Another day, another resolution

At the beginning of this week, my friend Lucy and I had, as a challenge to ourselves, agreed to give up pork of any kind for a month. As February 1st was looming, we chose this month.
Coincidentally, last night I sat and watched Jamie Saves Our Bacon as part of the Great British Food Fight series. My oh my. I never imagined that killing animals was particularly humane of course, but the conditions in which pigs are kept for breeding purposes are horrific. The process of actually (humanely) killing pigs is disgusting. It looks like Hugh and Jamie may have converted many meat eaters in their time, but I never would have thought I would be one of them.
I have decided that if this month works out well, I see no reason to ever eat pork again. I've never been an animal lover (my friends are more than willing to vouch for that), but there was always something about pigs that I felt quite fond about. Cows scare me unless they are on my plate medium-rare. Sheep are evil and lamb tastes like soap. I will never cross duck off my menu, and the same goes for chicken. But pigs are... cute.
I once read an interview with Cameron Diaz years ago. She explained the reason why she was and is a vegertarian is because a fully grown pig has the mental age of a three year old child. Putting it into that context, really made me think. While I don't often take anything Cameron Diaz says as gospel, it seemed a valid point. Don't farmers always say that on their farm the pigs are more intelligent than their dogs?
There is one issue with this dietary adjustment however. My family love food. Our social events are usually based around food. They also only eat the best. Organic, free range chicken from a Cumbrian farm. Organic beef. British pork. Fresh water lobster and mussels. In fact, one of the main criteria for choosing a boyfriend if I ever wanted to take him to my family was that they loved to eat, and were not fussy. If I told them I was cutting anything that wasn't life threatening from my diet, I think I would be ostracised.
So the plan is, I shall cut out pork from my diet for as long as I can cook for myself, but at special family occasions, I shall make sure my family only eat British meat (something you know they already do) and not say a word to them. It's ok to give up resolutions for your family isn't it? Noble almost...
And who can actually say no to some beautiful, succulent, fresh out of the oven, pork crackling?