P4—Lancaster Fanning, Saturday, March 17,1984
The pork industry has mounted a
national effort to convince con
sumers of the economic and
nutritional value of its products.
I’m doing my part by passing
along some fascinating bits of hog
trivia. For instance:
* Per capita pork consumption in
the United States is about 70
pounds.
* Americans consume about
800,000 pounds of fresh pork
sausage a ear.
•They eat about two billion
pounds of ham.
* In lowa, the number one hog
state, the average hog farmer
produces enough pork for 1,000
people.
I know more about hogs, in
cluding the fact that a pig from
farrow to market leaves ap
proximately $5.60 worth of fer
tilizer nutrients in its manure.
Traditionally, pork has had low
status among consumers who
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A new guard is placed in front of the 3rd beater
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Talk
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seem to always prefer beef even if
it costs more. But in recent years
more and more consumers are
using more pork products in their
menu planning.
Meanwhile, the hog industry has
done a lot to produce a better
product. The lean, trim pork
products that are displayed in
supermarket meat cases these
days are a far cry from the pre-
World War II hog. There are good
reasons for that. Back in those
days the typical farm family grew
a few hogs and consumed some of
them right on the farm. As the old
saying goes, they used everything
but the oink, and a large overly fat
hog produced a variety of home
use products including lard for
cooking, fatback, cracklings, sow
belly, ham, bacon, pickled pigs
feet, and pork skin. But times
changed and so did consumer
preferences, and the demand for
land and salt pork plummeted.
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And so farmers and researchers
and others vitally involved in the
swine industry literally re
designed the hog. They made it
longer and taller and trimmer, and
they eliminated almost all of the
heavy backfat covering that used
to be part of a pig. Then they came
up with new products and new
recipes and new merchandising
ideas. Now pork is right there in
the forefront competing with beef
and chicken for the consumer meat
dollar and supplying some of the
very finest restaurant and home
prepared meals.
One good example of that is
ground pork a product that you
probably never heard of until the
past three or four years. Ground
pork was launched a few years ago
in lowa and has been catching on
nationwide. It can be used just
about anywhere you would use
ground beef, and home economists
say it’s a good source of high
quality protein, plus iron, niacin
and riboflavin. The industry is
producing ground pork that’s
about 75 to 80 percent lean meat
and that makes it comparable to
ground chuck. So it’s ideal for a lot
of home recipes.
National sales of ground pork
are increasing as more and more
homemakers are hearing about it
and finding ways to use it. Most
ground pork is produced right at
the packing plant from trimmings
from the shoulder, loin or belly,
since they contain the reddest
muscle and are mostly lean.
Ground pork is a bit more
perishable than ground beef, ac
cording to the experts, and its
flavor will deteriorate faster after
storage in the refrigerator. So it
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should be stored in the coldest
place in the refrigerator where the
temperature is as low as possible
without actually freezing.
But don’t confuse ground pork
with sausage. Those are two
completely different products.
Sausage has been around since
before recorded history. It was
bom of necessity as a means of
keeping meat from spoiling since
there was no such thing as an
icebox. The word sausage actually
means salted or preserved meat.
One final historic note on pork.
Sausage made from pork played
an important part in early history.
It seems that Julius Caesar, who
died in 44 8.C., used it in his
military campaigns. The art of
seasoning and preserving sausage
had advanced to such a high level
that he was able to gain ad
vantages over barbarian armies
by issuing pork sausage to his
legions. His enemies meanwhile
lost precious hours hunting game
in the forests or feeding domestic
animals. In those days sausage
accompanied manifestations of
Ag areas to be discussed
WELLSBORO - There will be
an information meeting discussing
the Agriculture Security Act (Act
43) on Thursday, March 29 at 1
p.m. in the Courtroom of the
Courthouse in Wellsboro.
William Shuffstall, Community
Development Area Agent of the
Pa. Cooperative Extension Ser
vice, will be present to discuss the
hilarity and joy. So much so that
the early church came to associate
sausage with heathen behavior.
Reformers were actually able to
get a prohibition law passed
against sausage, so the Romans
had to smuggle their treasured
meat product past prohibition
agents. Finally, the unpopular law
was revoked and while Nero fid
dled, the Romans ate sausage.
Pork is making some inroads
into the fast food industry and
when it finally does gain a major
share of that market, it will have
an important impact on the pork
industry. Restaurants and other
food serving institutions have
avoided pork mostly because of
tradition and a problem of what to
do with the leftovers. But the
upsurge in the fast food business
has changed that and the increase
in specialty restaurants is
providing a new opportunity for
pork producers.
So the next time you dine out,
why not go whole hog? It’s the
nutritious, economical and tasty
thing to do.
act and outline the provisions of
the Agricultural Security Act. He
will also outline how to get an
agricultural area started in a
community.
This meeting is for local
government officials and lan
downers and they are encouraged
to attend. It is also open to the
public for them to find out about
Pa. Act 43.
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