Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig Read online

  242Similar standards in the United Kingdom qualify a pig as “Freedom Food”: “Major Milestone for Welfare as McDonald’s Announce Switch to 100% Freedom Food Pork,” Freedom Food, April 2013, http://www.freedomfood.co.uk /news/2013/04/mcdonalds (accessed November 13, 2013).

  242The American Humane Association adopted the British Freedom Food standards: “Du Breton Natural Pork Earns Animal Welfare Certification,” National Hog Farmer, May 15, 2001.

  242The meat case at every Whole Foods store: “An Inside Look,” Global Animal Partnership, http://www/globalanimalpartnership.org/about-us/an-inside-look (accessed February 21, 2014).

  243The US Department of Agriculture maintains its own standards: “Meat and Poultry Labeling Terms,” US Department of Agriculture, October 24, 2014, http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers /food-safety-fact-sheets/food-labeling/meat-and-poultry-labeling-terms/meat -and-poultry-labeling-terms (accessed February 23, 2014); Katie Abrams, Courtney Meyers, and Tracy Irani, “Naturally Confused: Consumers’ Perceptions of All-Natural and Organic Pork Products,” Agriculture and Human Values 27 (2010): 365–374.

  243These certifications serve as marketing tools: P. C. Thompson et al., “Livestock Welfare Product Claims,” Journal of Animal Science 85 (2007): 2354–2360.

  243Confinement farming is “not better for the animals”: Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals (New York: Little, Brown, 2009), 167.

  244Eventually, his network grew to hundreds of farms: Nicolette Hahn Niman, Righteous Porkchop (New York: Collins Living, 2009), 116–125; M. S. Honeyman et al., “The United States Pork Niche Market Phenomenon,” Journal of Animal Science 84 (2006): 2269–2275.

  244“All our hogs are raised outdoors”: “All-Natural Pork,” Niman Ranch, http://www.nimanranch.com/pork.aspx (accessed November 21, 2013).

  244EcoFriendly Foods, for example, advertises that all of its pigs: “Pigs,” EcoFriendly Foods, http://www.ecofriendly.com/pigs (accessed November 17, 2013).

  245A study at Iowa State University estimated: Honeyman et al., “United States Pork Niche.”

  245More recent statistics are not available: “Hog Protocols,” Niman Ranch, http://www.nimanranch.com/Protocols.aspx (accessed November 17, 2013).

  246“Good welfare means that the base price of pork will inevitably rise”: Ruth Layton, “Animal Needs and Commercial Needs,” in The Future of Animal Farming, ed. Marian Dawkins and Roland Bonney (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2008), 90.

  246In fully pastured systems, with slower-growing heritage breeds: Honeyman et al., “United States Pork Niche,” 2272.

  246Then his partners process and cure the meat: Julie Robinson, “Porcine Perfection,” Charleston Gazette, October 1, 2011; C. W. Talbott et al., “Enhancing Pork Flavor and Fat Quality with Swine Raised in Sylvan Systems,” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 21 (2006): 183–191; Chuck Talbott et al., “Potential for Small-Scale Farmers to Produce Niche Market Pork Using Alternative Diets, Breeds and Rearing Environments,” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 19 (2007): 135–140; Peter Kaminsky, Pig Perfect (New York: Hyperion, 2005).

  246Talbott explains the dilemma of modern pork: Chuck Talbott, interview with author, October 15, 2012.

  Epilogue

  247When presented with a salad or burrito: Technomic, Center of the Plate: Beef and Pork Consumer Trend Report (Chicago: Technomic, 2013).

  247Recent figures from the US Department of Agriculture show: Christopher Davis and Biing-Hwan Lin, Factors Affecting U.S. Pork Consumption (Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, 2005).

  248In 2013 the activist group Mercy for Animals released footage: Mercy for Animals, “Walmart Pork Supplier Caught Abusing Mother Pigs and Piglets,” YouTube, October 29, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embed ded&v=-KoVAkgPexU (accessed February 24, 2014).

  248Recently, however, as cognitive and behavioral scientists have confirmed: Donald M. Broom, “Cognitive Ability and Awareness in Domestic Animals and Decisions About Obligations to Animals,” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 126 (2010): 1–11.

