The Art of Eating rk The Lost Taste of Pork
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n o. 5 1 summer 1999
the Art of Eating
Q U A R T ER L Y b y E D W A R D BE H R
rk
The Lost Taste of Pork
Finding a Place for the Iowa Family FarmBerkshire Pig. from Harris on the Pig, revised edition, 1889, by Joseph Harris
n o. 5 1 summer 1999
The Lost Taste of Pork
Finding a Place for the aul willis raises about 2,500 hogs a
Iowa Family Farm year and cultivates about 600 acres of corn,
soybeans, and oats just outside Thornton,
Iowa, two hours north of Des Moines. Four hundred and seventy-five people live in Thorn-
ton, which is dominated by the grain elevators of the local farmers’ co-op. I stopped for
toast and coffee at the Chit Chat Cafe (the check came to $1.06), where at the late hour of
9:30 the only customers still lingering were a table of retired farmers. Iowa produces a sea
of grain, and much of it is fed to pigs. The state has been the biggest pork producer in the
country for a hundred years or more. Paul Willis is making money, but overall the Iowa
family pig farm is in deep trouble, and most of the farms won’t survive. Even the taste of
pork has changed in the last ten years because almost all pigs have been bred to be lean.
Rubbery is the best word to describe the pork; the flavor is bland, so the texture stands out.
Occasionally in the supermarket, you can still find some marbled, more tender, and tasty
pork, but most is as lean and characterless as factory-chicken breast. The lean meat is
almost impossible to cook without making it dry and tough, and, no matter what, the new
pork will never taste very good because it isn’t marbled with fat.
Fresh pork was probably never fashionable in ambitious American restaurants. Maybe
it doesn’t cost enough; it’s much less than beef, since pigs cost less to raise than cattle. But
last January at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, I ate a thick chop that had been cut from a loin
roasted before a wood fire. I thought immediately that it was the best pork I’d ever eatenworking. The pigs are held in by a single strand of electric
wire just a foot off the ground. Floy explicitly warned me,
but nonetheless I tripped over the first wire I came to, in
one of the spots where the wire is pushed close to the
ground so a tractor or pickup can drive over it.
Willis and the hired man were rounding up a few pigs
and loading them on a truck. It was my third day in Iowa,
and, except for one or two pigs raised by a family for its
own use, Willis’s were the first I’d seen. As recently as the
1980s, most pigs in Iowa were raised outdoors, and a few
farmers continue that. But almost all pigs are now raised
indoors, often on big corporate farms. Willis is a slight man
who was wearing a straw hat and bib overalls, and after 20
paul willis and sows in gestation
years of farming his hair is still blond, free of gray. He
— tender and somewhat fatty, though you could avoid started with one sow and five pigs. (His wife, Phyllis, later
most of the fat if you wanted. Someone was raising deli- told me they’d bought their first new car just this year.)
cious pork, and his name was on the menu, although I Willis does much of the work himself. Besides the hired
didn’t pay attention. Months later, I discovered the farmer man, an aspiring young farmer who owns one group of
was Paul Willis. He doesn’t sell to the commodity market. pigs, there is only summer help from high school kids.
Instead, he manages a small group of producers whose Willis and I walked through the 20-acre pasture below
pork ends up in a specialty niche, which was based at first Oscar Floy’s barn. The pasture is divided into 14 sections,
almost entirely on restaurants. each with about 125 pigs. Scattered through the pasture
None of my Eastern prejudices prepared me for the are small, utilitarian shelters — corrugated-steel “Port-a-
charm of Iowa. Most of the land rolls, and in early summer Huts” and wooden A-frames, each big enough for a sow
it was lush and green. There are individual trees and even and her litter. The huts are where the sows farrow — give
patches of woods, but much of the land is solid cropland birth. Inside a number of huts, on a layer of straw, I saw
— at the top of any roll, you can see for miles. Somewhere tiny pink piglets, some of them just hours old, jostle each
in the distance is an elevator. Here and there are barns, other to suckle the teats of a vast, ugly, inert sow, on her
silos, and modest farmhouses, making nostalgic pictures side and covered with dried mud. Two sows had built their
from an idyllic America. The silos are empty as a rule, left nests in the open, pulling apart round bales of straw and
from the days when almost every farm milked a few cows. giving birth there. Willis would have to drag a hut to them
I arrived at Paul Willis’s farm in early July. Actually, fol- and place it over the newborns to protect them from the
lowing the gravel road, I came first to the farm of his step- sun. The offspring are three-way crosses: most have various
father, Oscar Floy, whose land Willis now farms. That’s spots; some are all white, all black, or all red-brown, and a
where Willis keeps most of his pigs. Floy is a strong sup- few are faintly striped lengthwise, like young wild boars.
porter of his stepson’s way of farming. “It doesn’t foul up Willis has a lot to say about pigs, about changing
the environment” is a small beginning to what he has to methods of farming, and about the state of agriculture in
say. Floy pointed me toward the spot where Willis was his part of the country. He speaks strongly but quietly, and
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2 t h e a r t o f e a t i n gtossing grain to the sows he pauses. “Grass is cooler,” he said, “keeps the dust down, into the hoophouses, so the sows have a warm place to give and seems to be healthier for the pigs.” In spring, the pas- birth. Otherwise, pigs are happy to play in the snow. ture is dense with grasses, clovers, and other legumes, he Rather than rely on artificial insemination, Willis keeps explained, and gradually the pigs eat all but some tough- ten boars. “I call it a cheap hired man — I mean, that’s looking grasses that they find unpalatable. In low spots, the what boars do.” The sows that had been bred to produce pigs had churned puddles into mud, and some had packed the next batch of pigs were in a barn and lot that Willis themselves into it to cool off. During a hot, dry spell, the rents from a neighbor because there isn’t enough space at watering devices are set to run continuously so the pigs can Oscar Floy’s. There would be room in the pasture, though, make mud. Pigs perspire only through their snouts, so they by the time the first sows were ready to farrow in late sum- need shade and they enjoy mud. The prairie soil between the mer. Willis shoveled corn from a tall, new farm wagon, rows of soybeans next to the pasture is a rich blue-black, tossing it in an arc to the dozens of sows below. All the porous and crumbly because it is filled with organic matter. chewing at once sounded like running water. The biggest pigs, nearing 250 pounds and almost ready Corn, oats, and soybeans, besides being good feed for for market, had been moved to two hoophouses that pigs, make a useful five-year crop rotation together with looked like updated Quonset huts, about 30 feet wide and the legume-grass hay that becomes the next year’s pasture. 20 feet tall, made of strong opaque plastic stretched over Like other nearby farmers, Willis sells these crops to the galvanized steel arches. The hoophouses were lined with Thornton Farmers’ Co-op, which is associated in turn with thick straw and cornstalk bedding. Willis puts up 500 to Land o’ Lakes (the same as the butter), a huge Midwestern 600 round bales of oat straw, soybean straw, and corn- co-op made of local co-ops. Willis buys the starter feed for stalks each year. In winter, he moves the farrowing huts the piglets from the local co-op, and for the rest of the pigs, N o . 5 1 s u m m e r 1 9 9 9 3
he generally grinds his own corn and combines that with different species of plants.
