There is a pig farm not too far from me, the pigs are well-cared for and fed. I know they are all going to slaughter, but I am often drawn to pulling my car over and watching them. Out in the cold weather, they shelter in their huts and cuddle up with one another for warmth. They are surprisingly vocal, and they are extremely social.

I avoid food politics in the same way I avoid animal politics, it is not for me to tell other people what to eat or what not to eat, and the farmer does a good and conscientious job raising and caring for his pigs. As I watched today, I saw one pig touch noses with another, the nearly universal way many animals have of showing affection and respect for one another.

It did touch me. Up where I live, in the real world of real animals, we live with perpetual live, and death, rebirth and slaughter. Death, like life, is a universal experience, and farms are great teachers about how life and death work.

A pig kiss, I believe all animals have their own kind of emotions and feelings.