SMALL FARMS RAISE HEALTHIER HOGS (Short Version)

A growing number of farmers in the Midwest are turning to more humaneand natural ways to raise animals in an attempt to save their smallfarms. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:

Transcript

A growing number of farmers in the Midwest are turning to more humane and
natural ways to raise animals in an attempt to save their small farms. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports.


Some hog farmers are trying to preserve their way of life by raising animals that can be sold in health food stores and at high end restaurants. Theresa Carbrey of the Iowa based Pioneer Co-op Organic Foods company says she is seeing an increase in meat providers who are trying to serve this markets to avoid losing out to large, corporate farms.


“I think the persons that are interested in more naturally raised meats,
like those persons who are interested in crops that are produced without chemicals and pesticides, are a real market, and they answer a concern that the small operators have, and that’s how to stay in business.”


Carbrey says meat that is raised without chemicals, and in more humane and natural ways is a growing business. She says it can also serve multiple purposes of treating animals better, growing safer food, and saving small family farms. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Jonathan Ahl.