soy meal from the co-op and a “premix” of salt, vitamins, Pork used to be a “mortgage lifter” for Iowa farmers.
and minerals. None of this feed contains animal byprod- Prices would go up and down, but in the end hogs were a
ucts, such as bone meal and grease, a potentially dangerous sure thing. (The difference between a “hog” and a “pig,” as
mainstream feeding practice that could spread disease. near as I can tell, is that you raise a “pig” and you market a
“One of the biggest problems was to get the animal “hog.”) The day before I met Willis, however, a top employ-
byproducts out of the feed,” Willis explained. It’s not that ee of a major Des Moines packinghouse told me what I was
the pigs won’t eat them. “Pigs are omnivores,” he said. beginning to hear on all sides, “It’s going to be a struggle for
Standing in the pasture among the pigs, I had a feeling the small producer to make money ever again.” Overproduc-
of well-being, even after watching Willis castrate day-old tion, coming from huge new operations, had driven prices
piglets. All around was green, except the immediate spots well below the cost of production. Willis said, “I think a few
where the pigs had stripped the pasture to dirt. Since the big corporations are vying for position.” Family farmers
land has few trees, the breeze blew steadily, as it used to do can’t compete, not if they sell on the commodity market.
across the prairie. There was little or no rank odor, depend- According to the USDA agricultural census, taken every
ing on just where you stood or put your foot. (Willis never five years, almost half of Iowa’s pork producers quit
seemed to watch the ground, but unlike me he never between 1992 and 1997, while the number of pigs rose by
stepped in manure.) In the pasture, the manure falls where 21⁄2 percent. The farms got a lot bigger — the 320 biggest
it may and starts to decay, and later it is plowed under. farms averaged more than 13,000 pigs — and there were
In a smaller space, pigs establish a separate “dunging” area, more absentee owners. The biggest producers — Murphy,
unless they are really crammed together. They are naturally Smithfield (Carroll’s Foods), Cargill, Iowa Select, Heart-
clean, apart from a liking for mud. land — have vast amounts of capital, and they benefit from
Once, nearly all Iowa was tall-grass prairie, before it economies of scale, so they can stand a long period of low
was plowed. The deep, black, rich soil is some of the best in prices. Many of the family farmers who continue are badly
the United States. Rainfall is normally sufficient and in debt. Some have followed conventional advice to get big-
usefully concentrated in spring and summer. “There’s a lot ger, and they have put up the expensive buildings needed
of prairie enthusiasts around here,” Willis said as we drove for indoor production. To do that, they borrow a lot of
in his pickup to see a rare untouched 40-acre tract of native money and lock into a long-term contract with one of the
prairie, owned by his friend Daryl Kothenbuetal. “It was big operations.
just a real rough piece of ground.” Too rocky to plow. An According to Alan Vontalge, an Iowa State University
intact prairie, Kothenbuetal said, contains 200 to 240 agricultural economist, the capital expense will be repaid,
4 t h e a r t o f e a t i n gbut there is no potential for ever making much profit. He years ago. What’s special is that the Willises have escaped and his colleagues look at monthly figures. From January the commodity market and found a way to sell humanely 1991 to October 1997, Iowa farmers made an average of raised, marbled pork. Paul now manages a group of farm- just over $5.60 profit on every hog sold. Recently, they ers, 36 at the time of my visit, who raise tender, rich pork for have lost an average of $24 per hog. “The last nineteen restaurants and a growing retail trade. The pigs are fed no months have wiped out the previous 82 months.” animal byproducts, and they receive no subtherapeutic Driving north along Interstate 35 to see Paul Willis, I doses of antibiotics, which are a matter of course and per- had seen a hand-painted sign: “Murphy Hogs Go Home.” haps necessity in the big indoor operations. If Willis needs Murphy, from North Carolina, is the biggest producer in to treat an animal with drugs, then later, when it is healthy the US. At the town of Jewell, I had switched to highway 69 and market size, he sells it on the commodity market. in order to see some of the big indoor operations close up. Phyllis Willis, Paul’s wife, is warm and outgoing with a “Modern Hog Concepts” said the plaques on one set of sense of fun. She pronounces her name to acknowledge the metal buildings. There wasn’t much to see. All activity was rhyme. “Paul and I both enjoy animals,” she said to me. “I hidden indoors. No pasture. The most impressive thing was love pigs.” She explained that she is a traditional housewife the smell. Farther on were 18 enormous, identical buildings who cooks and cleans and, with great pleasure, takes care side by side. Even when I got to the Willises’, the names on of the chickens. The Willises’ two grown daughters live not the galvanized feeders in the pasture seemed to tell a story. far away. Phyllis Willis takes a strong interest in liberal The old ones were blazoned: “Pride of the Farm.” Newer politics, she said, and by nature she is outspoken, which gets ones said: “Waste Watcher.” her into trouble. Speaking of the indoor pig-raising meth- At that moment in early July, packers were paying pro- ods, she said meaningfully, “I don’t want to say anything.” ducers 29 cents a pound, but last year on average, according And she visibly, and seemingly unavoidably, shuddered. She to Iowa State University figures, it cost a farmer 37 cents to would have spoken her full mind, I’m sure, but Paul was produce a pound of pork. Paul Willis’s group of family there, and he had already delivered much of the message. farmers is guaranteed at least 431⁄2 cents, live weight, deliv- The three of us sat at the kitchen table eating a delicious ered to Des Moines. “That probably doesn’t mean a lot to lunch of porkburgers, new beets and beet greens, boiled you,” he said, “but a farmer can make a little money.” potatoes, and salad, with store-bought Iowa white bread. On the Willises’ answering machine, you hear Paul’s wife “We’re in a bread desert,” Phyllis said. She loves to cook, saying, “This is the Willis Free-Range Pig Farm,” which and a few weeks before she hadn’t been intimidated when makes it sound innovative. But Paul Willis merely raises pigs a Chez Panisse chef and a San Francisco restaurant critic the way many Iowa farmers did as recently as six or seven came to dinner. The phone rang and Paul got up to answer. N o . 5 1 s u m m e r 1 9 9 9 5
He came back a few minutes later, saying, “Another young legged; they grazed for much of their food and were often
guy, desperate, from Scotland, North Dakota: ‘How soon tended by a swineherd. Slowly, in some places, pigs became
can I get in on this?’” rounder and fatter. But in Western countries, progress was
slow until the early 19th century, when English breeds —
the source of American breeds — were crossed with meati-
Marble, rubber, and the changing pig
er and fatter pigs from China. Fat was good. “Meat” meant
Much of the pork problem turns on the changing pig, both fat and lean. Most pork was salted, and lard was
which began to diverge from the wild boar when the first important in cooking.
