Trying to make it more humane and still affordable.
Of course, some people don’t think if a worthy goal. Iowahawk, who grew up on a hog farm (to the degree that he grew up at all), says that he doesn’t eat bacon because he likes it, but just for spite.
Interesting, but the economics are such that in a generation or two getting meat from farm animals will seem as primitive as hunting bison on the plains for meat.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/16/artificial-meat-food-royal-society
Artificial meat? Food for thought by 2050
Leading scientists say meat grown in vats may be necessary to feed 9 billion people expected to be alive by middle of century
Mmmmmmm – bacon! 😀
I’ve found running pigs in small forest blocks works well, the trees provide shelter from the weather, the undergrowth bedding and food (pigs will drag materials in to make their nests) this still requires rudimentary shelter through most of the year, though in the colder months heat lamps in an insulated hut is a must for the piglets.
The downside of not using farrowing pens is a MUCH higher death rate of piglets in the first few days of life – younger sows will often be clumsy mothers and inadvertently squash their new young.
So, politically correct Yankees are spending a fortune to raise free-range pigs?
Why don’t they just come to Texas? We’ve got more free-range pigs than we know what to do with, and they’re free for the taking. In fact, the state will pay you to shoot them.
Oh, wait. Hunting isn’t politically correct. 🙂
The non-hunters can be bait.
I advise having more than 7 rounds in your clip when hunting free-range pigs.
I grew up around cattle. My grandfather was a Plant Superintendent in, what was then called, a SLAUGHTER HOUSE. I saw cows come in the back door and sides and quarters of beef go out the front door loading docks. I understood at an early age what ‘magic’ joined cooked, tasty meat to mooing cows. I am not put off by the process, and in a world filled by the BILLIONS we have, it’s the only way we can all eat regularly.
I think it’s hysterical that PC types go on and on about sustainable, green, free range, blah, blah, blah, but then say THEY are willing to pay higher prices for those things, because it’s better for the animal. They trash talk ‘factory farming’ and yet they stay in NYC, Philly, Boston, etc, etc, etc. where no free ranging is possible!
If they truly believed all the parc they spout they’d move to the boonies and actually DO that lifestyle. They think someone ELSE should live in the country and scratch the little piggies behind the ears to keep them happy. [they love that BTW] I think it’s hypocritical to say they think food should cost MORE, because THEY have the ability to pay more. What about people who are already pressed hard to keep food on the table?!
I ask with venom in my voice, because I – R – 1!
We are not green / sustainable types here at Der Schtumpy Acres, beyond the fact that we are moved that way out of necessity over the last few years. Prices have gone way up, our income has stayed flat. Hunting a feral hog is planned for this fall / winter. As well as hunting some deer. But both will be taken in our part of NC because they are over populating and ruining property and farms.
It’s a dual purpose thought process in my mind.
We get healthy, cheap, good meat, and a farmer / homeowner gets rid of a destructive pest on their property.
I don’t understand the disjointed thinking of PC city dwellers who fly all over the world, to have meetings, or seminar, or teach-ins or anti-capitalist protests, who tell me about MY carbon foot print and how MY traveling to the farm store for animal feed, in my 30 year old, gas guzzling F-150 is ruining the planet.
I believe that my old Funk & Wagnalls would define that as ‘hypocrisy!’
It’s the inhumanity that makes it tasty!
Mmmm… tasty inhumanity. Especially with eggs.
Hey, can we cut out the middleman and start battery-farming animal rights activists for food and leather?
Like most proglodytes, animal-rights activists are a poor source of leather as their skins are too thin.
Nor would I advise using them for food; they’re impossible to clean.