On Thursday the New York Times published an op-ed piece written by a Texas historian named James E. McWilliams called "Free-Range Trichinosis," which argues that the public's perception of free-range pork has been misguided. On the contrary to our idyllic view of healthy, happy animals, the "free-range option can pose a heightened health threat to consumers." Citing a study which claimed free-range pork "can be more likely than caged pork to carry dangerous bacteria and parasites" (including trichinosis), the author makes the argument that factory-raised pork as a safer way for the public to eat.
The accuracy of this claim that free-range pigs are more dangerous to eat is up for debate. Marion Nestle already noted one big problem: the study was funded by the National Pork Board . She has also clarified that the study's measure was not of the diseases themselves, but the presence of antibodies in the pigs' systems. Meaning that it really measured not if the pigs were infected with disease, but whether or not they had been exposed to these diseases, and thereafter developed immunities. Pigs that live outside--just as a child who goes to kindergarten and catches a cold, perhaps--are exposed to disease and learn to overcome it.
But accuracy aside. What I found more interesting about the article was the author's assumptions about why people want to eat free-range meat at all.
Whenever possible I buy free-range or humanely raised pork for one major reason: it's more humane to the animal. In my opinion, if a farmer decides to raise pigs, he or she is under an obligation to practice good animal husbandry. The pig is going to serve our desires as humans to eat meat, and we must in turn treat its life with respect. As a meat eater this is something I do to practice ethical eating.
The added benefit to proper husbandry (though it also has a lot to do with the breed) is good taste. Treating an animal properly with a good diet and exercise also means that its meat tastes fuller and richer. This benefit makes the argument quite convenient for me, because who would argue against better taste?
But the author claims that people eat free-range pork because it makes them feel like they're eating a wild animal. That these eaters would ideally be hunting the animals themselves but, they lack this option (maybe because they're liberal urbanites?). Therefore eating free-range is "a more civilized step toward wildness and, by implication, a more 'natural' taste."
Therefore, free-range pork is a backwards step in the continuum of domesticated meat, a vain attempt by people who "despise industrial agriculture and adore the idea of wildness." A way to pretend they are living some pre-industrial idyllic time.
I'm curious if any of this rings true for you. First, do you make an effort to buy free-range pork or any kind of pork (or for that matter, another meat) that's not raised in a factory (i.e. from farmers' markets or other sources)? And if so, why do you do it? Is it because doing so is closer to eating animals that are wild, i.e. hunted?
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
The argument was so biased,specious, and flat out scientifically inaacurate I won’t go into it’s claims about the health of free range pigs. I will state that my desire is for my meat to have lived well, with freedom of movement, and then die quickly and humanely.Respect the animals that will become your food
The argument was so biased,specious, and flat out scientifically inaccurate I won’t go into it’s claims about the health of free range pigs. I will state that my desire is for my meat to have lived well, with freedom of movement, and then die quickly and humanely.Respect the animals that will become your food
I buy free-range pork because it is more humane. No other reason. I have never considered any farm animal to be “wild”. If I wanted to eat wild animals I would participate in deer hunting, or at least buy venison, elk, or other game meats.
I read this article too and was surprised by the apparent bias and lack of understanding for those who choose to purchase free-range meats. I hunt and fish for both the enjoyment of the activity and the benefit of eating what I bring home. However I do not buy free-range meats to try and get “close” to a wild animal experience. I buy free-range meats because I believe in respecting the animals we consume and am not a fan of eating meat that has been injected with hormones and antibotics. Plus the main driver for buying free-range meats is that they simply taste better.
The idea that people eat free-range farm raised animals because it is closer to eating wild game meat is just preposterous. Imagine Hugh F-W changing his tune and arguing for free-range not because it is more humane but because it brings you more in touch with your neanderthal ancestry.
As a pround urbanite, I’ll admit that some idealized version of bucolic life plays into my enjoyment of free-range pork, but it isn’t a primary purpose for purchasing.
