From Arnold Ziffel to Porky Pig, Americans are fascinated, even obsessed by pigs. But, why? In this text Richard Horwitz looks at this obsession, its relation to the basis of American culture and the way in which archetypal themes of life and death are played out in the care, feeding, slaughtering and eating of pigs. As much a memoir of rural life as it is an engaging work of cultural commentary, the text looks at the current business of pig farming, its roots in the family farms of the Midwest and its future in the large conglomerates that take over small farms and increasingly separate the farm family from their land. In the lives and trials of pigs and their caretakers, Horwitz sees a mirror image of our own lives, our fight against myriad diseases, our ultimate death, possible redemption and therein discovers the Tao of pig.