Never in my wildest dreams did I think that the "local food" movement has come so far: Chefs brawling over the origin of heritage of pork. This is what I call a revolution!
The Oregonion ran a story about this incident. I'm not certain why these guys ended up in front of Strip-club, drunk, at 1am after this event. However, lets put that issue aside for now. The crux of the argument centered around a certain red-wattle pig flown in from Iowa that took first prize in a cook-off of heritage pork held in Portland. As Chef Eric Bechard said: "We as Oregonians pride ourselves on sustainable and local, so to be in a room full of those people, who then voted for this Iowa pig, it was disappointing."
I believe that Bechard has a point. The Cochon555 event flyer advertised 5 Chefs, 5 wines, and 5 pigs but neglected to mention the source of the pigs. This is a huge oversight for such an event, held in a City and a State famous for leading the locally grown revolution. To source a pig all the way from Iowa is particularly egregious, especially considering how many Oregon farms raise Pork: yes, even including the famous red wattle hogs. The source of the food for events such as these needs to be front-and-center in an age where small producers are constantly fighting against imported products.