to be the center of all creation?

I'm guessing you were a vegan much the same way Jerry Rubin was a radical.