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

  Niman Ranch, 243–245

  Nomadic peoples, 55–56

  North America

  colonization by Spanish pigs, 126–127

  supplying salt pork to South America, 128–129

  See also Colonial New England; Corn Belt; Pioneers

  North Atlantic Drift Current, 78

  The Odyssey, 13

  Oil development, 209

  Old English hog, 114

  Olive oil, 87

  Olmsted, Frederick Law, 149–150, 170–171

  Omnivore’s Dilemma (Pollan), 222

  Omnivorous appetite

  domestication, 29, 40–41

  humans’ anxiety over scavenging, 11–13

  humans’ similarities to pigs, 17

  killer pigs, 97–98

  mad cow disease, 222

  pig trials resulting from, 97

  pigs’ adaptation and evolution, 22–23

  On Cooking, 69–70

  Open-range ranching

  American South, 185–187

  Corn Belt farmers, 157

  early Native Americans, 140–143

  early North American pigs, 137–140

  global meat trade, 179

  Ordinances governing pigs, 95–96, 101

  Organ meats, 176

  Organic

  European Union standard, 242

  US Department of Agriculture standard), 243

  Orwell, George, 5, 46

  Osborn, Henry Fairfield, 14

  Ossabaw breed, 250

  The “other white meat,” pork as, 207–208, 210(fig.), 218–219, 247. See also Pork

  Overlaying, 217

  Ovid, 83

  Paleolithic tribes, 78

  Palestine, appearance of pigs in, 150

  Pasture access, 244–245

  Peace (Aristophanes), 50–51

  Peasant class. See Social class

  Peccaries, 16, 19–20, 122

  Perissodactyla, 18–20

  Persian conquest, 63

  Petronius, 65–66

  Pets, 33, 36–37, 189

  Pew Charitable Trusts, 241

  Pharmaceutical companies: antibiotic production, 212

  Philistines, 150

  Phoebus, Gaston, 83

  Pig clubs, 190

  Pig park study, 237–238

  Pigsty-privy combination, 49–51

  Pioneers, 145–151, 154–158

  Pizarro, Francisco, 125–126

  Plantation economy, 187

  Pliny the Elder, 5, 9

  Plow, invention of, 45

  Plutarch, 70–71

  Poland China breed, 160–161, 209

  Pollan, Michael, 222

  Porchetta di testa, 254

  Pork

  attitudes toward pork, 68, 197, 199–206, 218, 247–248

  barreled pork, 175

  consumption of

  dietary laws, religious

  etymology of, 105

  flavor similar to that of human flesh, 100–101

  marketing, 197, 200–202, 207–208, 245–246

  nutritional value, 6–7

  pickled pork, 175–176, 178

  and sex, 110–111, 252

  shock value of, 251–252

  smoked pork, 9, 85–86, 175

  symbol of Christian faith, 93–95, 103–104

  the “other white meat,” 207–208, 210(fig.), 218–219, 247

  See also Bacon; Cured meats; Ham; Headcheese; Lard; Sausage; Social Class

  Pork prohibitions, 10, 13–14, 51, 53–55, 59–60, 91–94, 98–103, 142

  Pork packing industry

  automation of, 170–173

  by-product utilization, 173–177

  corporate agriculture and the consolidation of farms, 224–225

  public dissatisfaction, 197–202

  slaughter and shipping, 168–170

  Porkettes, 205–206

  Potatoes, European cultivation of, 179

  Poultry

  as pork competitor, 207–208

  global production and consumption boom, 235–236

  increasing consumption, 218

  increasing production in developing countries, 235–236

  mechanized production, 213–215

  Property, pigs as, 89–90, 138–139

  Punic Wars, 69

  Puritans, pork, and sex, 110–111

  Purity laws, Jewish, 57–58

  Pyramids, 43–44, 48

  Railroads, 162, 185

