How many people can say they’ve been to Swine School? Not many, I figured, which is why I wanted to be one of the lucky few. A few weeks back, I had my opportunity to attend a two day conference on all things swine at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture in Pocantico Hills, New York. The conference was sponsored in part by the Animal Welfare Institute [AWI], and Diane Halverson, their Farm Animal Policy Specialist, was one of the speakers, along with Paul Willis, one of the founders of Niman Ranch and long time supporter of AWI. I was a late straggler to the class and found myself chasing after 2 hay trucks full of people headed to the woods, parking in front of a pack of hogs happily snuffling through leaves under the trees. A bit out of breath, and only partially focused on Paul Willis who was holding a baby pig upside down, it took me a minute to figure out that I had arrived just in time for the castration. “This is not as bad as you might think it is,” says Willis, and showed people how to insert his finger under the tiny balls of the pig, lift them up and then…snip! “One, two, three, that’s how long it takes.” As unremarkable a process as Paul says it is, it was not unremarkable for the mother sow who lunged immediately out of her shelter to protect her baby, still hanging upside down and squealing his lungs out. A 500 pound sow charging at Paul and the Stone Barns folks was a sight to see indeed. All tits were flying, pounds of flesh jiggling, and a terrific battle cry ignited the air. She was pissed. But as fast as the fury came, so it went. Craig held up what looked like a huge giant plastic cutting board to block her path and it was if someone turned off the lights. The sow stopped in her tracks, a bit confused at first, but then went peacefully back to foraging. Once on the ground, the piglet scampered off to find his mom and nurse.
Paul insists the process is basically a painless procedure and no pain killers are necessary. “People complain about this, I know,” says Paul. “People that don’t raise animals have this anthropomorphic attitude, like how would I like to be castrated? But it’s not like that.” Most male pigs are castrated, Paul says, mainly because boar meat is not popular in this country. “It has a strong taint or odor to it that most people don’t like.”
Paul is a 4th generation hog farmer with over 900 acres of land in Iowa, and his desire to revitalize sustainable hog farming practices led to his relationship with Bill Niman and the beginning of the Niman Ranch network in 1995, which now boasts over 600 American farmers and ranchers today, and also connected him to Diane Halverson and the Animal Welfare Institute. Knowing of the disgusting methods that industrial commercial farms normally practice, Paul wanted to start something different. Paul says “the more that I could distance myself from commodity pigs, to me that was good.”
Paul saw Diane stand up to the hog farmers during a march in Unionville, Missouri, at one of the world’s largest pig factories. “Here’s this little lady that stands up and says well what about the animals? I thought that was great." Paul wanted AWI’s approval and upon seeing his farm, Diane gave it to him. “We were so impressed with his attitude towards his animals and the way his animals lived.” Working in a spirit of cooperation, Paul and Diane set about refining the husbandry standards for raising pigs and soon, Niman Ranch became the industry standard.
In one of her many articles, Diane describes the treatment of hogs at Paul’s farm, that “…unlike the crated sows on factory farms, the sows in the Niman Ranch program have freedom of movement, allowing them to fulfill their instinctive desire to build a nest when they are about to give birth. Unlike the factory farm pigs housed on concrete slats over manure pits, Niman Ranch pigs are raised on pasture or in barns with bedding where they can live in accord with their natures, rooting for food, playing and socializing.”
Working together for years, Paul and Diane have created the Animal Welfare Approved seal, something that marketing departments of sustainable farms can incorporate to identify themselves as having animals that have been approved by AWI. The seal came out in 2006 and is gaining wide-ranging acceptance. Their new website, animalwelfareapproved.org, will be launched any day now.
Paul knows the factory farms are worried. “What I see is the industry is going to come out with some copy cat thing without any real basis behind what they are doing. It’s always about painting a pretty picture on a dirty business. Smithfield will not get this seal of approval, ever. I think it will be something that as customers learn about this it will be one more thing that will turn attention to the difference in how your food is raised and where it comes from.”
"Here’s the beauty of the Animal Welfare Institute: their demands for husbandry standards, whether assuring the animal’s access to the outdoors, or securing proper bedding for sows, or the hundreds of other important things they watch out for, don’t just raise living standards and make for happier animals – they make for more delicious food. The Animal Welfare Approved seal is a seal of humanity and a promise for good flavor.”
- Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill restaurant in New York City and at Stone Barns, Pocantico Hills
GOT WOODS?
The Swine School at Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture was more informative than you would think. With experts from around the country, topics ranged from what to feed your pigs to get the best flavor to how to make sausage to how to sustainably manage herds of hogs. And if you are the owner of a lot of land covered in woods, you are really in luck. Chuck Talbott, owner of Black Oak Hollow Farm in Frazier's Bottom, West Virginia, and Director of Sustainable Integrated Systems transforming agriculture [SISta] can tell you just what to do with your property: raise hogs. That's right, pigs prefer woods, don't you know. Stone Barns knows it and every one of their Berkshire pigs roots around their wooded acreage, eating things like chestnuts and acorns which provide the meat with a good amount of vitamin e, not to mention, flavor. Talbott, with the help of Peter Kaminsky, author of PIG PERFECT, can tell you how to cultivate healthy yet sublime tasting pork.
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