pig was domesticated 5,000 to 6,000 years ago. The Eur- At the turn of the last century, Joseph Harris, founder of
asian wild boar, to give it its proper name, has a propor- the Harris Seed Co., wrote a masterly book called Harris
tionately bigger head, a long snout, and two small tusks; its on the Pig. He said, “The aim of all breeders of animals
wiry body is covered with black hair. The meat is never designed solely for meat, is to have the body approximate
marbled. (Nonetheless, it is admired everywhere that wild as closely as possible to the form of a parallelopiped. In
boar live. It smells like pork when it cooks, but the taste to proportion to the size, an animal of this form contains the
me partly recalls lamb.) Early pigs were lean and long- greatest weight.” Harris’s rectangle gave more of the most
YOUNG PIGS at oscar floy’s
6 t h e a r t o f e a t i n ging steady, but it was clear to producers that pork should
be identified with chicken. Packers began to pay farmers by
“percent lean,” determined by measuring the thickness of
fat on the back, which more or less indicates the amount of
marbling within. (When the outer fat was thick and in
demand, it was sold as fatback. There’s no fatback today.)
The pork producers advertised their lean pork as another,
generic “white meat,” and consumers ended up with bland,
rubbery pork.
Instead of Joseph Harris’s rectangle, the present pig is
long and rounded, swelling a bit from its snout to large
loins and hams. The complicated muscles of the shoulder
bring a lower price, and the cheeks have lost all prestige.
paul willis IN RECONSTRUCTED PASTURE
The pig’s body is plastic because its genetic base remains
wide and generations turn over rapidly. A sow gives birth
desirable cuts, and it was filled out by fat, including the to about ten young twice a year.
cheeks. “The broader and deeper the cheeks,” Harris said, But the lost marbling in pork tasted good, just as it does
“the better, as next to the ham and shoulder there is no in beef. Fat is the main source of meat flavor, it gives an
choicer meat on a pig. A well-cooked cheek of bacon, with impression of juiciness, and it indicates tenderness, though
roast chicken, is a dish for an epicure.” He admired a there’s not a direct cause-and-effect relationship. When you
breeder in England who was said “to have formed a breed cook lean pork, it generally becomes dry and tough. But
of pigs that, when fat, were ‘nearly equal in height, length, even when you overcook marbled pork, as nearly every
and thickness, their bellies almost touching the ground, the American does for fear of trichinosis, or when you hold the
eyes being deep set and sunk from fat, and the whole car- cooked meat for a time before serving it, as chefs some-
cass appearing to be a solid mass of flesh.” times do, then marbled pork is much more forgiving. “Per-
“Are our hogs too fat?” Harris asked. And he answered: sonally, I think we went way too far,” a meat scientist at the
“A very large proportion of our hogs are fed by those who National Pork Producers Council told me. The technical
kill them for use in their own families. If they prefer fat brochures of the Pork Council make clear that consumers
hogs, they feed longer or on richer food, and if thin hogs, prefer the taste of marbled pork (just enough fat to be vis-
they can kill earlier [as all packers do today]. They have the ible, about 2 to 3 percent within the lean). They also like
matter in their own hands. As a rule, when we have little darker color, which is tied to more juicy and tender meat.
corn and thin hogs, there are less cheerful faces in the All those qualities are determined first by breeding and
kitchen. The most skillful cook cannot get along without then by feed. In addition, a conscientious producer and
lard. The fatter the hog, the more lard and the more dough- packer minimizes the effects of stress — fear — that pigs
nuts, fish-balls, croquettes, Saratoga potatoes, apple pies feel at the time of trucking and slaughter. It is well known
and flakey pastry.” And, he added, “If those who buy hogs in the industry that stress affects meat flavor and texture.
want thin ones, let them manifest their preference by pay- Pork is economical because pigs make especially effi-
ing more for thin pork than for fat pork, and they will soon cient use of feed. A pig weighs three pounds at birth and
get what they want.” weighs 260 pounds at slaughter, just five and a half to six
During the 1990s in the US, packers have paid more for months later. The loin has reached a marketable size and is,
lean, and they have gotten leaner pigs. The move to lean or was, marbled by fat. But fat isn’t tied perfectly to taste.
occurred in a number of countries. The US pork industry “Sometimes without the marbling you’ll still have a real
watched beef consumption tumble downward, while good eating quality,” Willis told me. “We really don’t have
chicken consumption more than doubled. Pork was hold- all the answers on that.”
