[alert variation=”alert-info”]Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Formats: Hardcover, Kindle, eBook
Purchase: Powell’s | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks[/alert]
This comprehensive, very detailed volume includes everything anyone could possibly want to know about pigs. Barry Estabrook obviously spent significant time and travel to research his subject. Pig Tales is divided into three major sections, starting with wild boar and through the domesticated farm animal that most of us eat as bacon, sausage, and pork. The book is strongly slanted towards the environmental point of view and this view is mostly black or white. The gigantic pig farm operators would rather not read what Estabrook has to say.
Pork is one of the most popular meats throughout the world attested by one billion pigs on farms, some hundred-and-ten thousand in the US. Raising such an enormous number of pigs under horrid circumstances to feed our appetites at a reasonable cost has obvious consequences – both for those working on such farms or living anywhere near such operations. The idea of humanely raised pigs is beginning to emerge but at a significant extra cost to consumers. The book is full of stories – each chapter starts with one, including tales of litigations and environmental problems of pig farming. Unfortunate typos are not uncommon within this volume. This book is plenty informative, but may be too much information for the average reader.
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