  Raleigh, Walter, 131

  Raleigh News and Observer, 222

  Ramses III, 51

  Reconquista (Spain), 102

  Regulation, 197–199

  Religious traditions

  forced conversion of Muslims and Jews, 102–103

  Mesopotamian culture, 45

  pigs as filthy animals, 51

  punishing animals, 96–97

  reasons for meat regulations, 13–14

  Western civilizations’ condemnation of pigs, 10

  See also Christianity

  Renaissance

  Dark Ages and, 77–78

  modern bacon festival, 252

  pigs’ similarity to humans, 13–14

  pork defining status, 106–110

  sex and pork, 110–111

  Res nullius (empty things), 134

  Research, scientific, 237–238

  Richard III (Shakespeare), 95

  Rickets, 214

  River Cottage Meat Book (Fearnley-Whittingstall), 255

  Rollin, Bernard, 233–234

  Roman Empire See also Pork dole, Roman, 71–72, 74, 163–164

  agriculture, 72–74

  boars in myths, 83

  conquest of Palestine, 63–64

  curing pork, 86

  Dark Ages following the fall of, 77–78

  medieval European culture and, 82–85

  pig breeding, 73–76

  pig drives, 163–164

  pork-based cuisine, 65–66, 68–72

  Roosevelt, Theodore, 199

  Root vegetables, 22

  Ruminants, 20, 22

  Sacrifice, ritual, 56, 67, 68(fig.), 75

  Salian Franks, 80

  Salt, curing meat with, 85–86, 169

  Salt-food industry, 113, 140, 178

  Sanitation

  cholera resulting from contamination, 184

  confined pig farming, 215

  domestication of pigs and other animals, 40–41

  manure lagoons, 225–226

  medieval European cities’ ban on pigs, 95–96

  New York’s hog population, 181–183

  pig’s contribution to, 49–51

  urbanization and, 49

  See also Scavenging

  Satyricon (film), 65–66, 74

  Sausage, 1, 65, 69, 109–110, 128, 176, 196–197, 256

  Saxons, 105–106

  Scavenging

  Christian view of pigs, 91

  Corn Belt hog raising, 157–158

  domestication of the pig, 40–41

  feeding pigs garbage, 203–204

  human anxiety over, 11–12

  Jewish pork prohibition, 55

  medieval European cities’ ban on pigs, 95–96

  Nile delta food-provisioning system, 44–45

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

  pigs’ contribution to sanitation, 49–51

  Roman sanitation practices, 75

  urban pigs, 181–182

  wild boars, 38

  wolves, 36–37

  See also Sanitation

  Schell, Orville, 222

  Schlosser, Eric, 222

  Scientific American magazine, 215–216

  Scott, Walter, 105–106

  Scully, Matthew, 249

  Self-domestication of pigs, 36

  Self-sufficiency of pigs, 7

  Seneca, 71

  Sex, pork and, 110, 252

  Shakespeare, William, 95, 110

  Sheep

 
Anglo-Saxon settlements, 151

  Artiodactyla, 18–19

  by-products, 8

  colonial American agriculture, 136

  disease transmitted by, 57

  domestication of, 33–34, 40

  driving, 163

  Europe after the Black Death, 111

  European migration, 79–81, 84

  global mutton production, 179

  Jewish dietary laws, 59

  lack of intelligence, 22–23

  Latin American conquest, 128

  linguistic history, 106

  Near East farming, 28, 32, 44, 46–48, 51–52

  ritual sacrifice, 68(fig.)

  Roman culture, 69, 72–73, 75

  temperament of, 13

  Sherman Antitrust Act (1902), 198

  Shuanghui International, 236

  The Simpsons (television program), 9

  Sinclair, Upton, 173–174, 195–196

  Slatted floors, 214–215, 226, 231, 250

  Slaughtering, 189(fig.)

