- Mike Sula
- Living the good life, at least for a while
Mike Sula has witnessed slaughter before (and not just that of squirrels). Four years ago, near the conclusion of the Reader‘s Whole Hog Project, he transported three restive mulefoot pigs to a small-scale slaughterhouse, where they were treated “with as much care and respect as possible under the circumstances,” he writes. For this week’s Food & Drink column he joined Rob Levitt of the Butcher & Larder on a trip up to Bare Knuckle Farm, in northern Michigan, where they’d witness farmer Jess Piskor shoot a pig and assist him in butchering it. Which is better, the piece asks, a quick end in a concrete slaughterhouse or “three minutes of pain” in a familiar pasture? Either way, “it’s a difficult process,” says Piskor’s partner Abra Berens, “and that should be on people’s minds when they decide to eat meat.”