N o . 5 1 s u m m e r 1 9 9 9 7The breeding strategy and the breeds themselves remain to raising the corn and soybeans.”
remarkably similar to what they were in Joseph Harris’s “That’s how it evolved. My neighbors, too. You didn’t
time. Chester White, Yorkshire, and American Landrace are have much money, but it wasn’t a bad life.” Farmers did a
the top white breeds, which are chosen for sows because lot of the harvest work together. “You’d go from neighbor
they reproduce well and make good mothers, providing to neighbor with a thrashing rig; the same with a corn
plenty of milk. Boars come from the red and black breeds sheller.” And the pork? “Then it was fattier. They used to
known for meat — Duroc, Berkshire, Hampshire, Spotted show a picture of a fat hog, and he was round as a barrel.”
Poland. (A lard breed like Gloucestershire Old Spots has But demand for lard dropped, and by the 1940s Iowa farm-
been so far given up that it is on the “critical” list of the ers were selecting and breeding leaner pigs.
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.) A farmer might Each family slaughtered the pigs for the pork that was
start by crossing a Chester White sow with a Duroc boar, eaten at home. “We always butchered our own,” Floy said,
and then cross the offspring with another red or black “even in the days before we had [freezer] lockers in town.
breed known for meat. The crosses give hybrid vigor. Before that, my mother would can up pork. Butchery time
For now, fortunately, some small companies continue to was March, when it was cool… you’d leave the meat to chill
supply farmers with pure-bred stock that has old-fashioned overnight in the corn crib.” Before the days of canning meat,
marbled meat. his mother would “cook it and put it up in big stoneware
Oscar Floy, Paul Willis’s stepfather (his father died when jars, and pour lard over it.” First the meat was salted. “Then
Willis was young), has a voice that even over the phone she got modern and she got a canning outfit. And then we
sounds as if he were smiling. I asked, Is Paul raising pigs the got the lockers in town. This was before we had electricity
way you did? “Yeah, un huh, sure. He’s basically doing it on the farm; after that, we had our own deep freezes.”
the way my generation was taught. It generally came out of Floy wanted to talk about the indoor hog operations
Ames [site of Iowa State University]. Their veterinarians that began to spread in the 1970s, including one belonging
came out and told us about putting them on clean ground, to a nephew, which he visited. “He does a good job.” None-
rotating the pasture, worming them, and giving them air.” theless: “Oh, they stink. God never made that kind of a
Air? “Your instinct is to seal all the cracks in the barn, but smell. They mix water with hog manure and urine — God
you’ve gotta open up the doors and give them air, without never made that kind of a stink.” When Floy came home,
letting a draft on them. Those are the things they taught us.” the smell in his clothes was so strong that he thought of
And Willis’s techniques are nearly the same — “basically to throwing them away.
keep the hogs healthy, along with some refinements.”
But farmers used to keep fewer pigs. Floy raised just 200
The new indoor confinement
hogs a year. “We had everything for a while — we had
cows and chickens and pigs. It was a pretty good system. If The new skinny pigs need different treatment on the
one thing didn’t pay enough, the other would pick up. The farm. Since pigs don’t have fur, they need fat to stay out-
lady of the house would take care of the chickens. (Papa doors in winter, and the new breeding for lean has left them
cleaned up the chicken house.) That would give her money without fat and fragile. They don’t do well outdoors. The
to take care of food for the family, the things she would large operations with lean pigs use indoor “confinement,”
buy for the house, some clothes for her, and pin money. She which essentially applies the logic of raising factory chick-
had a garden, too. It was a full-time job for her. And she ens to raising pigs. That’s bad with chickens and maybe
was watching the kids,” he said. The biggest, surest income worse with pigs. As you can tell after spending five minutes
came at the end of the year from selling the hogs. “That’s with them in a pasture, pigs deserve much better. They trot
why they were known as ‘mortgage lifters.’” But from the off to a safe distance from strangers, and immediately they
time of the Second World War, there wasn’t enough hired turn around and study you curiously. Gradually they move
labor available, and so Floy dropped first the cows and hay, back. They are friendly and smart; that’s part of the tragedy
then other animals, and finally the pigs. “We just got down of the slaughter. Big pork might face a serious image prob-
8 t h e a r t o f e a t i n ggrain elevator, farmers’ co-op of thornton, iowa N o . 5 1 s u m m e r 1 9 9 9 9
lem if its methods were widely known. They aren’t what high levels of nutrients such as the nitrogen and phospho-
you want to think about when you eat. rus from manure.
Many of the buildings have no windows; ventilation is “Those buildings are a public health hazard,” said Paul
provided by powerful fans. The ammoniac stench of liquid Willis. “You’re talking about air pollution, water pollution,
pig manure, stronger than cow manure, permeates the antibiotics, superbugs.” Unlike the sows in confinement, he
atmosphere. Pregnant sows are held in individual pens said, his sows have no problems such as mastitis that would
behind metal bars — “gestation stalls,” too narrow to require treatment with antibiotics. He finds that a sow with
allow exercise. They chew the bars neurotically. From some fat, kept outdoors, will grow even when she is provid-
there, they go into “farrowing crates.” Feed is carefully ing a heavy supply of milk to a large litter. But a lean sow
controlled. Tails are routinely removed because pigs under producing that much milk “falls apart,” he said, because
stress may chew each other’s tails off. Manure falls through she wasn’t bred to be robust and she lacks the good health
slatted or perforated floors and is flushed regularly into that comes with living outdoors. Even if you put the lean
sometimes-vast manure “lagoons.” Division of labor means sow out in a pasture, she won’t do well.
the work is less skilled than in the past, and an article in Willis blames Iowa State University for having promot-
The Des Moines Register last fall described high employee ed factory farming and large-scale production in the past.
turnover from these low-quality jobs, along with health Around Thornton, only five farmers are left who raise pigs
problems arising from breathing gases and dust. The health the way he does, and they all belong to his group of pro-
problems are new, so they haven’t been fully studied. ducers. Of the rest, “some just plain quit.” A few put up one
The more automated methods of confinement allow one or two small confinement buildings, but only for pigs that
person to handle more pigs, so labor costs are lower. An they buy at 40 pounds and raise to market weight. (Yet the
individual farmer trying this may have shorter hours and point of confinement is to have the advantages of large
more time for his or her family. But neighbors of the bigger scale and to provide the big corporations with a large,
operations object strongly to the smell, and the watery steady supply under their control.) I discovered that Willis’s
manure in the “lagoons,” held back by earthen dams, has views on confinement have two tracks. He had no word of
repeatedly spilled. In North Carolina in the 1990s, the big- criticism for any neighbor who had put up small confine-
gest manure spill entered the Neuse River and notoriously ment buildings, which he merely pointed out as we drove
killed a billion fish. Dr. JoAnne Burkholder of North Caro- past. He was quiet, I think, out of respect for difficult deci-
lina State University identified a highly toxic organism, sions and from a sense of loyalty to family farmers. Maybe
Pfiesteria piscicida, related to the creatures that cause red he understands the urge to keep on farming even when the
tides. The organism thrives in the presence of extremely odds are against you.
