I was very happy when I received this book for review. Over several weeks previously I had been pondering and reading about the whole process of animal domestication and its impetus in the transition of humans from a hunter/gatherer society to one based on farming and animal husbandry.
It is a fascinating book!
One is given a tantalizing glimpse into the ancient Auroch, the ancestor of all modern cattle, already domesticated at the time the prehistoric art in the caves at Lascaux was created. So far back, cattle already provided primitive humans with a reliable source of dairy, and meat with its high quality protein component, spurring brain development and leading to ever greater levels of sophistication.
The genome sequence of modern cattle includes information on 22,000 genes, indicating the extent to which selective breeding for increased yields of beef and dairy, resistance to disease, the ability to cope with difficult climates, has progressed. There are in fact very few wild cattle remaining, and virtually all modern breeds are so dependent on their human keepers, they would find it impossible to exist as wild creatures.
There are ethical issues today associated with cattle farming, especially that conducted on an industrial scale. Issues such as animal welfare, rain forest destruction, the production of methane contributing to global warming, and the morality of raising an animal to be killed at an early age, purely to satisfy human dietary choices, are the subject of current discussion. Added to this is the question of the augmented (and seemingly ever increasing) application of anti-biotics, steroids and other pharmaceutical concoctions, and the manner in which residual traces potentially impact human health.
It is conclusively accepted that cattle are subjected to stresses, quite easily in fact, and that they respond to kindness, and are able to recognize humans as individuals, even when wearing different clothes. Some cows are now kept as pets!
In many countries around the world, especially in advanced democracies, meat consumption is declining, especially red meat. Consumers are expressing a willingness to cut back on meat, and pay higher prices for superior quality, with due regard to the way in which the meat was obtained. A marked preference for animals raised under as close to natural conditions as possible is a clear choice for many.
There is not a single aspect of the cow that is not covered in this book from ancestry to anatomy, from pregnancy to the genome, from disorders to intelligence.
The final section provides a detailed account of the principal breeds extant in the world today, with salient facts and a distribution map.
From cover to cover, the book is illustrated in colour, in a very appealing fashion, with the pictures bearing directly on the text.
The book is dedicated to the cow, yes, but it will also stimulate your curiosity about issues of animal welfare, the morality of the consumption of meat, climate change, deforestation and other pressing issues of the day. It will raise questions as to how long pharmacology can continue to safeguard the quality of meat for human consumption. There is no more basic issue than our food supply; this text will make you examine it in important ways and help you to make wise choices.
I highly recommend it.
The Cow - Princeton University Press
Author: Catrin Rutland
Hardcover - US$27.95 - ISBN: 9780691198705
Published: 11 May 2021
224 pages - 250 colour photographs and diagrams
7.75 x 9.25 inches (19.375 x 23.125 cm)
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This book sounds very interesting. It's not right that cows and other domestic animals have to suffer in bad conditions to give people cheap meat, and the climate change needs to be halted. Thanks for sharing your review. Have a great day, hugs, Valerie
ReplyDeleteYes, but do they lie down when it's going to rain?
ReplyDeleteSounds a fascinating book, though it probably contains rather more information than I would ever need or care to digest. I don't know if you've come across the book "Tamed" by Alice Roberts which looks at the ways in which humankind has domesticated ten species (animals and plants) and the effects it's had on our history and development.
It's a new title for me. i will check with the local library to see whether they have it.
DeleteThanks for the great review. David. The beef industry here is experiencing some hard times because lots of people are not eating beef these days which the industry does not like.
ReplyDeleteInteresting book
ReplyDeleteThank you.
ReplyDeleteI have HUGE problems with industrial production of most things, and even more with the damage we do with our production of food stuffs. I suspect this book would educate me (and possibly worry me).
Many years ago, I got a similar book for my husband, who came from a cattle raising family. I can't recall the name of it now, but it related the history of domestication and the development of various breeds. It is a fascinating story, as indeed almost any story of the development of the animals that we have shaped is. This one sounds like a very comprehensive treatment of that history.