  home slaughter, 190–193

  industrialization of, 165, 168

  literary reference to, 191–192

  of a beloved pig, 189–191

  public suspicion of Chicago meatpackers, 197–202

  slaughterhouse conditions, 195–197

  tainting the public image of pork, 248

  See also Pork packing industry

  Smell, pigs’ sense of, 20–21

  Smith, Adam, 111, 170

  Smithfield Foods, 223–224, 236, 241, 245

  Snout, 20–21, 238

  Social behavior of pigs, 238–239

  Social class

  economic impact of closing the Southern states’ open range, 187–188

  equating the lower class with pigs, 183

  global meat trade improving working class nutrition, 179–180

  New York’s hog wars, 181–182

  pork as the meat of the poor, 4, 12, 45, 48, 56, 109–110, 115, 180–193, 200, 205

  Somatosensory cortex, 20–21

  South America

  beef and mutton production, 179

  colonization by Spanish pigs, 123–126

  corn-fed stock, 155

  switching from pigs to cattle and sheep, 151

  Soybeans, 211–212, 214, 227–228, 236–237

  Spain

  Columbian exchange, 119–123

  conquest in the Western Hemisphere, 123–127, 148(fn)

  English colonization and, 131–132

  ownership of American lands, 134

  pork as a symbol of faith, 101–103

  Spice trade, 84–85

  Squanto, 133

  Status, pork defining, 106–109

  Stereotypic behavior in confinement farms, 230

  Stolba, Alex, 237–239

  Sty pigs, 114, 116–117, 188

  Subsidies, farm: confinement operations, 227–228

  Sugarcane production, 128–129

  Suidae, 24–25

  Sumptuary laws, 71, 252–253

  Sus scrofa, 25, 28–29, 30(fig.), 35–36, 78, 147–148

  Sus scrofa domesticus, 79, 127, 147–148

  Sweat glands, pigs’ lack of, 92–93

  Swine, etymology of, 105

  Taboos against pork consumption. See Cleanliness; Religious traditions

  Taino people, 120–122

  Tainted meat, 198–199

  Talbott, Chuck, 246

  Tamworth breed, 208, 245, 250

  Tankage, 176

  Tapeworms, 50–51

  Taurus Mountains, Turkey, 27

  Taxes

  paying for confinement farming, 227–228

  Roman pig tax, 71

  Taxonomic anomaly, pigs as, 55

  Tayassuidae, 24–25

  Teeth

  grass eaters, 19

  pigs’ compared to cows’, 19–20, 21(fig.)

  similarity of porcine to human, 15–17, 17(fig)

  tusks, 24, 84

  Telegraph, 170

  Tell Halif, Israel, 47

  Temperament of leaner pigs, 219

  Tesco supermarkets, 246

  Theodore of Tarsus, 94–95

  Tobacco production, 136

  Toby the learned pig, 6(fig.)

  Tribal cultures, 106

  Trichinosis, 56–57, 202–204

  Trollope, Frances, 150, 167–168

  Truffle sows, 5

  Turkey, 27–28

  Uncleanness of pork. See Cleanliness

  Ungulates, 18–20, 22

  Varro, 73, 86

  Vegetable oils replacing lard, 209

  Vegetarianism

  ancient diets, 68

  animal welfare and, 248, 250

  biblical, 58–59

  Venison, 85, 137. See also Deer

  Verrazzano, Giovanni da, 133

  Vertical integration, 224

  Vices and pig welfare, 229–230

  Virgin-soil epidemic, 123

  Visigoths, 101–102

  Vitamin B12, 212

  Vitamin D, 214

  Warren Wilson College, North Carolina, 3

  Warthogs, 24

  Washington, George, 159–160

  Waste disposal, 226

  The Wealth of Nations (Smith), 111, 170

  Welfare pig, 242

  Whiskey, corn production and, 156

  White, E. B., 12–13, 189–190

  White pigs, Roman, 74–76

  Whole Foods, 242–243

  Whole-animal utilization, 254–256

  Wild boars, 4, 25, 28–29, 30(fig.), 37–38. See also Feral swine

  Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 149, 151

  Wildfowl, 108–109

  Willamette Valley, Oregon, 145, 147

  William the Conqueror, 105–106

  Williams, Roger, 134–135, 137, 142

  Willis, Paul, 243–244

  Winthrop, John, 133–134

  Woburn breed, 159–160

  Wodehouse, P. G., 189

  Wolves, 36–38

  Wood, William, 133

  Wood-Gush, David, 237–239

  Woodlands Pork, 246

  Wool industry, 111

  Working class. See Social class

  Yule, 80