Waste management has seen its share of changes over time. Some of the previous methods are almost unbelievable to those of us living in a modern world. The concept of rolling your garbage out to the curb each week for pickup is relatively new in the grand scheme of things. It's magical really. You roll it out, it gets picked up and hauled away. Just like that it's gone, out of sight, out of mind. Before the invention of this magical can on wheels, there was something much different, piggeries.
Today, a piggery is merely a pig farm where pigs are raised for meat. A piggery was once something much different.
In the early 1800's waste management was practically non-existent in America. New York and Philadelphia used hogs to manage their garbage problem. Trash was much different then. People didn't have single-use items and plastic didn't exist. Trash was mostly food waste and organic material. Trash was thrown into the streets and gutters where it waited for a hog to happen upon it and eat it. It was a logical solution at the time since farmland would grow more scarce as populations increased.
By the early 1820s, nearly 20,000 hogs roamed the streets of Manhattan. That's roughly one hog for every five humans. They were considered filthy and blamed for every malady from headaches to diseases. The wealthier areas didn't want the hogs around and they were often referred to as "walking sewers." Hogs made the most logical choice of livestock to clean the streets as they convert feed into meat better than chickens or cows.
The Erie Canal opened in 1825 and it led to a population explosion. With more people, there was more garbage and the need for more garbage eating pigs. No one liked the pigs roaming around but there wasn't much anyone could do about it. The pigs were owned by farmers and they were free to roam until they wandered back home. Apparently, pigs are able to remember where they live.
In 1845 New York put together a professional police force into action. One of the jobs of the police force was to help deal with aggressive pigs roaming the streets. In 1849 there was a massive cholera epidemic and the garbage pigs were blamed. This outbreak led to some of the first restrictions for where the pigs were allowed to be. As the population grew and neighborhoods became wealthier, people started demanding change. In 1857 Central Park was constructed and came with more bans for the pigs. The pigs were forced north of Central Park.
1859 brought the piggery war. The city inspector sent police to every piggery and residents were ordered to remove or sell their hogs. By 1860, pigs were banned, except in shantytowns north of 86th street.
The practice then became bringing the garbage to the pigs until it was realized that the pigs carried parasites and trichinosis. The raw garbage they ate was believed to be the cause and the USDA recommended only feeding hogs cooked garbage. That's right, the USDA recommends feeding hot garbage to pigs that are intended for human consumption. Boiling garbage properly for 30 minutes before feeding became the gold standard. As it was realized that trash fed hogs have lower quality meat that spoils faster, garbage feeding was fazed out.
The idea of garbage munching pigs that roam the streets is a pretty foreign concept to most people these days. It's easy to laugh at how ridiculous it was on so many levels. The point in this post is to make you stop laughing when you take a moment to consider how ridiculous our currently accepted solution is. Here's the part where you reflect and stop laughing.
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