  248British chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall calls pigs: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, The River Cottage Meat Book (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2007), 112.

  249Activist Gail Eisnitz, who has investigated all types of animal cruelty: Nicolette Hahn Niman, Righteous Porkchop (New York: Collins Living, 2009), 215.

  249These sows, Jonathan Safran Foer writes in Eating Animals: Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals (New York: Little, Brown, 2009), 183.

  249That means that sows, after giving birth: Matthew Scully, Dominion (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), 266.

  249“The pigs are treated like shit”: Sarah Hepola, “A Wonderful, Magical Animal,” Salon, July 11, 2008, http://www.salon.com/2008/07/11/magical_animal (accessed October 29, 2014).

  249A few animal scientists have proposed: Adam Shriver, “Not Grass-Fed, but at Least Pain-Free,” New York Times, February 18, 2010.

  250That’s the position taken by Cromwell: Mercy for Animals, “Walmart Pork Supplier.”

  250In addition to working with the more familiar heritage breeds: Peter Kaminsky, Pig Perfect (New York: Hyperion, 2005).

  250The Roman historian Livy noted in the second century bc: Emily Gowers, The Loaded Table (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 51.

  251No restaurants have resurrected the Roman recipe for roast udder: Dana Goodyear, Anything That Moves (New York: Riverhead, 2013), 74.

  251It sold well: Stephanie Strom, “Demand Grows for Hogs That Are Raised Humanely Outdoors,” New York Times, January 20, 2014.

  251Even as pork marketers flogged lean pork chops: David Sax, “The Bacon Boom Was Not an Accident,” Businessweek, October 6, 2013.

  251sales of lean pork stayed flat: J. L. Anderson, “Lard to Lean: Making the Meat-Type Hog in Post–World War II America,” in Food Chains, ed. Warren Belasco and Roger Horowitz (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009).

  251A couple of cooks in Kansas City found Internet fame: Jason, “Bacon Explosion: The BBQ Sausage Recipe of all Recipes,” BBQ Addicts, December 23, 2008, http://www.bbqaddicts.com/blog/recipes/bacon-explosion (accessed February 24, 2014).

  252Dozens of cities hosted bacon festivals: Erin Zimmer, “Bacon Bra,” Serious Eats, April 2, 2008, http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/04/bacon-bra-brassiere-womens-edible-underwear.html (accessed February 24, 2014).

  252It’s an indulgence, they write: Joshua Applestone, Jessica Applestone, and Alexandra Zissu, The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat (New York: Clarkson Potter, 2011), 130.

  253“We have been raising happy, healthy pigs since 1994”: “Why Pastured Pork,” Wil-Den Family Farms, http://www.wildenfamilyfarms.com/Main/pasturedpork.html (accessed November 17, 2013).

  253EcoFriendly Farms reduces it to an equation: EcoFriendly Farms, “Pigs.” Also see C. W. Talbott et al., “Enhancing Pork Flavor and Fat Quality with Swine Raised in Sylvan Systems,” Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 21 (2006): 183–191.

  253If public concern drives further agricultural reforms: N. Pelletier et al., “Life Cycle Assessment of High-and Low-Profitability Commodity and Deep-Bedded Niche Swine Production Systems in the Upper Midwestern United States,” Agricultural Systems 103 (2010): 599–608.

  255“You may end up paying twice as much”: Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Meat Book, 108.

  255The farmers’ markets and upscale grocers: Brad Weiss, “Configuring the Authentic Value of Real Food,” American Ethnologist 39 (2012): 615–616, 623–624.

  256The majority of people, the study concluded: Jayson L. Lusk, F. Bailey Norwood, and Robert W. Prickett, “Consumer Preferences for Farm Animal Welfare” (working paper, Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University, 2007), 13.

  257In historical terms, Americans now s
pend a tiny portion: Cynthia Northrup, The American Economy (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011), 102.

  257According to John McGlone, an agriculture professor: John McGlone, “Swine,” in Animal Welfare in Animal Agriculture, ed. Wilson G. Pond, Fuller W. Bazer, and Bernard E. Rollin (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2012), 149.