My purchasing decision has more to do with 1. What the pigs eat, and how that is refleted in their taste and fat profile. 2. Control over the sourcing of my products by getting to know personally the guy who raises my meat, and therefore the conditions in which it is raised.
BTW, I live in Chicago so if Nick were looking for a source for free range pork I would recommend http://www.wallacefarms.com
I’ve got no stake in it, it’s just the farmer I use for my meat.
Like most of the commenters already, I buy local pastured pork because I like knowing where my food comes from and how it’s treated. In my own experience, I’ve found that my farm pork tastes better than the supermarket equivalent (which I’ve found to be true for most of the other meat I purchase from my farmer). I don’t think the pig I buy is more “wild,” even if it is a heritage breed. If I want wild meat, I’ll eat elk or deer.
I think the largest scientific problem with this study and Op-Ed piece is the lack of factoring in antibiotic use. It is far more likely that free range animals will receive either no antibiotics or very small treatments. “Caged” animals receive massive, continuous treatment with antibiotics, lowering disease rates and antibody productions, but at a cost. This cost has been well documented and includes antibiotic resistance and potential increases in human disease.
See this NY Times Op-Ed for an example: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/opinion/12kristof.html?scp=1&sq=methicillin%20pig%20indiana&st=cse
I buy free-range meats mostly because of concerns about how animals are treated in industrial agriculture. If I’m going to have an animal killed simply for my own enjoyment, it behooves me to see that it’s treated well while it’s alive.
I *do* think that it tastes better, but I didn’t discover that until I’d been eating free-range meat for a while and bought some organic pork from my co-op. I was very surprised to discover how inferior both the taste and the texture were – I hadn’t expected much of a difference. The pasture-fed beef was more obviously different from the outset. Free-range chicken tastes like kosher chicken to me (I don’t keep kosher, obviously, but most of my family does).
I buy free-range pork and other meats and eggs because I’ve been unlucky enough to visit ‘industrialized’ pork, poultry, beef, and turkey farms. After seeing the way those animals lived and were treated, I’d rather be a vegetarian or go hungry than eat that meat.
The animals were over-crowded, stressed, and aggressive. They weren’t even fed actual food, but a petroleum-based mixture of protein, vitamins, growth hormones, and antibiotics. I’m not convinced that the meat produced that way is even healthy for human consumption and there’s no way I can condone that kind of treatment for animals.
Thanks for the comments, everybody. Seems like the consensus is that humane treatment is the primary reason folks opt to go free-range. I assumed as much, but am glad to hear it anyway.
@JT: Thanks for the rec on Chicago pork!
@Jason: Great point, I didn’t think of that. Of course factory meat has low antibodies if they’re pumped full of antibiotics. Makes a lot of sense.
I eat free range meat mainly because I believe free range animals are less likely to experience constant stress during their lives than are caged animals. I suspect that stress not only affects the health of the animal (and thus the quality of the meat), but also that the stress hormones may be present in the meat itself and cause additional stress or other hormone symptoms in my family.
I grew up on a farm, which gave me a lot of perspective on animals and how they should be treated. Since I do eat meat, I prefer to eat those that have been treated humanely. Another reason is taste; we had a roast for dinnner yesterday from a heritage breed pig (Old Spot) raised about 20 minutes away, and it was delcious.
I’d love to see a study of the long term implications of the heavy antibiotic use in industrailly-raised animals. We know of strains of diseases that are resistant to antibiotics in humans, so why would we expect anything different in animals?
I guess there is some element of the “wild” taste, in that I think an a free range animal has a more natural lifestyle so will taste more like it should. I was recently unfortunate enough to eat some battery chicken, and it tasted of nothing. I’d got used to free range chicken that actually tasted of something.
My main criteria is welfare though, as well as the impact antibiotics and poor feed have on the animal (and then me). I always try to buy British meat over European imports as our welfare standards are much higher, even for standard “factory” style meat, although 95% of the time I get free range stuff anyway.
