Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig Page 29
Confinement farming, 230(fig.)
American resistance to regulation of, 241
animal welfare and, 228–231, 240–242
British welfare study, 240
China, 237(fig.)
consolidation of small farms, 223–224
contrasting pigs’ intelligence with living conditions, 248–249
ethical issues, 233–234
increasing meat consumption, 235–236
manure lagoons, 225–227
mechanism of, 214–219
opacity of industrialized production, 221–222
raising human awareness of, 249–250
returning to humane practices, 243–245
spread to developing countries, 234–235
Conquistadors, 123–127
Consumption of pork
American South, 187–188
China, 10, 114–116, 236
decline during the Great Depression, 199
increase in developing countries, 235–236
meat hierarchies, 200
social status and, 106–109, 177–178
Cook, Harold, 14
Cooking
expensive-tissue hypothesis, 23–24
trichinosis abatement, 202–204
See also Cuisine
Cooper, James Fenimore, 178
Corn
breeding fatter pigs, 208–209
Chinese pig farming, 236–237
confinement farming, 4
cuisine of the American South, 186
European cultivation, 179
federal subsidies, 227–228
feed-conversion rate, 158–159
feeding hogs on a drive, 164
Native American cultivation, 133–134
pioneers’ hog farming, 147–148
pork packing industry, 174–175
soybean-supplemented feed, 211–212
Corn Belt
breeds used in, 159–161
hog drives, 161–162
hogs and cattle, 154–158
lard-type breeds, 208–209
meat-type breeds, 208–210
mixed farming, 223
pork packing industry, 168–169
profitability of, 158–159
See also Pork packing industry
Corporate agriculture, 223–226, 236, 241–242
Cortés, Hernán, 125–126
Cowardin, James, 1–2
Crockett, Davy, 150
Cromwell, James, 248, 250
Crop rotation, 113–114
Cuba, 122–124
Cuisine
American South, 186
China’s pork-based cuisine, 236
and humoral medicine, 98–100
medieval Europe, 84–85
pioneer America, 149–150
pork packing industry and, 175–179
Roman Empire, 65–66, 68–72
Culture
cultural identity, 11
Egypt and Mesopotamia, 45–46
Native Americans’ attempt to preserve, 140–143
Cured meats, 85–86, 113, 126, 168, 175, 201–202, 254
Dairy farming, 111–113, 135, 140
Dark Ages, 77–78
Darwinism, 16
De Soto, Hernando, 125–127, 148(fn)
Deer, 18–19, 28, 82, 122, 133, 137, 140–143
Defoe, Daniel, 113
Deihl, Craig, 253
Denbera practice, 81
Denmark, 210, 242
Denny’s restaurant, 252
Developing world, confinement farming in, 234–235
Dickens, Charles, 183
Diet, human
China, 115–116
domestication of wild boars, 37–38
expensive-tissue hypothesis, 23–24
of the poor, 12
global meat trade improving working class nutrition, 179–180
hierarchies of, 10–11
hunter-gatherers, 27–28, 30–31
increasing demand for meat in the developing world, 235–236
lard, 85–86
medieval social hierarchy, 84
Native Americans’ acquisition of pigs, 140–141
Near East peoples’ rejection of pork, 51–52
New World plants and animals, 119–123
ungulates, 18–19
See also Cuisine; Meat
Diet, porcine
acorn-fattened hogs, 74, 81–83, 83(fig.), 87, 102, 117, 125, 137, 138(fig.), 174
breeding leaner pigs, 208–209
Chinese soybean imports, 236
corn farming in America, 154–158
European forests, 81
feeding pigs garbage, 203–204
industrialized hog farming, 211–217
medieval concerns over pork consumption, 95
Niman Ranch, 244–245
Roman Empire, 74–75
small-scale pig keeping, 188
snout use in detecting food, 21–22
soy-supplemented corn, 214
Dietary laws, religious, 10, 13–14, 51, 53–55
Digestion. See Intestinal system
Dinosaur extinction, 17–18
Diocletian, 69
Directions for Cookery (Leslie), 178
Disease
Black Death, 106–108
global meat trade improving working-class nutrition, 179–180
heart disease from animal fat consumption, 207–208
Mad cow, 222
Native Americans’ death by, 134
New York cholera epidemic, 184
Spaniards bringing to the Americas, 123
Distilleries, 111–113
Docility, breeding for, 40
Dogs, 36–38, 59, 124
Domesday Book, 81
Domestic Manners of the Americans (Trollope), 167–168
Domestication
invention of agriculture, 27–29
herd animals, 33–35
versus taming, 33
See also Agriculture
Domestication of pigs
Asia, 35
Europe, 79
Near East, 27–29, 35–41
human-pig relationships, 40–41
self-domestication, 25, 36
spectrum of, 38–40
Douglas, Mary, 55
Drift (weight loss on a drive), 164
Droving
Corn Belt farmers, 156
geese, 161
hog droving in the American South, 1–4, 162–163, 162(fig.), 163–165
hog droving in the Roman Empire, 163–164
pork packing, 169
Duroc Jersey breed, 160, 209, 216, 245
Eating Animals (Foer), 249
EcoFriendly Foods, 244–245, 253
Ecological niches, 24–25, 29–30, 37–38
Egypt, ancient, 44–46, 51
Eisnitz, Gail, 249
Eleazer, 61, 62(fig.)
