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Pig tales : an omnivore's quest for sustainable meat / Barry Estabrook.

by Estabrook, Barry.

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W. W. Norton & Company, c2015.

Pork industry and trade.

Sustainable agriculture.

Alternative agriculture.

Animal welfare.

9780393240245 (hc.)

039324024X (hc.)

Alternate title:

Omnivore's quest for sustainable meat

335 pages ; 25 cm.

Portions of this book appeared in different forms in Eating well magazine, Onearth.com, and Gastronomica: the journal of food and culture.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 309-312 and index).

Pig I. The nature of the beast. Hog sense ; Wild things ; Of hogs and humans -- Pig II. Life as a protein product. Big pig ; Hog hell ; Raising a stink ; Hog fights ; Hog wash ; Drug abuse ; A bitter end ; Life on the line ; The crate escape -- Pig III. When pigs fly. Three little pigs ; The pope of pork ; To market.

"An investigation of the commercial pork industry and an inspiring alternative to the way pigs are raised and consumed now. Barry Estabrook, author of Tomatoland explores the dark side of the pork industry. Drawing on his personal experiences raising pigs as well as his sharp investigative instincts, he embarks on nocturnal feral pig hunts in Texas and he visits farmers who raise animals in vast confinement barns for Smithfield and Tyson, two of the biggest pork producers. He describes the threat of infectious disease and the possible contamination of our food supply. Through these stories shines Estabrook’s abiding love for these remarkable creatures. Pigs are social, self-aware, and playful, not to mention smart enough to master the typical house dog commands of "sit, stay, come" twice as fast as your average pooch. These intelligent mammals have the cognitive ability of at least three-year-old. Unfortunately for the pigs, they're also delicious to eat, and are all too often subjected to lives of suffering in confinement and squalor, sustained on a drug-laced diet just long enough to reach slaughter weight, then killed on mechanized disassembly lines. But it doesn't have to be this way. Pig Tales presents a portrait of farmers who are taking an alternative approach, like one Danish producer that has a far more eco-friendly and humane system of pork production, and new, small family farms with free-range heritage pigs raised on antibiotic-free diets. It is possible to raise pigs responsibly and respectfully in a way that is good for us all"--Provided by publisher.

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