Wow. That guy isn’t trying to sell crappy pork or anything. It’s like the soybean association guy who honestly thinks that roundup-ready GMO’s are a good idea…
Anyway, happy pork is better pork. Niman ranch bacon is so tasty! No, I don’t want a wild taste. I want to taste the sunshine the piggies were in, and not the concrete and feces.
We don’t want to be kept inside always, so why would the animals. Unhappiness becomes a physical problem in terms of stress hormones and altered evolution over many generations.
Another problem – all those antibiotics that don’t get used by the animals get flushed into the waste stream. That in turn goes into the water, which we later drink. That sets up MILLIONS of parasites and buggies gradually getting used to antibiotics on the way. Not. Good.
It’s not just the taste, it’s the way we treat our surroundings and our planet. I don’t trust this guy, because he’s already proved that he doesn’t care about Earth, flora, or fauna, and prays to God money. Don’t trust him at ALL.
I buy free range pork for the same reasons everyone else does. But we must not forget one thing, that the free range pork get fed also. Yes they do get to eat the worms, bugs and grass they find outside. What is in that feed is important to know. There are free range pork produces out there that let their pigs outside to play and sit in the sun but also give them feed with antibiotics in it. So i agree 100% that free range is important for me but free range doesnt always equal not antibiotics.
May I ask why one cares how humanely one’s meat was treated? I mean, ultimately, it’s going to be slaughtered in a rather painful fashion, and we don’t really care, because it’s a pig. Life in the wild probably sucks for them too, especially getting eaten by wolves. Mean to say, I try to buy at the farmer’s market myself, because I was brought up in a good liberal household and believe that anything made by a small company is better than something made by a large one (and I rather think this is even true, just because they’re paying more attention to each animal). But I write not so much to express my own point of view as to (quite genuinely) ask for an explanation—-why do you care if pigs are happy?
Animals that have been raised humanely taste better…mkes me feel a bit better about eating them…are hoepfully better for envirnoment….If I had the ability (space and time) I’d liek to think that I would have enough integrity to raise and kll what I eat..
I would eat “free-range” pork if I could get some. Here there’s none available, (aside from formerly frozen bacon, ham and pork chops, shipped in from the Mainland) unless you go hunting. But, I do eat chicken and beef raised (hopefully) humanely and free of drugs because it’s better for the animals and for the eater’s good health as well.
I started changing my meat buying and eating habits after learning a bit about the way commercial meat is produced in our world today. It is completely disgusting and immoral. I also read Molly Ivans’ book BUSHWACKED and learned about how all of our regulatory agencies were disempowered by the Bushes and how the incidence of food borne illness has risen substantially since this time. This has continued to be true. Finally, I started reading others on the subject of food, meat eating, etc. and concluded that I needed to take action in whatever small ways I could. Humanely raised, happy, healthy animals – those are the ones I am willing to eat. I buy my meats and produce directly from the farmers (folks I have gotten to know and trust). I eat less but I eat much better. I try hard to patronize only restaurants with a committment to the slow food movement. I try to think before I eat. It is a little more expensive and a little more trouble…but it is worth it. I have far more trust in the food I eat now and it tastes worlds better!
free range is stupid. Pigs are going die anyways and they grow faster in a confined area so that disease dont get in and the farmer can get paid sooner for the animal.;
Watch the food INC movie and you will have a change of mind on how you eat!!!!!
I also want everyone to look up Kevins law !!!!!
I would love to see a survey on the subject. I know dozens of folks who are committed to eating pastured/sustainably raised pork. No one cares about eating “wild” animals. People who eat this way care about having respect for the animals that give their lives for our tables. This focus is on ethical eating. Ethical eating has been on the minds of humans since the beginning of time – it is not about wildness, it is about gratitude and respect. We also care about doing all we can for the earth we live on – not poisoning it with unnecessary chemicals or fouling the downstream ecosystem, etc.