Eliot, George, 190
Empress of Blandings, 189
Enclosure movement, 111
Engels, Friedrich, 183
England. See Britain/England
Environmental degradation
Chinese pig farming, 236–237
increasing concerns over, 222
manure lagoons, 225–227
Española (Greater Antilles), 120–122
Ethical food production, 233, 252–258
Eurasian wild boar, 25, 29, 78, 147–148
Europe
animal rights movement, 240
meat-type pigs, 208–209
Chinese swine in, 114–116
colonization of North America, 133
Corn Belt output, 169–170
famine and the Black Death, 106–108
per capita meat consumption, 177–179
Evolution, animal, 17–22, 24–25, 33–34, 116–117. See also Adaptation, evolutionary; Domestication
Evolution, human, 23, 29–33
Evolutionary theory, 16, 18–19
Expensive-tissue hypot
hesis, 23–24
Extremadura, Spain, 125–126
Factory conditions, 170–171
Family, pigs as, 188–191
Famine, 145–146, 179
Farm Animal Welfare Council, 240
Farrowing crates, 216–217
Fast Food Nation (Schlosser), 222
Fearnley-Whittingstall, Hugh, 248–249, 254
Featherstonhaugh, George William, 149–150
Feces, pigs’ consumption of, 49–51, 96, 158. See also Scavenging
Fecundity of pigs
benefits of, 8
early European myths, 80
pigs in colonial New England, 121, 139
pigs in the New World, 125
pioneer America, 146–147
public nature of breeding, 182
sexual nature of the pig, 93
See also Breeding practices
Fellini, Federico, 65–66
Feral swine, 8, 137, 147–148, 148(fn), 250
Fertility symbols, 67–68, 79–80, 93
Fertilizer production, 96, 115–116, 176, 226, 236
Five freedoms, 240
Fleisher’s (butcher shop), 252
Fleming, Peggy, 208
Flight distance of an animal, 37–38
Foer, Jonathan Safran, 249
Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 227–228
Food and Drugs Act, 199
Food security, 48, 56, 106–107, 120–125
Ford Motor Company, 172–173
Forest pigs
American pioneer culture, 149
fatter hybrids replacing in Western America, 160–161
hog droving, 81–82
in colonial America, 136–137, 138(fig.)
in medieval Europe, 78–82, 87–88
Roman Empire, 74–76
spread to the New World, 117
survival after the fall of Rome, 78
Francis of Assisi, 89–91
Freedom Food standards, 242–243
Galen, 98–100
Garbage disposal units, 203
Gaul, conquest of, 77, 80
Geese droving, 161
Genetic diversity, loss of, 236–237
Gestation crates, 216–217, 240–243, 250
Giza, pyramid complex, 43–44, 48
Gluttony, 92–93, 100
Goats
Artiodactyla, 18–19
colonial American agriculture, 136
dairy, 8
domestication of, 34–35, 40
driving, 163
European, 79–80
intelligence, 22–23
Near East farming, 28, 32–36, 39, 43–44, 47, 51–52
Roman Empire, 68, 72–73
Spanish conquest, 119–120
Godey’s Lady’s Book, 178
Gold and silver, 131–132
Goths, 77
Graham, Sylvester, 200
Grain cultivation, 32–33, 107–108. See also Corn
Grandin, Temple, 5, 219, 241
Gray, Robert, 134
Great Plains, 147
Greater Antilles, 122
Greece, ancient
boars in myths, 83
curing pork, 86
Greek rule in the Near East, 60–64
sex and pork, 110–111
swine farming practices, 73
Greek mythology: pigs as sacrificial animals, 67
Green Acres (television program), 6
Grocery retailers, growth of, 225
Habitat. See Ecological niches
Hallan Cemi, Turkey, 27–29, 35–36, 38
Ham, 9, 65, 69, 70, 86, 109, 125, 126, 128, 175, 178, 197–198, 201–202, 246
Hardy, Thomas, 191–192
Harris, Thaddeus, 153–154
Harris Papyrus, 51
Harrison, Ruth, 238–240
Headcheese, 176, 254–255
Health, human
encouraging lower meat consumption, 199–200
medieval view of the healthiness of pork, 109
overuse of antibiotics in farming, 227–228
vegetable oils replacing lard, 209
See also Disease
Health, porcine
antibiotics, 212–213
confinement hogs, 221, 228–230
traditional hog farming, 230–231
Herbivores, 22
Herding, 40, 82–83, 146–148
Heritage-breed pigs, 255
Herodotus, 48–49
Hippocrates, 68–69
Hitchcock, Edward, 199
Hog calling, 163
Hog droving. See Droving
Hog farming
Asian value of pigs, 10
breeding leaner pigs, 208
corporate agriculture and the consolidation of farms, 223–225
decline of mixed farming, 223, 250
ethical issues, 233–234
in colonial America, 136–137
industrialization, 211–215
return to traditional methods, 234–235, 250, 252–253
whole-animal utilization, 254–256
See also Confinement farming
Hog wars of New York, 181–182
Hogging down a cornfield, 158
Holocene era, 32
Homesteads, 146–148
Homo erectus, 23–24
Homo sapiens, 29
Honorius of Autun, 96
Hoofed animals, 18–20, 22
Hormel Foods, 210
Horses, 122, 124
Humility, 12–13
Humors, 98–100
Hunter-gatherers, 27–31, 34–35, 39(fig.)
