Research Guides: Animal Studies Research Guide: Meat & livestock

Meat & Livestock

Breeding, raising, and slaughtering nonhuman animals for human consumption.

Primary Sources

Manuscripts Artifact Collection, 1800-present (Mss. 1.03)
These are photos of just some of the artifacts and ephemera from the collections of the SCRC. Several items are related to agricultural history and the life of domestic farmed animals in the U.S.

Vial of Chisholm Trail Dust, undated. (Mss 2012.005.03)
Hanging paper label is printed with “Chisholm Trail Dust, This famous cattle trail was named after a part Scot and Cherokee Indian, Jesse Chisholm, an Indian trader who laid out this trail in 1867. The trail stretched from Texas through Oklahoma to the Kansas railroads. Over the next 20 years 36,000 cowboys drove five million cattle and one million horses over this trail that stretched over 1,000 miles. This area which is now the town of Yukon, Oklahoma was a half way point and a watering hole for the cattle."

Prestwould Farm Records, 1929-1946 (Mss. 65 P94)
Records concerning Prestwould in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. The collection includes correspondence of Dr. John Williamson Price, Jr., of Louisville, Kentucky, the owner of Prestwould with his farm managers; accounts; livestock records; and registration records of Aberdeen-Angus cattle; Percheron horses; saddle horses; and Hampshire hogs.
William J. Duckwall Account Book, 1858-1889 (SC 00998)
Account book of pioneer William J. Duckwall containing entries that document his business activities in Sonora, Tuolumne County, California. Duckwall was involved in the cattle business. He lists items he has purchased, items purchased from him and payments to workers with references to ranches, mining companies, cattle, lumber, tobacco and horses. He notes the prices paid for livestock, goods and services, workers' meals and other items.
Observations on live stock, containing hints for choosing and improving the best breeds of the most useful kinds of domestic animals (1786)
by George Culley, Farmer at Penton, Northumberland
Modern developments in animal breeding (1966)
by I. Michael Lerner and H. P. Donald

Secondary Sources

Burger by Carol J. Adams
Call Number: GT2868.5 .A33 2018
ISBN: 1501329464
Publication Date: 2018
The burger, long the All-American meal, is undergoing an identity crisis. From its shifting place in popular culture to efforts by investors such as Bill Gates to create the non-animal burger that can feed the world, the burger 's identity has become as malleable as that patty of protein itself, before it is thrown on a grill. Carol Adams 's Burger is a fast-paced and eclectic exploration of the history, business, cultural dynamics, and gender politics of the ordinary hamburger.
Meat by Nick Fiddes
Call Number: GT2868.5 .F53 1992
ISBN: 0415089298
Publication Date: 1992
This book is a broad-ranging and provocative study of the human passion for meat. It will intrigue anyone who has ever wondered why meat is important to us; why we eat some animals but not others; why vegetarianism is increasing; why we aren't cannibals; and how meat is associated with environmental destruction.
Animals, Ethics and Trade: the challenge of animal sentience by Jacky Turner (Editor); Joyce D'Silva (Editor)
Call Number: HV4704 .A52 2006
ISBN: 184407255X
Publication Date: 2006
Modern urban life cuts us off from direct connection with the animal world, yet daily the lives of millions of animals are affected by what we consume and wear and what we trade in. The use of animals for food, labour and pleasure pursuits has long been justified with the assumption that unlike humans, animals aren't fully sentient beings. In recent years, however, science has revealed an astonishing array of complex animal behaviour, and scientists and policy makers now accept that the animals we make use of are indeed conscious, with preferences and intentions.
Eating animals [motion picture] by Christopher Quinn, director
Call Number: SF140.L58 E28 2019 DVD
Publication Date: 2019
Based on the bestselling book by Jonathan Safran Foer and narrated by co-producer Natalie Portman, this is an urgent, eye-opening look at the environmental, economic, and public health consequences of factory farming. It offers attainable, common-sense solutions to a growing crisis while making the case that ethical farming is not only an animal rights issue but also one that affects every aspect of life.
Lesser Beasts: a snout-to-tail history of the humble pig by Mark Essig
Call Number: SF395 .E64 2015
ISBN: 0465052746
Publication Date: 2015
Unlike other barnyard animals, which pull plows, give eggs or milk, or grow wool, a pig produces only one thing: meat. Incredibly efficient at converting almost any organic matter into nourishing, delectable protein, swine are nothing short of a gastronomic godsend,yet their flesh is banned in many cultures, and the animals themselves are maligned as filthy, lazy brutes.As historian Mark Essig reveals in Lesser Beasts , swine have such a bad reputation for precisely the same reasons they are so valuable as a source of food: they are intelligent, self-sufficient, and omnivorous.

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Meat & Livestock

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