Book Review: The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs

 For some years - probably more than I can count, but at least since 2006 (a date which surprised me when I found it again), I have been trying find a Unified Field Theory for my life, a ""An attempt to unify all the fundamental forces and the interactions between elementary particles into a single theoretcical framework; a theory which would explain the nature and behaviour of all matter." (Wikipedia).  In other words, how do I tie all the parts of my life into process and practice where every thing reinforces every other thing?

Enter Joel Salatin and The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs.

Salatin, you may recall, is an author that I have wanted to connect with on a deeper level (the way I had with Gene Logsdon) but was unable to do until I read his book Folk's, This Ain't Normal. After all, he is doing the sorts of things I would like be doing and is very successful at it and he even espouses a philosophy and set of values (Christian Agrarianism) that I support. So after my last successful outing, I snatched this book up.

The book, as he says in the introduction, is his coming out as "Christian libertarian environmentalist lunatic farmer" - but his "coming out" is not, in this book, directed at the world but instead at Christians.  His thesis is that historical Christianity - or at least such as practiced in the West - has essentially forfeited the moral high ground by divorcing itself from a concern with the environment - in this case, agriculture and its food supply - from its  overall view of stewardship:

"Why is it that in all the things pastors and evangelists decry, from alcoholism to abortion, they cannot find room to decry junk food, pharmaceutical dependency, and plastic islands floating in the ocean....I'm fascinated by the notion that most Christians happily patronize cheap food that destroys creation in its production, impoverishes third world countries, and supports oligarchical interests, all in order to have more money to put in the offering plate for missionaries.  Does that make God happy?  Endorse the broad way in every facet of life in order to wiggle through the narrow way in one part."

He starts with the observation that Western society has made biological processes into mechanical ones.  We modify life and patent it; we somehow believe that we can have life without death:  "I would suggest that anything that honors and respects the animal is rights, and anything that equates animals with machines and tools is is wrong."  Furthermore, he posits, we are trying to create a world where there is no death - "The goal of radical animal rightists working through research scientists is to grow nonliving meatlike substances from human feces or primal slime in petri dishes is a denial of this foundational principle that life requires death...We are the first culture in the world that routinely eats things that have never lived."  We need to reverse invert this concept, he suggests and accept and promote that life requires death in order to correctly and fully honor life.

From here, he breaks into a series of chapters, always starting with a bible verse, divided in contrasts:  Strength versus Weakness, Abundance versus Scarcity, Long-Term versus Short-Term, Relational versus Separational.  In each of these sections, he takes the principle from the verse and applies it to his comparison:  is a healthy farm (strength) better than a farm that is reliant completely on a monoculture and heavy pharmaceuticals (weakness), do we participate in building a long term landscape that will support life versus taking profit where we can, do we fear our food (and where it comes from) versus having faith in our food (through well managed farms).  In every chapter he tries to demonstrate that the environmental view is not divorced from a larger view of God's creation but rather intertwined with it.

This was a very thought provoking book for me.  There was a fair amount of material which I had read before - but to be fair to Salatin, I had read his books written to farmers or those interested in farming.  This was written to a different demographic entirely.

So I liked the book.  But not as much as I wanted to.

The first issue I had - really a minor one - is that the book is a little overlong.  It clocks in at 257 pages and 21 chapters. At several points he essentially repeats himself and so I might suggest that a more carefully editing could have produced the same impact without the same sense of "I have seen this three chapters ago".

The second issue is that he sets up straw men really against those who he is writing to.  In several places he refers to the thought process of Christians who disagree - vehemently in some cases - with environmental groups and interests as thinking that they are "liberal whacko environmental-hugger anti-capitalists".  It is perhaps illuminating the first time.  But he continues with it.  By continuing with it, he begins to paint with a rather larger brush which I do not think was his intent, but was the outcome.  He also thinks rather poorly of industrial farmers, even the Christian ones, and does not hesitate to say so - sadly, he does not really reflect on the practicality of leaving that sort of environment; it comes off like a purgatory that they can never escape from.  One does not insult one's target audience repeatedly and somehow expect a good reception of ideas.  

The third issue is that he posits that were Christians to be as concerned about the environment as we were about spiritual matters (he uses the term "Creation Care", which I personally despise. "Conservation" is a far less charged word), we would improve our witness and credibility.  The problem is that he gives no examples of this.  What would have been more helpful would have been something like this:  "John and Mary (names have been changed) were hardcore atheistic environmentalists that came to our farm to chicken.  As they came back time and time again, we began to discuss our beliefs and practices - not just the agricultural aspects but the underlying Christian principles that motivated it.  Over time and through discussion, we were able to witness to them and see them come to Christ". 

And that is the danger in my view.  We create theoretical constructs about how if we do X or Y we will become more palatable to the world. The book was published in 2016 so likely it was written in 2015.  We have 5 years of solid data on how churches that have adopted the concept of "Creation Care" are doing.  My sense is that most - if not all - are substantially less Christ oriented and much more world oriented.  Salatin notes that this is not his desire in writing the book; but much like A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold written in the 1930s and 1940s where Leopolod ponders the greater involvement of government in management of the environment, we now have evidence of how that went - and it is a mixed bag indeed.

Am I glad Salatin wrote this book and I that I read it?  Absolutely.  Much praise should go to Mr. Salatin for being bold enough to do it; there is not enough writing about Christian Agrarianism in the modern world, and especially not much written from farmers to Christians.  And yes, Christians ought to get involved - a lot more involved - in where their food comes from and the environment as a whole (something many say they want to do, but not really at a cost to their pocketbook or convenience).  But I do rather wish that he had written it a bit more tightly in a way that did not have quite the overreach (intended or not) to those he is trying to speak to.