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

    Page 28
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      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

     


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