10 t h e a r t o f e a t i n gWillis sounded like an old prairie populist when he said pigs in close confinement.
that the big producers and packers are turning Iowa into a Mark Honeyman of Iowa State University specializes in
banana republic, running the small farmers out of business three “alternative swine production systems.” One is the
and hiring them back “to work on the plantation.” Is there old outdoor way of farrowing sows in huts; another meth-
anything good about confinement? “No, there really isn’t,” od starts with pigs at 50 pounds and raises them to market
he answered. “What these are is animal factories.” But weight in hoophouses using deep bedding; and the third is
doesn’t confinement production reduce a farmer’s long a Swedish method of raising pigs indoors but providing
hours? “On a nice beautiful June day, I’m outdoors, and deep bedding and using other techniques borrowed from
they’re in a stinking confinement building.” the outdoor methods — no close confinement. The bedding
is deep so the pigs can root through it and so composting
will start underneath and provide warmth in winter. The
Letting pigs be pigs
farmer adds fresh straw or corn stalks regularly to the top,
A lot of the more natural methods for raising pigs result eventually bringing the depth to as much as four feet. In
from research in Sweden, which banned confinement meth- theory, the surface is dry so there is little odor, but the two
ods in 1988. An ethologist named Per Jensen and other other Thornton farms I visited with Willis fell short of that.
scientists theorized that the stress of confinement resulted (He was mildly embarrassed; the farmers weren’t home, and
from frustrating the pigs’ instincts. So they released he would find a tactful way to speak to them later.) When
domestic pigs into the forest to see how they would behave the pigs are gone, the manure and bedding are spread over
in the wild environment of their ancestors. The pigs’ the fields as rich fertilizer. Honeyman says that production
instincts were intact. Film captured the social behavior of costs with the alternative methods are the same as or less
the group, the running and playing, the rooting for food, than those of confinement. Raising pigs either indoors with
and each sow going off by herself to build a nest — deep bedding or outdoors requires more labor and skill, but
scratching out a hollow in the earth, shaping the nest with there’s a big saving on buildings and equipment.
sticks, and lining it with soft grasses and ferns. (Willis saw The alternative methods do require “keener husbandry
a video of this work several years ago, and he told me, “A skills.” The farmer must observe the animals for signs of
light bulb went on in my head. I thought, ‘This is what I’m illness or distress, of a sow that is about to farrow, of dis-
doing, and now I know why.’”) Using this new knowledge, comfort in midsummer heat, of a need for more bedding or
the scientists developed practical outdoor and indoor farm feeder space. For decades, American farmers have tried to
settings that would enable pigs to follow their instincts. take more and more control of nature — to “steamroll it,”
More recently, the United Kingdom also banned raising Honeyman said — rather than learn from nature and coop-
N o . 5 1 s u m m e r 1 9 9 9 11erate with it. He didn’t blame his academic colleagues,
though for years scientists at agricultural universities have
concentrated on providing the tools for controlling nature.
American agriculture has been consumer-driven, Honey-
man said, but the consumers have been the farmers them-
selves who are sold products — buildings, machinery,
agricultural chemicals, drugs — to solve problems. Now
Honeyman and others are exploring methods that antici-
pate and avoid many problems altogether.
Paul Willis linked his outdoor methods to flavor. “If
something tastes good,” he said, “I think it reflects the health
of whatever it is you’re eating. Allowing the pig to behave
as naturally as possible is enhancing the eating quality.”
larry cleverley, mingo, iowa
More food in Iowa
Driving through Iowa, you might almost think the state
food was pizza. But along with the various kinds of fast
food, you are struck by the many cafes, steak places, and
supper clubs, as if you’d been transported 30 years into the
past. A shining exception to the rule is Bistro 43 in Des
Moines, which serves Iowa pork from Berkshire hogs raised
on family farms. The restaurant’s menu even credits the
farmer who grows the organic salad greens. The Field to
Family project of the nonprofit Practical Farmers of Iowa,
promotes direct links between farmers and restaurant and
retail customers. (PFI, which mainly conducts on-farm
harvesting garlic research of sustainable agricultural practices, was started by
farmers and belatedly embraced by Iowa State University.)
Gary Huber, co-director of the Field to Family project,
introduced me to several outstanding Iowa growers.
Larry Cleverley, grower of those organic salad greens at
Bistro 43, is an energetic, easygoing man with long, loose
gray hair. He cultivates five acres of vegetables in Mingo,
Iowa, on what was once his grandparents’ farm. He started
just three years ago, when he sold 50 pounds of greens in
his best week. Last spring, he was up to as many as 400
pounds of greens and 200 pounds of potatoes a week. “I
didn’t have a timetable, but I wouldn’t have imagined
doing this much business ever.” He grows thirteen kinds of
potatoes — “Iowans love their potatoes” — and 10,000
german porcelain garlic
heads of hard-necked (rocambole-type) German Porcelain
garlic, which makes him the biggest garlic grower in the
state. His favorite tomato: “Oh, I like Brandywines.” Some
12 t h e a r t o f e a t i n gof Cleverley’s heirloom vegetable varieties come from the that tired, achy feeling: ‘Man, I’ve really done a day’s
Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, in northeastern Iowa. work.’” The Smiths emphasize green beans but altogether
He worked for eight years in business in Chicago and then raise 70 to 80 different vegetables in more than 200 variet-
16 years in New York. When he thought of returning to ies. Some are Asian vegetables in demand in the university
Iowa, he noticed that Des Moines restaurants had evolved town of Ames. “We live by e-mail,” Smith said. It frees him
to the point of serving arugula and mesclun. (“When I was from the phone. Every day he sends out a list of what’s
growing up, herbs were salt and pepper and bacon.”) In the available, and stores and restaurants send orders back.
summer before he left New York, he worked every week- Judy and Dean Henry and their son Mike cultivate 30
end at the stand of a farmer selling produce at the 97th acres of pick-your-own fruit in Nevada, Iowa, near Ames.
