Food For Thought
Why Pasture Raised Pork?
  • Pastured Pigs raised in paddocks and have more than just freedom from confinement, they have the freedom to behave naturally. Pastured sows are free to build nests to give birth in just like they would in the wild. Pigs that are free to roam spend much of their day rooting and grazing in the sun and fresh air. This environment produces wholesome and tasty pork just like it used to be before the days of intensive house production systems.
  • Managed well, pastured pig systems are much kinder to the environment that intensive systems that require storage for manure in huge ponds that have the potential to leak into groundwater supplies, poisoning them. On pasture, the pigs' manure enriches the soil, rather than poisoning it. Working with pigs on pasture is a much nicer prospect than spending the working day inside a very smelly shed.
  • Pastured pork is better for rural communities than large intensive systems.  Most pastured pork producers are small family farmers whose profits are repaid directly to the community, and who provide smaller numbers of jobs, but steadier, safer employment.
  • Pigs grown on pasture do not suffer the disease burden of pigs grown under unnatural confined conditions and therefore do not need to be constantly fed antibiotics to keep them in good health. Over use of antibiotics in production animals can have far-reaching human health effects. Antibiotic-resistant diseases are on the rise. A strain of antibiotic-resistant staph infection known as MRSA  is cause for major concern.
  • Pastured pork increases agricultural biodiversity. In Australia, most pork comes from just three breeds of pig -  Large White, Landrace, and Duroc - because these breeds are most suitable for confinement breeding operations. Most pastured pork, however, comes from hardy, self-sufficient heirloom breeds, such as the Large Black, Berkshire, Saddleback and Tamworth crossed with commercial breeds.
Well-managed pasture systems can minimize environmental damage to soil, air, and water, and build soil fertility. Animals that can engage in natural behaviors outside as opposed to being crowded indoors tend to be healthier and need fewer antibiotics, which reduces the rate of antibiotic resistance in food-borne bacteria.

Pasture Raised Eggs contain …

  • Double the Vitamin E
  • 40% more Vitamin A
  • 7 times more Betacarotene
  • 2 1/2 times the Omega 3 Fatty acids
  • 1/3 less cholesterol
  • 1/4 less saturated fat

Pasture raised farming systems that work with nature avoid the hazards that come with intensive methods. Pasture raised production is the most advantageous way to meet the consumers' desires for tasty, healthy, environmentally friendly food and to change the agricultural landscape in a very positive way. Stocking densities for layer hens are are hot topic at the moment but what does it all mean?  How do you visualize 1,500 or 20,000 birds per hectare?  Lets think of it another way.  1,500 hens will deposit 180kg of manure on the ground each day.  20,000 hens will deposit 2.4 tons per day!  Thats over 800 tons per year in one little hectare block. To make this even more visual, can you image 8 semi trailer loads of chook manure being dumped on your lawn? 20,000 hens per hectare is not free range and is environmental just plain wrong!
 
 
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Humane Society International
www.hsi.org.au
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