Italian ham slice dispute lands four in hospital

(AFP) – 2 days ago

ROME — Four people were on Saturday hospitalised in Italy after a dispute over the thickness of a supermarket's ham slices turned violent, the ANSA news agency said in a report.

The row broke out when a 50-year-old woman shopping in the Tuscany town of Livorno in central Italy protested that the ham slices being cut by a counter assistant were too thick.

A scuffle unfolded involving the shop assistant's father as well as the woman's husband and two sons.

Police were called and three ambulances were also sent to the scene.

The shop assistant, the disgruntled ham shopper and her husband all suffered bruises and were treated in hospital.

The shopkeeper's father was also hospitalised after feeling ill, the news agency said.

Face Ham

Ham Face

Argentine president: Eat pork, spice your sex life

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina's president thinks eating pig meat is really sexy. Many people in this beef-loving nation reacted with surprise Thursday after Cristina Fernandez promoted pork in a speech during which she not only said pork is better than Viagra, but suggested she's personally proven it.

"I didn't know that eating pork improved sexual activity," Fernandez said in a meeting with representatives of the swine industry late Wednesday. "It is much more gratifying to eat some grilled pork than to take Viagra."

She even joked that "it was all good" after she enjoyed some pork with her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner.

"I think they might be right," Fernandez said to a laughing audience.

The president's half-joking speech in which she announced subsidies for the pork industry won prominent play on television and radio stations, prompting discussions on whether Argentines should add more pork to their diet.

Argentines are among the world's biggest consumers of red meat, and most people here stubbornly reject the idea of replacing beef with chicken, pork or other meats. Despite Argentina lying along rich South Atlantic fisheries, seafood is rarely seen on dinner tables.

Fernandez approved subsidies to keep the price of pork low despite inflation, and her government has also recently subsidized red meat producers after beef supplies sharply declined in the South American country.

The head of the association of pork producers, Juan Luis Uccelli, supported Fernandez's speech by saying that Denmark and Japan have a much more "harmonious" sexual life then the Argentines because they eat a lot of pig meat.

"In Osaka, Japan, there is a village in which the people who reached 105 years old and ate a lot of pork had a lot of sexual activity," he told radio Mitre.

Others were skeptical.

"There is no study showing that pork meat significantly improves sexual activity," Amado Bechara, a specialist in sexual disfunction, told the Web site of the newspaper La Nacion.

Source

Vandals Strike at Malaysia Mosques With Boar Heads

Stoking Religious Tensions, 

Incident Is Latest in Battle Over 

Whether 'Allah' Translates; 

Looming Anwar Trial Fuels Fire

Reuters

Police outside a mosque in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday examine a boar's head, considered deeply insulting.

By JAMES HOOKWAY

Malaysia's simmering religious and racial conflicts could worsen after worshippers Wednesday found the severed heads of wild boars at two mosques, amid a dispute over whether Christians can use the term "Allah" as a translation for "God."

Muslims consider pigs unclean, and leaving boar heads at a mosque is a potentially inflammatory insult, mirroring an incident last year when Muslim activists flung a severed cow head on a proposed site for a Hindu temple near Kuala Lumpur.

Wednesday's incident is considered the most offensive case of sacrilege against a Muslim place of worship since a storm erupted over the use of the Arabic word "Allah." It threatens to further upset this resource-rich, racially diverse country and complicate Prime Minister Najib Razak's efforts to build a multiracial support base before national elections, which must be held by 2013.

Adding to tensions, the trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges—the second he has faced in little more than a decade—is scheduled to begin next week. Mr. Anwar leads a multiracial opposition alliance trying to replace Malaysia's government after 57 years in power. Prosecutors accuse him of sodomizing a young male aide in 2008—an illegal act in Malaysia. Mr. Anwar, 62 years old, says the story was fabricated to destroy him.

Malaysia's High Court ruled on Dec. 31 that the Malay-language pages of the Roman Catholic Church's weekly newspaper could use the term "Allah" as a translation for "God."

That decision—which the government is appealing—triggered protests among Muslims who say the Arabic word should be reserved solely for Islam. They say they worry that the Christian use of the term could inadvertently trick Muslims into converting. The newspaper said it was the most appropriate local translation.

Since the ruling, 11 churches have been attacked around Malaysia, and the administration office of one church in Kuala Lumpur was burned to the ground. A Sikh temple also has been attacked, as have two Muslim prayer rooms.

