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Lesser beasts : a snout-to-tail history of the humble pig
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Lesser beasts : a snout-to-tail history of the humble pig

by Mark Essig

This history explores the 10,000-year relationship between humans and pigs, tracing their transition from Neolithic domestication to modern industrial farming. It examines the pig's biological efficiency and the cultural factors behind its reputation as an unclean animal.

Accession 12567 ISBN 9780465052745 Publisher Basic Books
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Curated Derived
Animals Culture Economics Family and Society Food and Drink History Life Sciences Plants Science Social Sciences
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Hard Back
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Identity

name→ title
Lesser beasts : a snout-to-tail history of the humble pig
vernon_id
19707
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12567
vernon_slug
lesser-beasts-a-snout-to-tail-history-of-the-humble-pig-mark-essig

Drives Pulse state

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On Shelf
location_name
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location_reason
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isbn_issn→ isbn (when valid)
9780465052745

Descriptive

production_date
2015
object_type
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brief_description
Unlike other barnyard animals, which pull plows, give eggs or milk, or grow wool, a pig produces only one thing: meat. Incredibly efficient at converting almost any organic matter into nourishing, delectable protein, swine are nothing short of a gastronomic godsend,yet their flesh is banned in many cultures, and the animals themselves are maligned as filthy, lazy brutes.As historian Mark Essig reveals in Lesser Beasts , swine have such a bad reputation for precisely the same reasons they are so valuable as a source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and omnivorous. What is more, he argues, we ignore our historic partnership with these astonishing animals at our peril. Tracing the interplay of pig biology and human culture from Neolithic villages 10,000 years ago to modern industrial farms, Essig blends culinary and natural history to demonstrate the vast importance of the pig and the tragedy of its modern treatment at the hands of humans. Pork, Essig explains, has long been a staple of the human diet, prized in societies from Ancient Rome to dynastic China to the contemporary American South. Yet pigs ability to track down and eat a wide range of substances (some of them distinctly unpalatable to humans) and convert them into edible meat has also led people throughout history to demonize the entire species as craven and unclean. Today unconscionable system of factory farming, Essig explains, is only the latest instance of humans taking pigs for granted, and the most recent evidence of how both pigs and people suffer when our symbiotic relationship falls out of balance.

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)
Mark Essig
tags→ tags
Science, Life sciences, History, Social sciences, Civilisation, Agriculture, Economics, Industries, Biology, Manners and customs, Food, Health, Physiology, Livestock, Food industry and trade, Agricultural processing industries, Agricultural industries, Food habits -- History, Meat, Food of animal origin, Diet, Swine, Meat industry and trade
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Cover image

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19719

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Topics and Themes