Hunting
as mystical act, 84
medieval warrior and hunter culture, 82–83
pig ranching in the American South, 186
training pigs for, 5
Ice age, 29–32, 107–108
Identity
Christian release from Jewish dietary laws, 93–95
defining people by their foods, 98
Jewish avoidance of pork, 55, 62(fig.), 63
Immigrant labor, 224–225
Incest, in livestock breeding, 159
Inquisition, Spanish, 102–103
Intelligence
animal welfare and pigs’ intelligence, 248–249
expensive-tissue hypothesis, 23–24
learning tasks, 5–6
omnivorousness, 22–23
pioneers’ training hogs, 148
Toby the learned pig, 6(fig.)
Intestinal system and digestion
corn, 157
expensive-tissue hypothesis, 23–24
pigs’ adaptation and evolution, 21–23
pigs’ diets influencing taste, 75
wolves, 37
Iowa Swine Producers Association, 205–206
Iron Age, 49, 150
Irrigation agriculture, 45
Islam, 10, 54–55, 102–103
Israelites, 52, 54, 57–64, 142
Ivanhoe (Scott), 105–106
Jamaica, 122
Johnson, Samuel, 5
Jonson, Ben, 110
Judaism
Christian release from dietary laws, 93–95
European anti-Semitism, 100–101
forced conversion of Muslims and Jews, 102–103
Jesus’ account of pigs, 92
pork prohibition, 10, 53–55, 57–64, 91
role of pigs in European anti-Semitism, 97–98
Roman pork feasting, 66–67
sanitation rules, 49
Jude the Obscure (Hardy), 191–192
Judensau, 98
The Jungle (Sinclair), 173–174, 195–196, 199
Juvenal, 63
Kaintuck (Kentucky) Hog Road, 164
Killer pigs, 97–98
Kom el-Hisn, Egypt, 44
Lagoons, manure, 225–227
Lambs, religious significance of, 91
Land seizure, British, 134
Lard, 86–87, 141, 176, 209, 210(fig.). See also Pork
; Larder, 85
Lard-type breeds, 208–209
Latin America. See Central America; South America
Legal code in Gaul, 80
Leslie, Eliza, 178
Leviticus, Book of, 19, 54, 58, 60–61, 142
Life-cycle housing, 215–217
Lincoln, Abraham, 149, 163
Linguistic history, 105–106
Little House in the Big Woods (Wilder), 149, 191
Lope de Vega, Félix, 103
Lower class. See Social class
Lust, 92–93, 100
Luter, Joseph W., 224
Luther, Martin, 98
Maccabees, Books of the, 60–61, 63
Mad cow disease, 222
Maialino restaurant, 251
Maimonides, 98
Malthus, Thomas, 107
Mammal evolution, 17–19
Mangalitsa breed, 250
Manure
exploding, 226
fertilizer, 107, 115–116, 176
lagoons, 225–227
Mao Zedong, 116
Markham, Gervase, 111
Marking territory, 238
Martial, 70
Martineau, Harriet, 170
Mast, as pig food, 81, 125, 149, 175, 186
Mather, Cotton, 142
McGlone, John, 257
McKissick, Casey, 254
Meat Inspection Act, 199
Medieval Warm Period, 107
Merchant shipping: Chinese pigs, 117
Mercy for Animals, 248, 250
Mesopotamia, 45–46, 51, 54–56
Metamorphoses (Ovid), 83
Mexico, conquest of, 126
Michaux, François André, 146
Middle Ages
civilization and culture, 82–83
cuisine, 84–85
curing meat, 85–86
food security fluctuations, 106–107
migration and evolution of pigs, 79–82
pig trials, 96–98, 99(fig.)
pigs in myths, 83–84
preserving and utilizing lard, 86–87
scavenging behavior in pigs, 94–95
shifting attitudes towards pigs, 89–91
Middlemarch (Eliot), 190
Migration from the Near East to northern Europe, 78–79
Mixed farming, 233, 250
Model T Ford, 172–173
Modern Meat (Schell), 222
Murphy, Wendell, 224
Myoglobin, 218
Native Americans
acquisition of pigs, 140–143
colonial farming techniques, 135–136
curing meat, 85
English colonization of North America, 131–132
European diseases killing off, 123
resistance to British civilizing agendas, 140
Natural (US Department of Agriculture standard), 243
Nebraska Man, 15–16, 21(fig.)
Neolithic era, 27–28, 37–40, 39(fig.), 68, 114–116
Nest-building by pigs, 238–239
New England. See Colonial New England
New York City: hog wars, 181–184
Niche meats, 245–246
Niman, Bill, 243–245