  Index

  Abrabanel, Isaac, 57

  Acharnians (Aristophanes), 67

  Acorn-fattened hogs, 74, 81–83, 83(fig.), 87, 102, 117, 125, 137, 138(fig.), 174

  Adaptation, evolutionary

  Chinese pigs’ move to England, 117

  colonial agriculture, 138–139

  forest pig, 79–80

  Greek and Roman farming and breeding, 73–74

  justifying confinement farming, 231

  self-domestication of wild boars, 28–29

  ungulates, 18–23

  See also Domestication

  Affection for pigs, 188–191

  Agriculture

  breeding leaner pigs, 208–211

  British empire, 131–132

  China’s focus on grain and legume production, 115–116

  colonial America, 134–136

  construction of the pyramids, 44–45

  Corn Belt, 154–158

  crop production in developing countries, 235–236

  decline of diversification, 223

  destructive nature of pigs in New England, 142

  Egypt and Mesopotamia, 45–48

  English colonization of the Americas, 131–132

  English seizure of Native lands, 134

  federal subsidies, 227–228

  grazing after the Black Death, 111

  invention of, 27–28, 30–32

  irrigation, 45

  medieval decline in protein supply, 107–108

  medieval urbanization, 95

  Native Americans, 133

  Native Americans’ acquisition of pigs, 140–143

  northern Europe during the Paleolithic, 78–79

  pigs’ consumption of by-products from, 111, 112(fig.), 113

  pioneers’ slash-and-burn practices, 146–148

  production meeting global demand, 235–237

  Roman Empire, 72–74

  westward expansion, 145–146, 160–161

  See also Cattle; Goats; Hog farming; Sheep

  Alcohol production, 136, 156

  Alexander the Great, 60

  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Carroll), 13

  The American City journal, 203

  American South, hog farming in, 185–188

  Anatomy, human, 14–21, 21(fig.)

  Anderson, Virginia DeJohn, 135

  Anglo-Saxons, 80–81, 94, 150–151

  Animal Farm (Orwell), 5

  Animal Machines (Harrison), 239–240

  Animal Protein Factor, 212

  Animals, criminal trials of, 96–98, 99(fig.)

