Raising livestock and eating meat have been a crucial part of human society for thousands of years. Today, however, questions around the sustainability and ethics of livestock farming are being raised as highly industrialized processes contribute to climate change and animal welfare concerns. On this episode of Definitely Not the Ivory Tower, Natalie Meisner talks with Dr. Joe Anderson, a scholar of American agricultural history and practices, to think critically about the history of livestock (specifically pigs) and what it tells us about human society today. Natalie also sits down with MRU journalism student Gabriella Lindland to discuss cattle farming in the Alberta context. 

Show notes: 

• Capitalist Pigs: Pigs, Pork and Power in America. By Joe Anderson.
• Industrializing the Corn Belt.By Joe Anderson
• The Downsides of Alberta’s Meat Industry. By Gabriella Lindland
• Regenerative Agriculture
• Cattle’s impact on climate change 
• Livestock solutions for climate change
• Mutilating Procedures, Management Practices, and Housing Conditions That May Affect the Welfare of Farm Animals: Implications for Welfare Research
• Food Safety Concerns with the Slaughter of Downed Cattle
• Beef farming in Canada

Discussion segments: 

Introducing Dr. Anderson – 3:45

Real world impact of Anderson’s research – 5:20

Pracademics – 7:10 

Why is the pig such an important animal historically – 9:55 

How humans changed the pig in the past several hundred years – 14:10 

How did pigs change the landscape of North America – 19:15

How do pigs showcase the ramifications of a highly industrialized world – 22:25

How has livestock farming evolved – 25:55

The future of livestock farming in North America – 29:45

How could farming practices be improved – 34:50 

Introducing Gabriella Lindland – 40:35 

How Gabriella first got interested in researching meat consumption – – 42:00 

How has cattle farming shaped the landscape of Alberta – 43:30 

How has cattle farming evolved in the last century – 45:05 

What does livestock farming tell us about our society – 46:20 

Talking with others about the (un)sustainability of livestock farming – 50:00

Regenerative Agriculture – 51:45 

Conclusion – 55:40 

Joe Anderson selected publications: 

Anderson, J. L. (2020). “You’re a Bigger Man”: Technology and Agrarian Masculinity in Postwar America. Agricultural History, 94(1), 1-23.

Anderson, J.L. (2018). Of Conformity and Cosmopolitanism: Midwestern Identity since World War II. In Finding a New Midwestern History, edited by Jon K. Lauck, Gleaves Whitney, and Joe Hogan, University of Nebraska Press. 

Anderson, J. L. (2014). The Rural Midwest since World War II. Northern Illinois University Press. 

Anderson, J. L., Belasco, W., & Horowitz, R. (2009). Lard to lean: Making the meat-type hog in post-World War II America. Food chains: from farmyard to shopping cart, 29-46. 

Anderson, J. L. (2007). The Vacant Chair on the Farm: Soldier Husbands, Farm Wives, and the Iowa Home Front, 1861–1865. The Annals of Iowa, 66(3-4).