The shiny stainless steel tanker that you might see milk transported in had an odd message.
“Inedible. Not intended for human food. Pork blood only.”
Like people are stopping the semi and asking for a cup of pig blood?
At first blush, it seems odd to see such a warning—and product—in 2016.
But if you slaughter tens of thousands a hogs a day like Smithfield’s John Morrell plant in Sioux Falls does, you have to do something legal with the blood.
Like transport it away.
In the bad old days, it might have ended up in the Big Sioux River.
Today, a truck with Iowa license plates takes it away to be turned into, well, what exactly?
According to a federal government study, most likely, blood meal for—oddly enough—livestock, particularly for piglets. So, more pigs might be eating their departed relatives as they are fattened. Think of it as a bloody and slightly cannibalistic “circle of life.”
It also has medical uses.
But for a hungry world pig blood may also be an easily recoverable source of protein—for humans.
And back in the day, according to Post Magazine, the first thing a family or butcher did when killing a hog was slit its throat and collect its blood—and makeboudin noir—which you may know as blood sausage.
The more things change, the more they stay the same—except today the pig’s blood stays out of the river.
