Swine flu may be preventing Hugh Jackman from promoting X-Men Origins: Wolverine in Mexico City, but the virus won’t stop Sunday’s Pork Off at the Loki Lounge in Brooklyn from happening. Although Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has released a statement stating “you cannot get H1N1 flu from eating pork or pork products,” the pork industry is nonetheless taking a beating. On the restaurant front, Grub Street reports that Zarela Martinez of the Mexican restaurant Zarela has experienced a steep drop in business, and elsewhere, pork belly stock is down. more ›

Pork and bacon, of all things, are decidedly the new engines of charity events: First off, Tom Mylan and Brooklyn Kitchen have decided to auction off 10 upcoming seats at Mylan’s immensely popular pig butchering class to benefit Just Food and the Greenpoint Interfaith Food Team, according to Serious Eats. Secondly, the “Park Slope Pork Off” next month at Loki Lounge will garner the winner $100 and bragging rights; moreover, all proceeds benefit survivors of toxic waste in the Philippines. “Fakin’ bacon,” the organizers advise, is also acceptable, however “you best fool us but good.” We hear that Jonathan Proville, winner of last month’s epic Bacon Takedown, is angling for a second victory at next month’s event. More information on the “Pork Off” here. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, the New York Times has an excellent piece this week on vegan advocate and author Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and across the pond, BBC correspondent Richard da Costa has spent four days eating, cavorting, and sleeping 24/7 in a sty with pigs. The resulting documentary called My Life as an Animal plays tonight; more information here. more ›