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Move over, Mexico.
The Philippines is now the Guinness Book World Record holder for the largest serving of roast pork.
Some 4045 kilos of lechon, or roast pork, was unloaded on Sunday at the Quezon City Memorial Circle, breaking the previous record set by Mexico in 2010.
To break Mexico’s record of 3094.2 kilograms of cochinita Pibil, Calata Corporation, the country’s largest retailer and distributor of top agrochemical brands, feeds, fertilizers, and such, slaughtered 330 pigs.
Lydia’s Lechon roasted the pork and chopped the piggies so the weigh-in was pure, unadulterated pork — no bones, no heads.
Present was Guinness Records Adjudicator Sinigagliesi, who oversaw the weigh-in.
They started serving the lechon at 5pm, after the announcement was made.
Thousands of people lined up as early as 1pm to get into the free event. Each person got three stubs, which means, they got up to three rounds of lechon. By 7:30pm, the line was still strong. No rice was served.
But don’t think they did this just for bragging rights. Calata CEO and Chairman Joseph Calata said his 16-year-old company did this to raise awareness about agriculture to the young ones. Imagine: the average age of the Filipino farmer is 57 years old. That’s three years short of retirement!!
“The younger generation would rather work in call centers and offices…there is nothing wrong with those jobs, but what people don’t realize is kapag walang agriculture, walang buhay,” explains Michael Angelo Lobrin, Calata VP for Corporate Communications, Sales, and Marketing.
More important than the world record are the scholarships that the company is offering in partner colleges; a percentage of their feed sales go to funding students studying agriculture.
That’s all cool, sir. Perhaps, it will comfort your kind office to know that the millennials are now going all Kinfolk-y on the world, showing a new-found love for all things organic and a profound understanding for all things of the earth. We won’t be surprised if a good number will take up farming next. We mean, that’s the next step to becoming earth mothers, right?
