Today we will take a realistic look at how Darby raises his pigs on his farm and why.
We will place a lot of emphasis on his context and how that directly ties to why he does what he does. As you will hear it's a balancing act. It's a constant balance between his moral compass and watching his wallet. Another way of saying that is there is always a more regenerative way of doing things, but they come at a cost. And things need to be financially sustainable in addition to being sustainable on the land. At its simplest for Darby this means putting pigs where they excel, and that's in the woods.
We will discuss the nuts and bolts of raising pigs in the wood, and we will also look at other alternative methods of raising pigs and Darby will share his thoughts on those from both a management and an economic standpoint.
If I had to boil it all down ahead of time, it all comes down to finding the intersection of what's best for you as a farmer, what's best for the land, and what's best for the pig.
You'll hear how finding that balance isn't always easy.
But despite the challenges of trying to be perfect, you will see how the system that Darby has setup is leaps and bounds ahead of the baseline, the CAFOs.
As Joel Salatin says, "The problem is that modern American CAFO's are where amoral science and pure capitalism take you, and it's far away from nurturing and caretaking."
With the CAFO system and $100M pigs being raised this way each year. It's hard to conceive of a scenario where this situation changes. The numbers are too big, the grasp is too tight.
So if we want to see change, it's going to start here, with the people listening to this show. Change is going to start with you. It's going to start with the small farmer that have committed to doing things differently.
Today you will hear about one of those small farms, that's finding a balance between an entrepreneurial and capitalist business and one that nurtures and honors the pigness of the pig.
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