Thanks Steve and Rivka for your thoughtful comments.
I've not personally raised pigs outside so I can't comment much about
the taste of pig meat from dirt operations. However, I would expect it to
be more flavorful because of a more diverse diet. That's certainly my
experience with eggs.
With regard to the flabby texture though, it's
probably more of a function of how the animal was slaughtered vs. what was
fed. Animals slaughtered under stress exhibit what's called pale, soft,
exudative meat (PSE), or under long periods of stress Dark, Firm, Dry (DFD).
Rivka wrote:
"I would say the real *problem* is the unbelievably cheap farmgate food
prices. You're entirely correct that many farmers are just barely getting
by, even if they are running large operations; and many can't manage even
getting by, and go out of business. This is at least partially because many
customers, though apparently perfectly willing to pay large extra amounts to
buy produce already cut up into pieces, hamburger already formed for them
into patties, and much of their food precooked; and also perfectly willing
to pay several times the price of a pair of basic jeans to get the brand
they prefer; are entirely unwilling to pay what it costs to produce quality
in the food to begin with."
Boy, I have mixed emotions about this. In one sense I agree with you. The
amount of materialism, consumerism, marketing, etc. in America disgusts me a
little, and cheap food (and other cheap goods) have made that possible.
Still, I think we Americans (or the developed world in general) have been so
well off for so long, we've forgotten what scarcity of food is like.
As
such, some peoples' vision of what farming should be is 50 years old and if
we go back to practices 50 years old we'll have yields 50 years old. Then,
I think with 300 million people, we would see scarcity.
Farming is not what you do, it's who you are.
I only sold out and quit because of a severe back injury, and in fact I
still haven't quit, as I'm now trying to farm my backyard, with fruit trees
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