The Invention of the Industrial Pig. Food Waste and Fattening Pig Farms in France between 1860 and 1930

In the last third of the 19th century, a new form of speculation emerged in France: the large-scale fattening of pigs. Fed on food waste and various agricultural products, the pigs were reared in stalls, some of which housed several hundred animals, from the beginning of the 20th century onwards. This article shows that the use of urban and industrial waste as pig feed played a central role in the development of new ways of breeding pigs between the 1860s and the 1930s. The intensive diet fed to pigs had major consequences for their living conditions and health, as well as for the quality of their meat. The main response to these problems was to find breeds that could cope with this diet. The emergence of large fattening piggeries thus contributed to the emergence of a new animal: the industrial pig.