Leviticus 11

Clean livestock: which animals are worth raising

What is written

2 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the living things which you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth. 3 Whatever parts the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and chews the cud among the animals, that you may eat. 7 The pig, because it has a split hoof, and is cloven-footed, but doesn’t chew the cud, is unclean to you. 8 You shall not eat their meat. You shall not touch their carcasses. They are unclean to you.

Leviticus 11:2–8

The practical question

This is the most practically decisive command on the list, and the one that makes mainstream homesteading material hardest to use. Pigs are the default smallholder animal in nearly every book, video, and forum: fast growing, omnivorous, efficient. They are out.

What remains is workable and well proven: cattle, sheep, goats, and the clean birds. But it means the feed plans, the slaughter guides, the manure calculations, and the economics in most homesteading content have to be recalculated rather than copied.

Leviticus 11 is long, and the four verses above are the hinge rather than the whole. Read the chapter entire before making stocking decisions.