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteAs a vegetarian and a Hindu... and a Taurean!... not to mention having family background in farming and starting out my working life in agriculture, this is a book with great appeal. It's now on my wishlist!!! YAM xx
Something very different from birds, but interesting.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on my cousins’ dairy farm and especially loved feeding the calves. A completely different situation for farm animals then though than on today’s factory farms. We seek out organic and free range meat and buy from local small farmers for the bit we do eat. Maybe this book will inspire others to do the same.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a nice book, David. I love cows, and they look so peaceful.
ReplyDeleteAn unexpected but very enjoyable review!
ReplyDeleteQuerido David parece un libro muy interesante y a tener en cuenta. Es verdad que ya no queda ganado salvaje. Aquí se encuentra alguno semi salvaje como es el caballo Asturcon que está protegido y aún se le puede ver trotar por los montes y alguna vaca de montaña que aún continúan con su libertad. Un enorme abrazo para ti y para Míriam.
ReplyDeleteIt certainly does sound like it is a good read. Thanks. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for telling about this book, David.
ReplyDeleteI love cows, dear friend David!
ReplyDeleteand this is my tribute to them:
🐮
Mrs. cow
Mrs. cow
I thank you for everything you give us
today my teacher has taught us
that in her little body you work
without ceasing
and she gives us the milk
the milk candy
and the butter that I always put on the bread
also the cheese that is so healthy and a yogurt for my brother
Mrs. Cow, you know how to work
and gives us the milk
the milk candy
and the butter that I always put on the bread
also the cheese that is so healthy and a yogurt
for my brother
Mrs. Cow, you know how to work
Mrs. cow,
Mrs. cow
when in the field I see you walking
with her children she kisses them
Well, I realize that she is a good mom. 🐮 🐄
Muchos besos y abrazos, estimado amigo 🖐️
Thank you for this gracious tribute, Carolina, I appreciate it very much. Mrs Cow,
DeleteThanks for the review. I think I would enjoy reading that book.
ReplyDeleteHi there - sounds like an interesting book. One thing I have been reading about of late is the roll of large herbivores in the development of woodland and grassland ecosystems. It would seem that more 'natural' breeds of cow could be of use here - helping in rewilding areas and providing natural (maybe even better quality) meat as an economic factor. But maybe I'm just dreaming!
ReplyDeleteHope all is well - Stewart M - Melbourne
Reading this kind of stuff has occupied my time too, Stewart. It is quite clear that large herbivores are a key component of many natural ecosystems and play an essential role in terms of breaking up the soil, providing nutrients, and so on. I know that Isabella Tree and her husband rewilded their farm in southern England. I have to try to get my hands on her book.
DeleteInteresting, can't recall Father in Law when with us ever having books on Cows - maybe back then they didn't have such beauties as this one seems to be.
ReplyDeleteA book that fills a novel about which very little or nothing has been written in other countries.
ReplyDeleteCe livre semble très complet pour le prix, intéressant qui traite de tous les sujets liés aux vaches.
ReplyDeleteBonne journée
Excellent review!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review, David. I never really knew much about cows. Only once, when I was sunbathing, one of the cow herd came up to me and frightened me.
ReplyDeleteI think it was a curious cow :-)
I really love milk and can drink it a lot.
Hmm. I gave the book away - Temple Grandin invented a "good" way to get cows to their last ... place. The books I found online are not the one I read, though. She´s autistic and has a feeling for how they get stressed the way it´s usually done.
ReplyDeleteInteresting book, sad I gave it away like that (for the students, in a "phone booth" at uni).
We don´t eat meat often, but really. a good steak, medium, I will not say no to (the last one was felt ages ago...).
And milk, yoghurt... hmmm..
Interesting book!! Great review. Tempting!!!! Guess I will have to go for it (I´m a slow reader and have too many books already...)
