From the depths of time, the pig has significantly contributed to human nutrition. In the past, pig meat was the only meat consumed in rural societies, and the pig feast (the slaughter of the animal) remained for a long time an important popular event.

Nowadays, animal slaughter occurs in an organized manner within an industrialized agricultural economy. The evolution of pig meat production in France is characterized by two phenomena regarding its concentration.

On one hand, most animals are raised in three regions: Brittany and the Loire region, Northern Picardy, and Southern Aquitaine-Pyrenees, with a clear predominance in Brittany. On the other hand, 95% of French meat is produced by about 17,000 breeders, each having more than 100 pigs.

At the same time, there is a phenomenon of the generalization of breed spread, particularly the Large White, Landrace, and their hybrids, to the detriment of old and local breeds. Under these conditions of standardization of breeding, the Ministry of Agriculture, wishing to preserve the rich heritage of local genetic material—always being able to revert to an old pig breed in case of a market orientation change—requested the Pig Technical Institute in 1981 to record the local breeds.

In 1982, a national program begins under the guidance of the Institute of Agricultural Research and the Pig Institute, which includes the zootechnical study of five of these local breeds (the White of Western France, the pig of Gascony, the Limousin, and the Baïf) and the long-term preservation of the semen of these breeds, in cryopreservation.

Furthermore, this program promotes their multiplication by establishing certain economic incentives. The entire effort is starting to bear fruit, as the number of breeders involved in the reproduction of these breeds has indeed doubled within 10 years.

[Excerpt from the introductory text of the edition]