  Animal welfare

  American resistance to regulation of, 241

  brutality tainting the public image of pork, 248

  confinement farming, 221–222, 228–231, 233–234, 248–250

  niche meats, 245–246

  Niman Ranch practices, 243–245

  pig park study, 239–240

  The Jungle (Sinclair) 195–197

  traditional hog farming, 230–231

  Anthrax, 57

  Anthropocene era, 32

  Antibiotic use in farming, 211–215, 227–228

  Antiochus IV, 60–61, 63

  Anti-Semitism, European, 97–98, 100–101

  Apicius, 69–70, 84

  Applestone, Josh and Jessica, 252

  Archeological finds, 27–29, 35–36, 38–40

  Archer Daniels Midland, 236

  Aristophanes, 50–51, 67

  Arthur (king), 83–84

  Artiodactyla, 18–20, 24

  Arrogance of pigs, 13

  Assembly line, 170–173

  Augustus, 71

  Aurelian, 71

  Aztecs, conquest of the, 126

  Babe (film), 248

  Back to the Start (film), 234

  Backwoods farming, 145–146, 153–154

  Bacon, 86, 103, 109, 149–150, 175, 201–202, 208–209, 251–252

  “Bacon” (Clark), 147

  Bacon bra, 252

  Bacon Explosion, 252

  Bacteria, antibiotic resistant, 227–228

  Barbecue, 186–187

  Bartholomew Fair, 110, 252

  Bartholomew Fair (Jonson), 110

  Beef. See Cattle

  Behavioral problems, confinement farming creating, 229–230

  Benson, Ezra Taft, 223

  Beowulf, 80

  Berkshire breed, 159–160, 189, 209, 216, 245, 250

  Beverley, Robert, 139

  Bezoar goat, 34

  Bipedalism in humans, 23

  Bison, 122

  Black Death, 107–108

  Black pudding, 191

  Blood

  animal sacrifice, 14, 67

  “blood month,” 87

  Christian anxiety over pork consumption, 94–95

  hog by-products, 176, 191

  hog slaughtering, 171

  Islamic dietary laws, 102

  Jewish dietary laws, 58–60, 94, 102

  Roman cuisine, 70–71

  the theory of humors, 98–99

  Blood libel, 101

  Bones: changing shape with domestication, 40

  Borax, 198–199

  Brambell Commission, 240

  Breeding practices

  American Corn Belt, 159–160

  animal welfare and confinement farming, 229–230

  breeding leaner pigs, 208–211

  breeding less intelligent pigs, 249–250

  colonial America’s open-range ranching, 138–139

  corporate agriculture, 223–225

  De Soto’s North American expedition, 126–127

  diminishing flavor and quality, 218–219

  gestation crates, 240

  Greece and Rome, 73–76

  inhumanity of confinement farming, 221–222

  life-cycle hog farming, 216–217

  medieval Europe’s food source, 87

  New World conquest, 121

  social behavior of pigs, 238–239

  Britain/England

  American cross-bred pigs, 159–160

  animal welfare awareness, 240–242

  colonization of North America, 131–132

  global meat trade, 179

  land seizure, 134

  pig park study, 238–240

  westward expansion, 145–146

  See also Colonial New England

  Bryan, William Jennings, 16

  Burger King, 241

  The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat (Applestone and Applestone), 252

  By-products of pork packing, 173–177

  Caesar Augustus, 63–64

  Camels, 122

  Cannibalism, 12–13, 100–101, 203–204, 249

  Carrion, 51, 59–60, 94

  Cato, 86

  Cattle

  agricultural methods, 214

  beef consumption decline during the Great Depression, 199

  colonial American agriculture, 137

  corn-fed, 154–158

  dairy, 72, 111–113, 135–136, 140, 211

  direct marketing beef, 200–201

  driving, 163–164

  English “civilizing” of Native Americans, 134–135, 140

  feeding the Spanish army, 120–121

  Egyptian agriculture, 44, 48

  global beef production, 179

  Latin American conquest, 128

  per capita beef consumption, 177–178

  pork consumption falling with the rise of beef consumption, 204–205

  Roman Empire, 69

  Cayönü Tepesi, Turkey, 38–40

  Celts, 79–80

  Central America

  colonization by Spanish pigs, 123–128

 
; switching from pigs to cattle and sheep, 151

  The Chainbearer (Cooper), 178

  Chang, David, 249

  Chanukah, 63

  Charlotte’s Web (White), 12–13

  Cheape and Good Husbandry (Markham), 111

  Chefs advocating animal welfare, 248–251

  Chester White breed, 160, 209, 216, 245

  Chicago, Illinois, 170–173

  China

  confinement farming, 234–235

  corn-fed stock, 155

  domestication of Sus scrofa, 35–36

  increasing demand for meat, 236–237

  modernization of pork production, 236–237

  pigs’ contribution to sanitation, 49–50, 50(fig.)

  pork-based cuisine, 236

  value of pigs, 10

  Chinese pigs, 138(fig.)

  American Corn Belt stock, 159–161

  in England, 136–137

  in Europe, 114–115

  Chipotle (restaurant), 234

  Cholera, 184

  Christianity

  English conversion of Native Americans, 132, 134–135

  European anti-Semitism, 97–98, 100–101

  freedom from Jewish dietary laws, 93–95

  historical view of pigs, 91–97

  pigs’ fecundity, 93

  pioneers, 146

  pork as a symbol of faith, 101–103

  Churchill, Winston, 14

  Cincinnati, Ohio, 169–170, 177

  Civil War, 187–188

  Clark, Charles Badger, 147

  Class. See Social class

  Cleanliness of pigs

  biblical view of pigs, 91–92

  Jewish pork prohibition, 59–60, 98

  lack of sweat glands, 92–93

  pigs as sacrificial animals, 67

  See also Sanitation; Scavenging

  Climate change, livestock production contributing to, 227–228

  Climate shifts, 29–32, 35

  Cloven foot, 18, 55, 58–59

  Colicchio, Tom, 249

  Colonial New England

  British construction and planning, 131–135

  hog farming, 135–140

  hog laws, 182–184

  labor shortage, 135–136

  meat consumption, 177

  Native Americans’ adaptation to pigs, 140–143

  reliance on pigs, 151

  westward expansion, 145–148

  Columbus, Christopher, 119–123

  Columella, 74

  The Condition of the Working-Class in England (Engels), 183