The Pig and I

In this lively and fascinating book, a guilt-ridden, bacon-loving journalist finds work at an industrial pig farm as he researches the long and torrid history of humans and swine.

After convincing a skeptical pig farmer to take him on as a hired hand for six months, journalist Kristoffer Endresen follows a litter of piglets from birth to slaughter, all in the hopes of understanding what goes on inside an industrial pig farm and whether humans can ethically justify eating pork … which just so happens to be the most consumed animal protein in the world.

During his days as a beginner pig wrangler, he mucks out pig pens and cuddles a cute piglet. He inseminates a female pig and narrowly escapes being trampled. Endresen interweaves his fast times at a piggery with surprising insights into the long and star-crossed bond between pigs and humans—drawing on history, literature, archeology, and myth—and shares new science into video-game-playing swine and pig heart transplants, and asks if pigs really are as smart as we think.

Both an engaging saga of an overlooked animal and a provocative exploration of the ethics of industrial meat, The Pig and I asks us to consider not only where our food comes from, but also the tangled history that first brought it to our plates.

Kristoffer Hatteland Endresen is a historian and journalist who has worked in both writing and teaching. This is his first book. He lives in Norway.