The Pastured Pork Difference

I want to pull back the curtain on hog farming in the US for a moment. Most of the time, I like to keep our newsletters focused on how we farm versus putting down other practices. After all, farming is a difficult livelihood no matter the type or scale of operation.

But sometimes it’s helpful to peak into the industrial food system to remember just how removed our country has become from good animal husbandry and small-scale farming.

Most hogs are raised intensively in large operations with little to no access to the outdoors. It’s hard to think of these operations as “farms” because there’s nothing farm-y about massive hog barns filled with industrial lights, metal cages and slatted floors.

I think when most people picture hog farming, something closer to Charlotte’s Web comes to mind, right?

The reality is a story about corporate consolidation. The number of farms with hogs has declined by over 70%, as hog enterprises have grown larger. Places with 2,000 or more head now account for 87% of the country’s inventory (source). Nearly 60% of all hogs raised in the US live in Minnesota, Iowa, and North Carolina (source).

These concentrated animal feeding operations — or CAFOs — can take advantage of “economies of scale” and produce pork cheap with low labor. But of course we know it comes at a cost, just not to the consumer. These costs are seen in water and air pollution, toxic metals, diseases and poor animal welfare (source).

Many of these big hog operations dock pigs’ curly tails. Why? Because pigs in confinement housing bite each other’s tails. This constant pain from biting is hard on the animal’s welfare (source). But here’s the thing — pigs that are given sufficient space to lie down, run around, and be independent have no issues with tail biting. This is just one specific example of how the push for production supersedes animal welfare. After all, our pigs’ tails give us so much joy as they wag them around like dogs when they’re happy!

There is a different way. It’s an older, more traditional way of raising hogs on pasture or in woodlots where they’re free to roam, dig in the soil for grubs, and get fat on acorns.

We move the hogs every week to fresh pasture. This means they have access to fresh forage and a diverse diet. It also means they leave behind the area where they’ve defecated, helping to cut off the parasitic worm’s life cycle and meaning we don’t have to use conventional wormer as often. When it’s hot out, we dump water in the paddock where they love to make wallows and get muddy to cool off. And in the fall, we run them through the woods where they get to be nourished by high-protein acorns.

At MoSo Farm, a pig can be a pig. You can trust that we are upholding the following standards every time you purchase our pastured pork.

Our Standards:

• Fed only Non-GMO feed grown locally in Fairfield County, OH
• Pasture/Woodlot-Raised - where a pig can be a pig!
• Hormone Free
• Never Fed Antibiotics
• Regenerative Agricultural Practices

Even though we cannot produce pork as cheaply as a CAFO, you can invest in a hog share to enjoy our pastured pork at the most affordable price. Place a deposit on our website for a whole or half hog, available this October!