Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig (31 page)

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

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