Hog Fanning Summit
(Continued from Page A 1)
that the bora are well-cared for
while providing families a liveli
hood on the hum.
The summit was sponsored by
the Waterkeeper Alliance and
featured Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,
son of the late U.S. Attorney
General and nephew of the late
U.S. President John F. Kennedy,
as keynote speaker. Other groups
organizing die summit included
the Pennsylvania Association for
Sustainable Agriculture (PASA),
Penn Future, White Dog Cafe
Foundation, Global Resource Ac
tion Center for the Environment
(GRACE), Animal Welfare Insti
tute, and Delaware Riverkeeper
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. of
the Waterkeeper Alliance
explain# Me goat of elimi
nating large-scale, corpo
rate hog farms.
Barbara Determan, left, former president of the Nation
al Pork Producers Council, and Kara Flynn, public rela
tions specialist, say the pork industry has room for both
confinement and open-air hog producers.
S* N
1 IMPRO
Network.
Dozens spoke throughout the
day on the various impacts of in
dustrial hog operations and the
legal issues surrounding them. A
number of sessions also focused
on the direct marketing of pas
ture-raised pork.
Paul Wulis of Willis Free
Range Pig Farm in Thornton,
lowa, spoke about his farm and
marketing operation. Willis is
manager of Niman Ranch Pork
Company, which sells free-range
pork through various outlets
across the country.
Willis uses outdoor farrowing
pens on pasture and remodeled
dairy freestall barns as winter
housing. The sows and pigs for
age during the growing season
and are allowed mobility and ac
cess to hay in the wintertime.
Straw is used for indoor bedding.
Niman Ranch Pork Company
slaughters and processes about
2,000 hogs per week from more
than 280 farms that supply it
According to Willis, part of what
makes the Niman Ranch enter
prise successful is that the taste
and eating quality of pastured
pork is “dramatically different”
from that of hogs raised in con
finement That translates into
higher-priced pork chops in
stores and restaurants.
“If we’re raising the best pigs,
we’re going to ask the best price,”
Willis sain. He added that some
Niman Ranch cuts, such as
shoulder, are not priced much
Paul Willis of Niman
Ranch shares pork market
ing hints.
above conventional choices.
Helen Browning of the Wilt
shire Downs in the south of Eng
land shared her challenges and
successes in starting the first or
ganic pig operation in the United
Kingdom (U.K.) She founded
Eastbrook Farms Organic Meat
in the late 1980 s on her father’s
1,300-acre farm, with the goal of
developing a large-scale pastur
ed-pork enterprise.
Browning raises pigs on red
and white clover pastures and
markets organic pork across the
U.K. For sows, she prefers a cross
between the Duroc and British
Saddleback breeds for good
mothering ability as well as meat
production.
Pigs are used as part of “a
whole farm system,” she said.
Clover fields reduced to dirt by
aggressively foraging pigs are
then rotated into crops, including
com, potatoes, and wheat.
It has taken time for Brdwning
to develop a steady wholesale
customer base in the U.K. Her
marketing plan is constantly up
dated in otdfr to sett pork from
the 600 hogs slaughtered for her
markets. - per week, including
some froanQther farms. *
. “We'vbhad to work ycryliard
to market' our products,” Brown
ing said. “Over the years, I sup
pose we*ve had a go at most
forms of direct marketing. It’s
been a hair-raising ride.”
About five years ago, Brown
ing’s business “did a complete
turnaround,” she said, when she
began offered branded products
for supermarkets.
Beside selling to supermarkets
and restaurants, Browning also
offers overnight courier delivery
of pork products to homes across
the U.K.
Creating a consumer base is
prerequisite to selling products
raised in alternative farming sys
tems, according to Browning,
“We can only change the way
Contract hog producers attending the summit included,
from left, Nate Richard, Caressa Crone, and Craig Richard
(father of Nate). The Crone and Richard families say their
hog operations have been well-accepted in their commu
nities.
we farm when we change the way
the consumer shops,” she said.
Among those peaking on the
adverse effects of industrial hog
operations was Dr. John Ikerd, a
retired ag economist from the
University of Missouri. He
spends much of his time writing
and speaking about ag sustaina
bility issues.
Ikerd focused on the impact of
corporate livestock operations on
rural communities, calling them
a form of “colonization” similar
to the kind that displaced native
cultures throughout history.
“These agribusiness corpora
tions are basically colonizing
rural America,” Ikerd said. “We
see communities that are losing
control over the local econonomy,
culture, and government.”
Promises that contract live
stock operations will bring -eco
nomic prosperity to rural com
munities are hollow, according to
Ikerd.
“The money flows out of the
community,” he said. “We ace
those areas still economically de
pressed.”
Throughout the day, numerous
references were made to the con
centration of hogs on the coastal
plain of North Carolina and the
environmental impacts on water
ways and quality of life in the re
gion. A whirlwind of bad publici
ty for the North Carolina hog
industry came to a head in 1999
when Hurricane Floyd flooded
the area, causing manure pits to
overflow into streams and rivers
and dead hogs to float atop of the
floodwaters.
A key point made by critics of
the North Carolina hog industry
is that manure there is not view
ed as fertilizer, but as a waste
product that is spread simply in
order to get rid of it. That, they
say, has resulted in illegal spread
ing practices that wreak havoc on
the environment.
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, June 14, 2003-A2l
Helen Browning of Eng
land talke about her chal
lenges and successes mar
keting organic, pasture
raised pork in the United
Kingdom.
According to keynote speaker
Kennedy, “In Pennsylvania, that
hasn’t happened yet, but it’s
going to.”
As president of the New York
City-based Waterkeeper’s Alli
ance, Kennedy has been at work
bringing lawsuits against cor
porations that pollute.
Doug Goodlander, director of
the State Conservation Commis
sion Nutrient Management Pro
gram, said that Pennsylvania’s
Nutrient Management Act is de
signed to prevent problems like
those in North Carolina.
“North Carolina had a poor
regulatory system,” Goodlander
said. “I think we do a good job
watching over our water quality
here.”
Goodlander noted that local
conservation districts throughout
Pennsylvania are “the eyes and
ears” of the
ment system.
Jim Brubaker, re
sponded to some of the fileas put
forth by conference
speakers. Brubaker,
along with his daughter
and son-in-law, finishes
hogs through contracts
with Hostetter Manage
ment and Hatfield in
three bams with a total
capacity for 6,300 head.
“I’m not sure they re
ally have correct inform
ation about what is hap-
(Turn to Page A 22)
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