Food blogger Nick Bergus, who also teaches multimedia at the UI, used to be a vegetarian.

But a year and a half ago, he shot a pig between the eyes, butchered it, then ate it.

“I expected to feel bad, guilty, sad, some kind of emptiness,” he said Wednesday night at Atlas World Grill, site of the Johnson County Local Food Alliance’s Benefit Local Beer and Pork Party.

“But being involved with that — I don’t know if it was some kind of hunter-gatherer, primal, cavemanny thing — felt like an accomplishment.”

Bergus chronicled the “death of a pig” for his master’s professional project last year. And though he said the multimedia experience has helped his professional career, it was the pig-slaughtering that gave him more of a sense of “empowerment.”

The project idea came when Bergus set out to make his own sausage. He went to his grocery store’s butcher and asked for a whole pig shoulder.

“The guy looked at me like I was insane,” he said.

The butcher’s blank look indicated to Bergus the “disconnect” between what people eat and how it gets there. Even the people handling meat were clueless about its uses, he said.

“It’s like some people think there’s this magic act that turns a cow we drive by into a hamburger,” he said.

When Bergus left vegetarianism behind, he decided that if he was going to eat meat, he said he’d go out and kill it himself.

This decision led him to the farm of Bill Ellison and Lois Pavelka, where he met a 4-day-old pig.

While Bergus said the pig didn’t become like a pet, they were able to develop some sort of connection.

“I knew I was going to eat it, though,” he said.

Bergus not only gained a newfound appreciation for where his food comes from, but also pounds of pork to help expand his recipe horizons.

On Wednesday night, Atlas co-owner and chef James Adrian did the same thing.

Serving everything from liver pâté to cheek BLTs to heart tacos, Adrian said he was glad for the chance to use some “creativity.”

“Having the whole pig is a great way to challenge young cooks to come up with new, unusual recipes,” Adrian said.

Since most restaurants only ask for the “choice cuts,” Adrian said buying whole is cheaper.

Recent UI graduate Paul Sorensen was there. Sorensen, a vegetarian who also worked at the DI, stuck to the beer, but added the pork dishes didn’t bother him.

“I’m not like a religious vegetarian,” he said. “I don’t try to convert people.”

Those looking for a cheap night of pork cuisine and local beer got it at Atlas, where a $10 donation garnered endless appetizer plates.

Millstream Brewery co-owner Teresa Albert was also on site to hand out free samples of Oktoberfest and Iowa Pale Ale.

“Oktoberfest is smoother and maltier, but Iowa Pale Ale is stronger,” she said. “It has a lot of hops, but it’s not for me. I’m not a ‘hop-head.’ ”

Likewise, Theresa Carbrey — education and member services coordinator of the New Pioneer Food Co-op, which helped organize the event — favored the smoother Oktoberfest brew and the ribs.

“We thought the Field to Family Festival needed a common people’s party,” she said. “So what better than pork and beer?”