School Lunch Program
August 22, 2019Fasting
September 10, 2019Food Chain Radio Show #1200
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Grassfed Pasture Raised Pigs
Guests: Jack and Sarah Kimmich, California Kurobuta Pasture Pork
Pork, that other white meat, feeds more humans throughout the world than any other animal.
One reason pigs feed so many people is that people have figured out to grow and process them on an industrial scale in concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs.
In a CAFO, as many as 150,000 pigs a year may be confined in metal cages so small the pigs can’t turn around, and so spend their life facing in one direction. The cages are suspended above waste pits ventilated with electric fans that push the ammonia and hydrogen sulfide gases out into the neighborhood.
To prevent infections, the pigs are fed a daily regime of antibiotics to keep them alive for six months, at which time they are processed into food.
Now, I am not here to disparage a technology that produces 97% of the nation’s pork, but I am here to re-introduce a way of growing pigs that might just be more equal and appetizing! And, so we ask…
Leave a comment below: Which do you think is most expensive: $4 per pound pork grown in a CAFO or $15 per pound pork grown on pasture?