Hog Ties

by Horwitz, Richard P.

• ISBN13: 9780312214432
• ISBN10: 031221443X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-11-01
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

From Charlotte's Web to Porky Pig and Arnold Ziffel, Americans are obsessed by pigs. In Hog Ties , Richard Horwitz looks at this obsession, its relation to American culture and the way in which themes of life and death are played out in the care, feeding, slaughtering and eating of pigs. Horwitz grew up in a rural, Jewish household in the Northeast and worked part-time as a farm hand on a large Iowa pig farm. As much a memoir of rural life as it is a work of cultural commentary, Hog Ties looks at the current business of pig farming, its roots in the family farms of the Midwest and its future in the large conglomerates that take over small farms and increasingly separate the farm families from their land. In the lives and trials of pigs and their caretakers, Horwitz sees a mirror image of our own lives, our fight against myriad diseases, our ultimate death, possible redemption and therein discovers the Tao of pig. Hog Ties is a book that readers will ponder long after the last page has been turned.

Author Biography

Richard P. Horwitz is a professor of American Studies at the University of Iowa. He lives in Iowa City.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix	(3)
Extracts	xii
PART I: CARING FOR HOGS AND THE MEANING OF LIFE	3	(20)
1. A Bit of an Explanation	3	(2)
2. Porcine Wahinis	5	(7)
3. Shit Happens	12	(11)
PART II: STEPPING INTO IT	23	(66)
4. Swine Symbolism	23	(8)
5. Hog Wars and Pig Politics	31	(6)
6. Food Safety	37	(4)
7. Swine Rights, Liberation, and Welfare	41	(9)
8. Crapping Up and Cleaning Up the Environment	50	(16)
9. Meet the Big Guys	66	(11)
10. The Technological Edge	77	(12)
PART III: STEPPING OUT OF IT	89	(54)
11. So It Goes	89	(9)
12. So We've Been Screwed	98	(14)
13. So Who's Right?	112	(9)
14. More Shit Happens	121	(22)
PART IV: STEPPING BACK: HOG MEMORIES, FAIR AND FOUL	143	(44)
15. Farming and Cyber-Swinology	143	(11)
16. A Chat with Robin	154	(24)
17. Farm Rhythms, Harmony, and Prophecy	178	(9)
PART V: DISEASE, BODY AND SOUL	187	(52)
18. Some Swine Disease Science	187	(16)
19. Contemplate "Eradicate"	203	(24)
20. The Body Porcine	227	(12)
PART VI: SAY IT WITH SWINE	239	(30)
21. Multicultural Porcinalia	239	(13)
22. Talking Life, Talking Hogs	252	(17)
Notes	269	(38)
Index	307