Street Greenmarket. They began their business, called the Berry Patch, in 1973.
At the Des Moines farmers’ market, to encourage cus- The biggest crop is strawberries, but they also grow rasp-
tomers to buy unfamiliar items, Cleverley hands out recipes berries, blackberries, blueberries, rhubarb, currants, goose-
and cooks up samples in a wok set on a portable grill. berries, asparagus, apples (“Jonathan is Iowa’s favorite
“Iowans aren’t going to buy escarole unless you sauté it up apple,” Dean said) and hardy sour cherries, including the
with oil and garlic and finish it with a little white wine or a classic Montmorency. They do all this work with limited
squeeze of lemon.” He added parenthetically, “In New outside help. Besides selling at the farm, the Henrys sell at
York, marketing was all I knew.” half a dozen farmers’ markets around Ames. Dean Henry is
Beth Jaeger, Larry’s wife, has her own career, but she a serious fruit grower who raises multiple varieties of every-
sells beside him at the big Saturday farmers’ market. Des thing, including gooseberries that had turned reddish and
Moines customers rise early. When I met her, she was tasted remarkably spicy. “When I first started here, Iowans
impressed with the rush that had occurred that morning at didn’t know what blueberries were,” Dean Henry said.
7 am. Beth answered a salad question. A few days before I “They’d say, ‘What are those, little grapes?’” He’s an Iowan
left home, I had noticed that when I picked greens from my himself. Until a couple of years ago, the Henrys also raised
garden and ate them within a few hours, they had much a few pigs and sold the pork at retail. They miss the taste.
more flavor than they did the next day, when the taste was
more neutral. “Did you wash them right away? It’s the
Finding a way to make a living on pork:
washing,” Beth said. Larry agreed. They sell their greens
Niman Ranch (again)
rinsed and, for restaurants, fully washed, but they tell cus-
tomers if they want top quality, they shouldn’t wash greens In 1993, when many farmers in Iowa were giving up on
until the day they will be served. pigs or turning to confinement, Paul Willis was still selling
Bruce Smith is a long-time market gardener. He is an his hogs to conventional packinghouses. He had served in
unusually tall man, who is straightforward when he talks the Peace Corps in Nigeria, and that year he was in Califor-
and helpful, open, and welcoming to strangers — typical nia visiting old Peace Corps friends, who were raising lamb
Iowan characteristics, as I realized by the time I met him. and selling it to Niman Ranch. Best known for dry-aged
Smith raises his produce on the farm in Jewell where his beef, Niman is a network of ranches and farms that raise
wife, Laurinda, grew up. About 30 hog confinement opera- high-quality, marbled meat using humane methods. It
tions have sprung up within a two-mile radius. The Smiths started as a one-ranch beef producer, and it still does all the
aren’t happy about that, though it was hard to think of the final grain-feeding of cattle at its own two California ranch-
neat buildings as threatening on a clear, quiet summer day, es (see A of E 47). But the business has grown, and its
when no one was handling manure and raising a stink. offices and a “processing” facility are now located in Oak-
Bruce Smith and I toured the ten acres that he cultivates land. Willis learned about Niman Ranch when he was stay-
with help from only his wife, who works part-time at the ing with his California friends. He went to San Francisco,
university, and their daughter, Jenn, and son, Nick. Bruce where the offices then were, and introduced himself to Bill
explained his choice of career, saying, “I’ve always loved Niman, one of the company’s two founders. Niman remem-
N o . 5 1 s u m m e r 1 9 9 9 13be sure the taste meets Niman standards. The Niman Ranch
Pork Co. is owned half by the original Niman Ranch com-
pany and half by the pig farmers who participate. (Buying
in is easy on the farmers: with each delivery of a hog the
farmer contributes a dollar per hundredweight and Niman
contributes a dollar.) Hurlbut expresses the reasonable
Niman view on eating fat and on eating meat in general:
“Eat less, but eat better.” That’s not going to win wide-
spread popularity among Iowa farmers, but so far Niman is
the best thing happening to family pig farms.
Since skilled butchers have largely disappeared from the
US, and since most restaurants want meat already cut into
individual portions, Niman has hired and trained 16 butch-
ers to work in the Oakland plant. Most stores that carry
Niman pork have only the loin and spare ribs. Other cuts
pepper plants in cages to prevent cross-
pollination by insects, seed savers exhange
have to be ordered directly. Unfortunately, for now you
can’t get ears, rind, and tails for simmered oreilles,
bers, “He said that he’s a pig farmer in Iowa, and that he couennes, et queues, as in Lyon, but you can get the more
was in the Peace Corps with our lamb producers.” Willis practical caul (the veil of fat surrounding the stomach) for
described his farming methods and pork. “I told him, ‘I wrapping various meat mixtures, such as for grilling and
don’t know if I’d be interested. I think we have the best sautéing. The main thing missing is suckling pig, although
pork in the world right now.’” It was raised outdoors in Niman does offer young, 50- to 100-pound “roasters.”
California. Willis returned home and sent Niman some Paul Willis brought one more thing to the table — an
chops — not fresh but frozen. Yet they were so clearly supe- enthusiastic endorsement by the Animal Welfare Institute
rior that Bill Niman dropped the California producer and in Washington, D.C., which has now given its approval to
switched to Willis. the humane methods of all Niman farmers and ranchers.
Niman Ranch now sells pork to restaurants, some inde- The AWI, a pragmatic group, worked with farmers to pro-
pendent stores and supermarkets, and the California super- duce a list of simple criteria, largely to do with space and
markets of the Whole Foods health food-gourmet chain. bedding, that are kind to pigs and represent good hus-
(The pork appears under the “Whole Foods” rather than bandry. Diane Halverson, who is in charge of the AWI’s
“Niman Ranch” label; you have to ask to be sure.) When work on behalf of pigs, grew up on a small Minnesota
the chain switched to Niman pork, its sales of pork rose 50 dairy farm where, besides cows, there were pigs and other
percent, and the only apparent explanation was better taste. animals. The AWI rules are so far from fanatic that there is
Whole Foods will gradually introduce the pork into its not even a requirement that animals have access to pasture.