Khalid Abu Bakar, chief of police in Selangor state near Kuala Lumpur, where one of Wednesday's incidents occurred, said a group of men who went to Sri Sentosa Mosque to perform morning prayers at 5:30 a.m. found the two animal heads in plastic bags on the grounds. Their mouths were stuffed with bank notes. Authorities reported a similar incident nearby.

Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein said the government would find the perpetrators. "We are dead serious about this," he told a news conference. "We will bring them to justice."

Mr. Khalid said police hadn't identified any suspects and were continuing their investigation. He urged people to remain calm, as did Zulkifli Mohamad, the top official at the Sri Sentosa mosque.

The attacks this month have rocked the fragile racial and religious balance in this predominantly Muslim country of 28 million people, where relations between Muslim ethnic-Malays, who make up 60% of the population, and Malaysia's ethnic-Chinese and Indian minorities are generally amicable.

Since taking office in April 2009, the prime minister, Mr. Najib, has set out to win over the support of Malaysia's ethnic minorities, but the High Court ruling has complicated his efforts. Political analysts say that to maintain the ruling National Front coalition's strength in Malaysia's Muslim-Malay heartland, his government needs to be seen visibly defending the Islamic faith from perceived threats.

That stance, however, unsettles many of Malaysia's non-Muslim minorities, who fear the country has adopted an increasingly politicized form of Islam in recent years.

Opposition leaders, including Mr. Ibrahim, a Muslim, have said there is no theological argument against non-Muslims using the word "Allah," and that the term is commonly used by minority Christian communities in Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East. Many Malay-speaking Christians in eastern Malaysia also use the term for "God."

Separately, the Associated Press reported that Malaysia has arrested 10 terror suspects under its Internal Security Act, including nine foreigners allegedly with ties to an international network of militants. Authorities declined to give the suspects' nationalities, their organization or their objectives. Over the past decade, Malaysian authorities have held more than 100 militant suspects, most of whom have been members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, which has its headquarters in neighboring Indonesia.

"This is a very serious threat to the security of our country," the AP quoted Mr. Hishamuddin as saying.

—Celine Fernandez contributed to this article.
Source

Dutch researchers develop pork chop from stem cells

Melbourne: Dutch scientists have succeeded in growing a pork chop in the lab from stem cells.

The faux chop is made of 2cm long meat strips and is believed to have the texture of a scallop.

According to the Sun, researchers say this could be an eco-friendly alternative to farming livestock.

"If we took stem cells from one pig and multiplied it by a million, we'd need a million fewer pigs to get the same amount of meat," News.com.au quoted Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands, as saying.

Source

World's 'most expensive' ham leg on sale in London

The Iberico ham comes with its own DNA certificate

"The world's most expensive ham" has gone on sale in London, according to retailer Selfridges.

The leg of Iberico ham, which costs £1,800, went on sale at the food hall in the retailer's flagship store in Oxford Street, central London.

The 7kg (15lb) ham leg comes with its own DNA certificate as proof of authenticity.

Pig farmer and ham expert Manuel Maldonado selected 50 pigs that were reared in Extremadura in western Spain.

The pigs were fed on a diet of acorns and roots to give the ham a distinctive flavour.

'Gourmet luxury'

After being slaughtered their ham was salted and cured for three years, before going on sale in a hand-made wooden box wrapped in an apron made by a Spanish tailor.

"Connoisseurs will appreciate the melt-in-the-mouth texture of this truly amazing Spanish ham," said Selfridges fresh food Buyer Andrew Cavanna.

"The leg may seem to have a large price tag but when you think about the amount of care taken from breeding right through to the curing, it is actually amazing value.

"Every single gram will be savoured as one of life's incredible gourmet luxuries."

Source

Singapore snorts over McDonald's toy pig blunder

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - McDonald's apologized to Singapore Friday and brought a pig back to its toy menu, after a decision to leave the animal out of its Chinese zodiac collection upset many in the predominantly ethnic Chinese nation.

LIFESTYLE

McDonald's this month started selling cartoon character miniatures depicting the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac calendar, but the pig was replaced by love god Cupid as McDonald's said it did not want to offend Muslims.

But the move, just ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday and Valentine's Day in February, backfired as many Chinese customers complained in chatrooms and blogs that they would not have a chance to buy the animal sign of their birth year.

"We're sorry, and we're grateful," the fast food chain said in a half-page advertisement in the Straits Times newspaper, saying it never intended to offend anyone.

Multi-racial Singapore has successfully avoided racial tension since deadly riots in the 1960s, though the government sees race as the biggest potential fault line in society.

