Big Hog: Part Three (the alternatives)

Don't you even think about messing with my heirloom tomatoes, fennel, and Genovese basil.  These organic vegetables are mine, all mine!  We get about 8 tons of organic cull vegetables from a neighboring farm, 20 acres of organic pasture and forest, and an organic hog pellet to round out our diet.  We spend our whole lives outdoors, lounging under the shade of trees, rooting around for roots and grubs, building nests out of straw, rubbing against tree trunks when we itch, and attempting to mate with each other at nearly all hours of the day.  It makes us sad to think our brothers and sisters are standing on concrete or metal slats, confined to metal cages hardly bigger than their bodies, with no ability to root, nest, forage, or socialize.  Industrial swine production takes away every natural behavior of the pig, and replaces it with stress, pain, and extreme boredom.

We pigs are happy to know that there is a growing body of farmers across the country who are trying to raise us piggies in a more natural environment and respect our natural behaviors.  Even in the states of Iowa and North Carolina where industrial production reigns supreme and virtually unregulated, more and more small farmers are bucking the system and raising pigs outdoors, free of hormones, antibiotics, and with little to no deleterious effects on the environment.

Although these pig pictures are taken on my farm (well really my husband's farm since he does most of the hard work), they could be from anyone of these natural pork producers.  Some of the ones I could find info. on www.localharvest.org include:

• Coon Rock Farm (Hillsborough, NC)- www.coonrockfarm.com/pigs.html
• Hidden Pond Farm (Selma, NC)- www.localharvest.org/farms/M22782
• Parker Farms (Hurdle Mills, NC)- www.freewebs.com/parkerfarms/
• Gaining Ground Farm (Asheville, NC)- www.localharvest.org/farms/M22690
• Poppy's Knob Farm (Boone, NC)- www.poppysknobfarm.com

There are in fact many dozen more honest, ethical pig farmers in North Carolina and hundreds across the country that you can find on Local Harvest.  I encourage you to ask them questions, buy directly from them, and spread the word to family and friends that factory farmed pork is a plague on this world but good pork is out there and can and should be consumed (that is, if you like bacon, etc.).

(P.S. Feel free to use these pictures as long as you ask me permission!)

Comments

[Tim Young]

This was a great series. It's just amazing that we consumers turn a blind eye to how animals are treated and how our food is raised. We raise our hogs (Berkshires and Ossabaws) in the woods, but rotate them on pasture also. We're fortunate to have a local organic vegetable farmer who gives us lots of culls (stuff that looks great to me, but not to Whole Foods I guess). The pigs love it! That, along with what our pastures and woods can provide, makes up virtually all of their diet.

Tim
Nature's Harmony Farm

[Anna]

So glad to have found your blog (from your comment on Meat Henge). I lived in Durham, NC for ten years after college and am glad to know that not all hog farming there is the industrial sort. Love, love, love a good pig pickin'! Wish you were my neighbor, because even where I am now, in coastal Southern California (SD area), people are so blind about their food sources. Land and water is so expensive, so it is hard to find locally raised pastured animals, but I have found a couple with a "backyard farm" as a reasonable source, plus a bison ranch in Montana that makes twice yearly deliveries to SD.

Great photo of the hogs and tomatoes. Lucky hogs.

Cheers!

[YayaOrchid]

So very proud of the work you and your family are doing to better the quality of pork production. It is a relief to know there are ethical farmers who care about the end product, the pork we consume, being the healthiest and chemical free it can be.

Job well done!