I'm very fond of the shape of cows, yes, that sounds strange, but I love to see a field of cows.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a very interesting book. I wonder if it mentions The Wild White Cattle at Chillingham in Northumberland. They have been there for at least 800 years and roam freely around the park without any human intervention. They are an important part of the ecosystem. Without their grazing, the parkland would eventually revert to woodland.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, they are covered in two different sections, Rosemary.
DeleteBuenas tardes amigo David, hoy nos traes un libro con una gran reseña de tu parte.
ReplyDeleteNo cabe duda que debe de ser un libro sumamente interesante su lectura.
Recibe un afectuoso abrazo de tu siempre amigo y compadre Juan.
A great review of this very interesting book. Thank you David :)
ReplyDeleteYou know, Denise, it really is interesting. I suspect that few people give much thought to the lowly cow, yet it is fundamental to our lives in so many ways.
Delete☆ * . ☆
ReplyDelete. ∧＿∧∩ * ☆
* ☆ ( ・∀・)/ .
. ⊂ ノ*
An interesting review, David. Even as a vegetarian of many years I'm fascinated by the way humanity has had such close relationships with domesticated animals. This sounds like a great way to see just how that relationship has changed both cattle and ourselves. Its price is a bit too steep for me but I'll be seeing if I can get hold of it through my local library.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting!
ReplyDeleteWe had a milk cow when I was a child, and my brother and I thought of her, and loved her, like a pet.
Have a wonderful day!
Interesting book on cows. Thanks for the review David!
ReplyDeleteTake care, have a happy day and week ahead.
Siempre mostrándonos libros extraordinarios, seguro que es interesante su lectura. Un fuerte abrazo desde el norte de España. Feliz Verano!!!
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting book to read. Have a wonderful day.
ReplyDeleteTeraz to oczywiste, że krowy są i daja mleko oraz, że je z apetytem zjadamy, ale kiedyś tak nie było :-)
ReplyDeleteHi David,
ReplyDeletecows are wonderful animals and they are part of the scenery throughout Holland. I cann't imagine the meadows without them. At the other hand, we have so much cattle, they are contributing a lot to environmental pollution. It's a big issue here in Holland. We have to decrease the number of cattle, but which farmer wants to?
Best regards, Corrie
It's an issue which is going to arise in other countries too. We really do have to stop eating beef, or at least seriously curtail the amount we eat, and that applies around the world.
DeleteUn libro que se ve muy interesante. Un abrazo y gracias por tus palabras.
ReplyDeleteAs it happens, cows have a role to play in prairie management, too. At the Attwater Prairie Chicken Refuge, the browsing of free range cattle helps to maintain pathways -- prairie chicken highways, as it were -- through the grasses. While clumped grasses provide shelter, the birds need those 'highways,' and the cattle provide them -- naturally. Increasingly, a technique called patch burn grazing is being used in the restoration of other prairies; it's a far cry from industrial-grade cattle operations, which often do more harm than good, but in some interesting ways the cattle mimic the effect of bison on our original prairies.
ReplyDeleteI also was struck by the mention of the Auroch. That beast was fictionalized a bit for a role in a wonderful film. The plot's too complicated to go into here, but I'll write about it again as a 'summer rerun.'
Many thanks for the review.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
This sounds like a fascinating, informative book. I actually recently read a short article about someone who took a baby cow as a pet. And it said as the cow grew up, it became quite affectionate toward them. (What led to the "adoption" was it was a baby female cow, born as a twin with a male, so the female is typically infertile in that case, which I didn't know.)
ReplyDeleteHi David - I see Princeton are doing a range of books on various animals ... and are always thorough.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was doing my Rare Breeds A-Z back in 2017 I wrote on C for Cattle ... but included the artist 'Cow Cooper' - he lived near Canterbury Cathedral and concentrated on recording Victorian farming life - incredibly huge art works.
It does sounds like a very interesting read - and thanks for bringing this series to us. Cheers Hilary