"I understand that we need to respect our Muslim citizens as Singapore is a multiracial and multicultural society," Pauline Koh, whose daughter was born in the Year of Pig, wrote to the Straits Times.

"However, in this case, the Pig is one of the Chinese zodiac signs -- part of Chinese culture and customs -- and it is just a soft toy, not food," she wrote. Around 75 percent of the nearly 5 million population in Singapore is ethnically Chinese and 15 percent is Malay or Indian Muslim. McDonald's and many other fastfood chains sell food that is halal, or acceptable to Muslims.

Pork and other pig products are not halal food.

(Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan and Fabian Ng; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Source

Pig abuse on the rise

MONDAY, 30 NOVEMBER 2009 09:25 DN NEWS

Increasing number of pigs arrive at slaughter houses with serious injuries from being hit with chains and planks

A new system which rewards the speed of loading pigs on to transport vehicles could be behind the rising number of pigs being delivered with injuries to slaughter.

In the last two years, the number of cases involving pig abuse has quintupled.

The country’s largest slaughterhouse, Danish Crown in Horsens, and the Department of Veterinary Disease Biology at the University of Copenhagen, have noted the tendency, where in some cases more than 30 pigs have arrived at slaughterhouses with serious injuries.

Professor Henrik Elvang Jensen at the University of Copenhagen said studies of the pigs’ injuries showed that most of them were occurring on the farms. The injuries were caused by blunt instruments such as pipes, planks and chains, he said.

An explanation for this may lie with the introduction of a new system in 2006 that rewards farmers for transporting the pigs more quickly.

‘When a system is like that it can provoke a violent reaction if the farmer suddenly sees 30 pigs running in the wrong direction,’ Elvang Jensen said.

Erik Bredholt, who is in charge of Danish Crown’s pork production committee, said beating animals was completely unacceptable.

‘Every farmer knows you don’t get your pigs loaded on to the truck faster by beating them,’ he said.

Bredholt argued that the increase in the number of injured pigs had nothing to do with the new system, pointing instead to the economic pressure many farmers were presently under.

Source

PORK 101 Dates Set for 2010

By Pork news source | Monday, November 30, 2009

PORK 101 has announced its 2010 schedule. A three-day, hands-on experience designed to update participants on quality and consistency issues in the pork industry, PORK 101 is hosted by the American Meat Science Association in cooperation with the National Pork Board.

PORK 101 is scheduled for March 9-11 at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa; April 13-15 at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb.; May 25-27 at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas; and on a yet-to-be-announced date at Oklahoma State University.

At PORK 101, participants evaluate eight live hogs that are processed during class, with attendees learning about grading, food safety and product processing. The class will make and sample processed product from the hogs including pumped loins, bacon, hams and sausage.

For more information and to register.

Source

Dutch Scientists Grow First Pork Meat In Lab

By Paul Adams

Posted 11.30.2009 at 1:59 pm

Bioreactor for Cell Cultures M. Janicki

A Dutch project that launched in 2005 has finally borne fruit: cells from a delicious pig have been cultured in the laboratory to grow the first successful filet of in vitro pork, The Times reports.

The prospect of vat-grown meat has been the stuff of science fiction for quite a while, and the subject of serious study for over a decade. A number of groups, including odd bedfellows NASA and PETA, see it as the answer to feeding a hungry world, without all the unpleasant externalities of large-scale meat production. And many vegetarians say they would not have an ethical dilemma eating meat if no animal was killed to produce it.

The team at Holland's Eindhoven University extracted muscle cells from a living pig and incubated them in an appetizing nutrient broth "derived from the blood products of animal foetuses," according to The Times. Future lab meat will be grown in a synthetic medium instead.

An actual lab-grown pork chop is still a ways away, though. Meat suitable for the plate has to be more than a simple petri-dish-grown wad of muscle tissue. Without blood flow, bones, connective tissue, and a modest amount of exercise, the flavor and texture of the muscle will be far from palatable. The culture achieved by the Dutch scientists is reportedly a "soggy form of pork" that its creators have not yet ventured to taste.

For now, though, before the technology for a beautiful synthetic steak has been perfected, lab-grown meat may still be suitable for feeding to other animals, where its impact on environmental and economic issues would still be beneficial. At present, for instance, 25 percent of the world's fish catch is fed back to farmed fish each year, a ratio that's hugely detrimental to the sustainability of the seafood industry.

The lab-grown meat might be edible as a component of sausage as well; and indeed one of the primary funding sources of the Dutch study is Stegeman, a sausage manufacturer owned by Sara Lee.

Source