The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs by Joel Salatin

The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs by Joel Salatin might sound like a book about how to raise pigs, but it is not. Joel Salatin is a respected, successful Christian family farmer who shows readers how the Bible actually instructs us on how to eat, take care of the land, whether you are a farmer or not, and how to feed the world.

Each chapter of The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs analyzes the different ways of looking at the natural world around us. Salatin debates ideas related to caring for the earth, animals, plants and each other throughout this book: abundance versus scarcity, biological versus mechanical, abundance versus scarcity, narrow way versus broad way and dependence versus independence, among other topics debated. To use more common language, Salatin talks about whether we should factory farm or free range our animals, whether we should use chemicals or not, whether we should eat junk food or whole foods, and other similar topics.

I resonated with many of Salatin's ideas in this book. I am a Christian who DOES believe that we need to respect and care for God's creation. My husband and I have worked to integrate decorative plants that produce food within our yard as he recommends. I also agree that the Bible mandates that we are to be caretakers of the earth and I am sad along with Salatin that many Christians do not do so. However, I sometimes thought he could have worded things more kindly in trying to make his point. Although I enjoyed his humor and play on words at times, at other times I thought he was a bit too blunt. Salatin also agrees in this book that he can offend both those who are Christians and those who are not, although this book is geared towards Christians. Still, there was a lot of good information to ponder in The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs, whether you agree or disagree with Salatin. This book was not a fast and easy read for me though. I took my time and read through this book slowly and thoughtfully.  I do recommend The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs and would encourage all readers to do the same.

I received The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs by Joel Salatin from Hachette Book Group/Faith Words. I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for the book.