Middle Atlantic stores, called Fresh Fields, beginning in late But large-scale factory farming is expressly prohibited:
summer. It was demand from Whole Foods that enabled a “Each farm shall be a family farm, that is, an individual or
total of 36 farms, most in Iowa but a few in other states, to family member must do all of the following: (a) own the
produce pork for Niman Ranch. Fifty more farms are on a hogs; (b) depend on the farm for [his or her] livelihood; (c)
waiting list. An enthusiastic young Niman employee named provide the major part of the daily labor to physically man-
Rob Hurlbut had been looking for an opportunity to age the hogs and the rest of the farm operation.”
expand the business in a new direction. He took charge of It was Paul Willis who linked superior taste, environ-
the Oakland end of the pork project. The meat is always mentally sound methods, and humane practices with a
marbled, and, Hurlbut says, the company takes a loin chop discriminating market willing to pay a premium for good
from every shipment from every farm and grills the chop to pork so that farmers could earn a decent living. And so far
14 t h e a r t o f e a t i n gNiman Ranch is the only significant alternative to the com- “It’s still a way a young person without very much money
modity market. Why Paul Willis? He knew that if he was can get started in farming.” Really what he wants is to save
going to keep on farming the way he wanted to, he had to both the decent old way of raising pigs and the traditional
find a new market. He knew, too, that San Francisco was family farm.
receptive to well-raised, healthful foodstuffs with superior
flavor. “But I didn’t know how to approach it. I probably
Getting too big?
was looking for five years before I found anything.” The
Peace Corps experience, he explained, gave him “a network As I heard about Niman Ranch expansion, I realized
of people all over the country. It broadens your perspective, that Willis and the company were wide open to growing
and maybe gives you some more imagination.” As he spoke, as much as possible. It seems logical to me that Niman
he seemed caught between his reluctance to appear at all Ranch brand meats might someday appear in regular
self-flattering or critical of others and his sense of the obli- supermarkets, the way “Certified Angus Beef” does now. I
gation to give straightforward, honest answers to ques- wondered whether the company could become too large to
tions. An Iowan dilemma. uphold its standards.
Yet sometimes to talk with Willis, you might think that Yet the Midwestern family farmers waiting to join
next to nothing had been accomplished. “Ed,” he said to Niman are experienced pork producers, familiar with the
me at one point, speaking of the Niman Ranch effort, “It’s superior old methods, and they represent substantial
a desperate situation. This is the only way people are going production and acreage. Potentially, there is a vast supply
to be able to keep on farming.” The drama for him is of high-quality pork. To be sure standards are met, Bill
whether Niman can expand into new markets fast enough Niman would like to establish a separate Niman Ranch
and take on more farmers before they have to quit. “A lot slaughterhouse.
of them are going to go broke.” Phyllis told me she thought There’s more than one niche market, I remarked to Tom
that she and Paul should cut back some of their own pro- Frantzen, an Iowa farmer who sells to Niman and has also
duction, which would reduce their income, to make a little found a buyer for organic hogs. “It’s still doggone tiny,” he
more room for farmers on the edge. said. “If you look at the hogs in both markets, it’s still
Paul said, “The brand represents a network of producers microscopically tiny.” The organic buyer takes a dozen
doing sustainable raising of hogs using our standards — hogs a week; Niman at that moment was buying 300 hogs
the Animal Welfare guidelines. My goal is to be big enough a week. Altogether, according to a knowledgeable packer,
that anyone who wants to raise pork in this way, we could 225,000 hogs are slaughtered in the state of Iowa each
market their pork as Niman Ranch brand.” He also said, day. The niches are minute.
What about organic?
On the subject of organic pork, Willis said, “I think it’s
an admirable goal, but it’s not practical.” He uses conven-
tional fertilizers as well as some chemical sprays against
weeds. The obstacle to producing organic pork, he
explained, is the cost of organic feed. He estimated that the
switch would increase costs by about $50 per hog. That’s
just 19 cents per pound, not much, except that restaurants
really want only the loin, and the rest of the meat has to be
sold on the commodity market. The entire $50 would have
to be added to the price of the loin, and restaurants would
bruce smith, jewell, iowa balk. Willis told me all that over the phone before I arrived
N o . 5 1 s u m m e r 1 9 9 9 15in Iowa. So I was surprised to discover that he was growing “intensive rotational grazing,” which is a fine-tuned version
20 acres of organic soybeans for the health-food market. of traditional use of pasture. One hundred years ago, Joseph
(The variety is one that tofu-makers like.) And he plans to Harris believed in feeding pigs on corn, milk, and peas,
have some of his acreage certified as organic. Bill Niman especially through the winter months. But, he said, “Young,
was more positive, saying the move to organic is inevitable well-bred pigs… can be summered in a clover pasture at
and that the main obstacle will be to find a separate elevator comparatively little cost, and it is astonishing how fast they
to hold certified organic grain, grown by Niman farmers. will grow.”
They would buy back the feed they needed, just as they do The more pasture you use, the less food you have to
now. I began to think Willis’s hesitation only reflected the harvest and haul to the animals. That food also has to be
pessimism that farmers have felt since time immemorial. preserved somehow — fermented as silage or dried as hay
The least-expensive organic feed is well-managed pas- and grain. You need harvest and transportation machinery
ture; organic dairy farmers make heavy use of it. Pasture as well as storage space. Then, since the animals are con-
was out of favor for years among conventional dairy farm- centrated in one place, you have to get rid of the manure.
ers, but recently they have been turning to it because low Animals on pasture feed themselves, and their manure
milk prices have forced them to reduce costs. Some use drops in the field where it belongs.
Dean Henry and cherry trees
16 t h e a r t o f e a t i n gGrazing reduces money spent on labor, fuel, and equip-
ment (you don’t need as big a tractor, for one thing). Grazing
reduces the amount of purchased feed and the amount of
erosion (there’s less plowing, less bare ground), and it reduc-
es the expense of replacing breeding animals (they are
healthier and live longer). Grazing also reduces the amount
of time workers spend working in and around rank manure.
