The Jew & The Carrot blogger, Jeff Yoskowitz, has been on hiatus from the blog for a little while – but he has a darn good excuse.  He is currently living on a kibbutz in Israel.  On the one hand, like many kibbutzim, internet access is spotty so posting frequently is a challenge.  But Jeff’s situation is a little different.  Jeff is currently researching the (painfully ironic) pork industry in Israel.  His kibbutz happens to house an industrial pork feed-lot, which means he’s spending most of his time hanging out with animals he’d never personally eat.

The little bit of time Jeff’s not researching pigs, he’s logging in his experience at his personal blog The Wet Sprocket.  And while we understand his need to prioritize his web time, his stories are just too interesting not to share.  To find out more about Jeff’s extraordinary daily experiences check out his blog, and read a few key (and quite graphic) excerpts below: 

Feb 3:

I have a cough. It started about three hours into working in the pig pens today while breathing in dust and a thick, God-awful fecal-pig stench. I’ve always heard that pig-lots smell awful but I distinctly remember visiting two organic farms this summer in Connecticut and New York where the pigs hardly smelled at all. I think it’s more appropriate to say that industrial, irresponsible pig-lots tend to smell.

Feb 4:
The pig operation brings together a motley crew of folks. Turns out that both my English and my Hebrew aren’t as helpful as Spanish and Russian would be. Most of the workers are Argentinean Jews from Be’er Sheva or Russians from Be’er Sheva, with an occasional Brazilian and Ecuadorian thrown in. I’m the only Jewish, Hebrew speaking volunteer ever, and the first volunteer to request to work with pigs. The head of the whole operation is a secular Israeli from the Kibbutz who stays in his office trailer and my boss is Argentinean-Israel.

Feb 5:
As I was cleaning I saw a lot of large bugs today and one kind of small bug that covered some of the old pig food chunks that I cleared out. All day long I felt as if the small bugs were all over me. I found a few on my neck early on and was paranoid throughout my work shift. I really appreciated my shower today which was—hypocritically, I know—longer than it should have been given the water situation in Israel, but hey, if I’m going to empty the Kinneret to wash pig s*** I might as well use a bit extra water for good hygiene.

Read all of Jeff’s post here.