A Pig in a Poke ,or Raising Them Is No Joke

This isn't exactly about that old saw about a pig in a poke - where that originated I don't know but my mother used it often and my grandfather raised them, pigs that is, not pokes.

This is about what we consume, eat, digest on any given day. I read, with wonder and alarm, more because my grandfather was a farmer who raised and sold pigs as well as other things from his farm, then from amazement at the facts as presented.

This fact, " A baby pig grew for 5 years to obtain his weight of 130 pounds." Was not always true because, I know for a fact my grandfather's pig we raised on a bottle (the sow was struck by lightning during a thunderstorm with fourteen suckling babies nursing - 3 survived that strike) We managed to keep one alive on a bottle.

Grandfather sold the pig the next Spring at 250 pounds.  But I digress. Today a pig will weight 220 pounds in six months --before it loses it's baby teeth according to the statistics I read.

Are we by passing and over-riding Mother Nature to feed the growing world population? Is it a health risk or concern?  Or, should it be?