What is a food taboo and how does that influence the availability of pork around the world?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: A taboo is a restriction on behavior imposed by social custom. Taboos are especially strong in the area of food. Relatively well-known taboos against consumption of certain foods can be found in the religious texts, including the Bible. These Biblical taboos were developed through oral tradition and by rabbis into the kosher laws observed today by some Jews. The Biblical food taboos were established in part to set the Hebrew people apart from others. Christians ignore the Biblical food injunctions which reflected their desire to distinguish themselves from Jews beginning two thousand years ago. Furthermore, as a universalizing religion, Christianity was less tied to taboos that originated in the Middle East.
Among the Biblical taboos is prohibition against consuming animals that do not chew their cud or that have cloven feet such as pigs, and seafood lacking fins or scales, such as lobsters.
Muslims share the taboo against consuming pork, in part because the religion originated in the same area as Judaism. It is thought that growing pigs will compete with humans for the scarce resources in the dry mediterranean region.
As a result of taboos against consuming pork, the number of pigs raised in different regions of the world varies sharply. Pigs are especially scarce in predominantly Muslim regions, such as southwestern Asia and northern Africa. On the other hand, China, where consumption of pork is embraced, has nearly one-half of the world's pig stock.
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