Pig Tales

April 13, 2015
In the 2011 bestseller Tomatoland, Estabrook took on industrial agriculture, faulting it for destroying the crops we eat. In this fascinating volume, Estabrook turns his attention to hog farming and the natural history of the pig. Although he lives on 30 acres in Vermont and has some pig farming experience, Estabrook eschews the common “going back to the farm” storyline in favor of an investigative journalism tack. In elegant prose, he highlights various topics such as porcine intelligence, the pig’s ability to destroy a landscape, hunting wild hogs, industrial hog farming, conditions in livestock processing plants, and sustainable “retro hog raising.” Some of his points aren’t ground-breaking—he scorns factory farms that poison the pigs and the land, while praising local farmers who respect their pigs and their customers’ well-being and offer tasty and healthier pork—but he has an admirable ability to clearly portray each person with a connection to hog farming, swine research, or animal rights, creating a personal connections that go beyond facts and figures.

July 1, 2015

Estabrook (Tomatoland) is a three-time winner of the James Beard Award, which is considered the Oscar for culinary writers. His latest is an engaging investigation of how pigs are raised commercially for food. An excellent storyteller, narrator, and researcher, the author thoroughly documents the appalling conditions in which most swine are raised, conditions that result in food with inferior taste to that of animals raised humanely. The first chapter, "Hog Sense," traces the amazing intelligence of pigs. Several chapters detail David-and-Goliath-like conflicts between small-time lawyers and corporate agricultural giants, every bit as gripping as the epic battles in the films Erin Brockovich and Woman in Gold. Estabrook traveled widely, capturing through interviews the personalities of farmers, landowners, and many others, especially in Iowa and North Carolina. He describes how disposal of waste from pig farms makes life dangerously unhealthy, nearly impossible, for those living nearby. The writing, like the title, is clever, not without humor, and is also well evidenced with chapter notes and a useful bibliography. VERDICT Highly recommended for general readers, especially those interested in humane, agriculture, and food issues.--Henry T. Armistead, formerly with Free Lib. of Philadelphia

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