Pigs Profits And Rural Communities

Focuses on swine production to illuminate the processes of agricultural industrialization as a whole and its consequences for the social, economic, human, environmental, and political health of the rural US. Politicians, farmers, a veterinarian, a medical psychologist, an agricultural economist, a biological ecologist, a farm organization president, and anthropologists contribute their perspectives within the framework of Walter Goldschmidt's research on food production. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

“Profitable Hog Raising” contains a comprehensive guide to pig farming, with chapters on every aspect from breeding and housing to hygiene and making a profit. Written in simple, plain language and full of useful information, this profusely-illustrated guide will be of utility to anyone with an interest in keeping pigs for pleasure or for profit. Contents include: “Pig Farming”, “Profitable Hog Raising”, “Sanitation”, “Swine Improvement”, “Good West Coast Woods Hog”, “Houses Will Reduce Losses”, “Community Vs. Portable Hog-Houses”, “Use Of Short-Length Lumber In”, “Hog-House Building”, “Construction Of Community”, “Hog-Houses”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on pig farming.

The nostalgic vision of a rural Midwest populated by independent family farmers hides the reality that rural wage labor has been integral to the region's development, says Deborah Fink. Focusing on the porkpacking industry in Iowa, Fink investigates the experience of the rural working class and highlights its significance in shaping the state's economic, political, and social contours. Fink draws both on interviews and on her own firsthand experience working on the production floor of a pork-processing plant. She weaves a fascinating account of the meatpacking industry's history in Iowa--a history, she notes, that has been experienced differently by male and female, immigrant and native-born, white and black workers. Indeed, argues Fink, these differences are a key factor in the ongoing creation of the rural working class. Other writers have denounced the new meatpacking companies for their ruthless destruction of both workers and communities. Fink sustains this criticism, which she augments with a discussion of union action, but also goes beyond it. She looks within rural midwestern culture itself to examine the class, gender, and ethnic contradictions that allowed--indeed welcomed--the meatpacking industry's development.

This book is all about raising pigs on pasture for profit.. It is a great introduction to pastured free range pig farming while taking readers of Lee's first book - Starting Out in Free Range Pigs, to the next level. It covers all the basics in easy to understand language with an in-depth look into the critical areas of pig nutrition and its relationship to health and growth potential, managing breeds (including heritage breeds) and understanding their different needs, housing, fencing, herding, marketing and environmental management plus more. Pigs, Pasture & Profit engages with producers of all levels and acknowledges the very different breeds, farming systems and environments that pastured pigs are raised in and that the needs of the animals, their behaviours and genetics all play a part in how the piggery is best managed. Producing a marketable pig and quality carcass as economically as possible is the ultimate goal of any successful pig business and this book will help you do that.

This accessible and cutting-edge work offers a new look at the history of western 'civilization,' one that brings into focus the interrelated suffering of oppressed humans and other animals. Nibert argues persuasively that throughout history the exploitation of other animals has gone hand in hand with the oppression of women, people of color, and other oppressed groups. He maintains that the oppression both of humans and of other species of animals is inextricably tangled within the structure of social arrangements. Nibert asserts that human use and mistreatment of other animals are not natural and do little to further the human condition. Nibert's analysis emphasizes the economic and elite-driven character of prejudice, discrimination, and institutionalized repression of humans and other animals. His examination of the economic entanglements of the oppression of human and other animals is supplemented with an analysis of ideological forces and the use of state power in this sociological expose of the grotesque uses of the oppressed, past and present. Nibert suggests that the liberation of devalued groups of humans is unlikely in a world that uses other animals as fodder for the continual growth and expansion of transnational corporations and, conversely, that animal liberation cannot take place when humans continue to be exploited and oppressed.