But to use more pasture, farmers have to switch focus
from running machinery and growing crops, both of which
they may enjoy, and they have to treat pasture with the
same care they give a row crop. They have to set up fences
and move the animals methodically from one small section
to the next. They have to monitor the length of grass, so it
sow and port-a-hut
isn’t overgrazed and so each patch reaches the optimum
stage of nutritious young growth before animals are put “There’s a hundred things wrong with confinement, and I
back onto it. A potential problem is that pigs root and can hate every one of them.” He blames confinement for “count-
destroy a pasture. The only way to discourage rooting, less animal health problems.”
when it occurs, is to put rings in their noses. (They look like Frantzen sells to Niman Ranch, to conventional packers,
heavy wire staples and make rooting uncomfortable. The and last June he began selling some organic hogs to the
AWI discourages their use.) And no matter what, pigs still Cropp Co-op in La Farge, Wisconsin, a $40-million-a-year
need more grain than cattle do, since pigs don’t have mul- business that is expanding its sales of organic meats.
tiple stomachs to extract full value from a pasture. Frantzen figures organic grain costs just a dollar more a
Tom and Irene Frantzen raise both pigs and Angus cattle bushel, or an extra $25 a hog. One-third of his pigs are
in New Hampton, Iowa. I learned about them through organic. The organic pork, too, must meet the Animal Wel-
several articles in farming publications, and it turned out fare Institute standards, and it has to be half Berkshire, for
that Tom Frantzen and Willis are friends. Frantzen makes marbling and darker meat. Some in the pork industry think
heavy use of grazing, moving the pigs onto fresh pasture Berkshires are too variable and say the breed is less eco-
every four or five days during the warmer months. He nomical to raise. But Frantzen said, “Berkshire is consid-
moves the cattle onto a fresh strip every day. For a while, he ered to be the best tasting and I think they’re right.”
raised Tamworth pigs because the breed is good at forag-
ing. But “Tamworths taste terrible” — lean and dry. Hardly
Price, accountability, and the small scale
any pig farmers use as much pasture as he does, partly, he
of the family farm
thinks, because the mindset of most farmers is crops. But
“there’s a few of us rebels around.” On a small farm, the farmer observes and responds to
Frantzen began raising hogs in confinement back in individual animals. One person is involved in all the tasks
1978, a year after he bought his father’s farm. It seemed like and responsible for results. Supermarket mass-producers as
the modern thing. But he became increasingly unhappy, and a rule are anonymous. When you shop, whom do you hold
finally, he says, “I threw the farrowing crates out in 1991.” responsible for lack of flavor or freshness, sound farming
But it took years to complete the switch to what were more methods, or anything else? Large-scale production generally
or less the methods he had grown up with. He told me to be aims at middle quality and middle price so as to appeal to
sure to write about the evils of gestation crates, slat floors, the largest possible market. The demand for higher quality
and lagoons. What’s so bad about the floors? The manure is smaller, and it is easier to produce high quality on a small
falls through them to get to the lagoons, he answered. The scale. In these days of intense pressure to mass-produce at
floors are part of the whole package of odor and pollution. low cost, consumers won’t get the food they want if they
N o . 5 1 s u m m e r 1 9 9 9 17A Few Thoughts about the
Different Cuts of Pork, Cooking Pork, and
Affinities with Pork
T
don’t find public ways to ask, “How is this food raised?” here’s no best cut of pork. That depends on how you
High quality doesn’t necessarily cost more. When the plan to cook it. For frying and roasting the center
producer sells directly and eliminates the middleman, he cut of the loin is the most highly regarded — maybe
gets the full retail price. It would help small-farm meat the best compromise among tenderness, flavor, and mar-
producers to have approved on-the-farm slaughterhouses, bling with fat. The loin runs from the butt, or shoulder,
like the facilities on a number of poultry farms in south- almost to the tail. The shoulder end (blade loin) is darker
west France (see “Foie Gras,” A of E 44) — sparkling clean, and moister with the most fat, and if it contains part of the
white-walled rooms in the barn with walk-in coolers. We shoulder, that portion is impossible to carve neatly. The
probably won’t get them in the US. The common alterna- center cut is meaty, nicely marbled, and normally not too
tive for individual farms is to sell their meat frozen, which fatty. The back portion (sirloin) is leaner and drier. Any
takes away a large part of the value and taste. The small part of the loin can be cut into chops — actually they are
producers do benefit from the farmers’ markets multiplying sawn, sometimes through the angled ribs. The chops, like
all over the US, as if a mirror image of their decline in the loin, change from front to back. A curving rib chop
Europe. Direct selling provides maximum freshness and from the shoulder end is fattier; a center chop has the cen-
face-to-face contact with the people who will cook and eat ter’s good compromise qualities, and a center-rear chop has
the food. Customers give valuable feedback, especially a “porterhouse” shape with a little tenderloin on one side
when some are demanding chefs. of the bone; sirloin chops are more lean and dry.
Decent, pleasant farming methods, good flavor in meat, The tenderloin, which runs on top of the loin, is the most
and the supermarket can fit together. Even the family farm tender, but not the most flavorful, part. Although it lacks fat,
can have a place. If it works for pork, maybe it can work for it isn’t dry or tough, unless overcooked. Most pork is more
chicken and other meats. A pasture like Paul Willis’s, where or less white, as the advertising says, but the tenderloin is
you can stand surrounded by green fields, content animals, dark, as is the meat by the ribs and also part of the loin.
and fresh clean air, really is the way farming can be. Larry A ham comes from the hind leg, and a fresh ham is
Cleverley, the Iowa market gardener, said about Willis’s meaty but bland. A picnic shoulder is a foreleg “ham”;
pork: “It tastes like the pork I had when I was a little kid.” above it is the shoulder butt, or Boston butt, which is a
more complicated mix of muscles — tender and tough,
marbled in part, flavorful because more exercised. (Paul
Willis commented, “I’m not sure I don’t prefer a shoulder
roast” to a loin roast. Iowans, recognizing that the shoulder
actually has more flavor, cut the loin into chops and add
18 t h e a r t o f e a t i n gYou can also read
