Potbelly Pig for meat *GRAPHIC PICS*

misfitmorgan

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I believe the marbling game in came along in pork when berks had a surge in popularity and commercial production. Berks are known for good marbling. Other newer/fewer breeds are also touted for their marbling like the mangalista. It does seem to be a rather new phenomenon.

We used to have old style pigs some where lard pigs and some were meat pigs and some were dual but by todays commercial standards almost all of them would have failed to make the cut. To slow to grow, bad feed to meat conversion, to much lard left on the carcass, etc. So the goal was to cut the lard, to make lean pigs. In making lean pigs the meat was less marbled but no one cared because it was a lean pig which ment more healthy(marketing). Now after decades of being promoted to flavorless food people are going the other way.

We are a country that has been trained and guided to "like" what is the easier and cheapest to raise/manufacture, what is identical and to be appalled by nature and the natural state of foods. Pork is/was one of the most heavily promoted industries and will continue to be for as long as people are satisfied with commercial pork. You can find old (pre-1960) adverts and videos all over the internet touting the benefits of the "new" lean pork available. How it was so nice for house wives to have a product they could count on to always be the same, and a bunch of other junk we now think of as this is how meat is...

When it came down to choosing whether the government should promote chicken or rabbit as a "top" meat the deciding factor was that house wives found it easier to clean and prepare chicken then rabbit. Otherwise the top meats would be beef, pork and rabbit.

As far as people asking how to get a stronger flavor or not, we actually discuss that with many people, that is why people are interested in buying our pork....the stronger flavor. This is the same reason people are interested in buying slightly slower growing farm raised chicken, more flavor. It is very similar to a store bought everyday tomato and a garden tomato, most people want the garden version because.....stronger flavor.

The mild flavor of modern commercial pork is due to the bland diet (mostly corn and soy), being butchered very young, and many lean modern breeds actually have a anemic problem....that is why pork is the other white meat.

The pork industry saw the problem and they saw it was "off-putting" to house wives because the meat was not the right. So the industry lowered the price of pork so much housewives could not afford not to buy it and they started the largest ad campaigns in the National Pork Boards history which was "Pork...the other white meat". This worked because chicken was the cheapest meat at the time and it was white and it what people grew to want because they had it a lot. The average consumer associated white meat with healthy meat, even though pork is not a white meat it is actually a red meat in nutritional terms. This ad campaign helped pork sales raise by 20% nationwide.
 

Pastor Dave

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A pale tomatoe from Chile in winter has no taste.
Give me a fresh, home-raised tomatoe any day!
Same with meat, milk, etc, etc.
 

greybeard

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I remember stories of settlers passed down through their children to my Grandpa that hogs were ear notched or maybe tagged and neighbors' swine ran loose together until a roundup time in Fall for butchering. Everybody found their own and separated them, then neighbors helped each other butcher so they could salt pack and or smoke the meat.

The hogs scavanged for roots and nuts, maybe ate small critters as omnivores, but ate and lived wild and most likely maintained that flavor much like a deer or elk over grain fed beef of today.

I've seen this in my own lifetime, ending sometime in the mid1970s while I was overseas..
Both swine and cattle ran wild here in this county, as it was still an open range county when I was young.
You fenced property to keep people's livestock OUT..not your own in, and even today, the only fence law the state has is in regards to how good your fence needs to be to keep stock OUT..

Yep, usually in late spring and sometimes the fall, long lines of stock trailers along the roads, and the baying of dogs meant roundup was underway. They built temporary holding pens all over the forest and drove or enticed cattle and hogs in to them.Ear notching, collecting calves and pigs to carry to sale and branding all took place almost on the side of the roads.
There were also pits dug and temp fences strung to drive the stock into the pits, which were filled with water and insecticide to treat the hogs and cattle for parasites (mostly ticks).
There was a cross county fence and cattle guards on all the county roads where the county line ended and entrance to town. you can still see cattle guards on the drive way of some houses between here and town, left over from that era even tho the livestock are long gone and none of those places are farms anymore
 

greybeard

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The pork industry saw the problem and they saw it was "off-putting" to house wives because the meat was not the right. So the industry lowered the price of pork so much housewives could not afford not to buy it and they started the largest ad campaigns in the National Pork Boards history which was "Pork...the other white meat". This worked because chicken was the cheapest meat at the time and it was white and it what people grew to want because they had it a lot. The average consumer associated white meat with healthy meat, even though pork is not a white meat it is actually a red meat in nutritional terms. This ad campaign helped pork sales raise by 20% nationwide.
Not to mention that beef got priced out of many consumers' budget.
I did notice a new pork campaign a few years ago, that didn't really inspire me to go right out and order up a pork chop.
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Pastor Dave

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That would have been something to experience GB. Indiana was too settled by then. We have the cattle guards at driveways, but I believe it was to help keep cattle in if they should get loose. I can see it working well to keep them out of one's property though.

My Grandparents were all born in 1916 with exception of Mom's father that had 5 years on Grandma. My Dad's parents were born on Indiana's centennial year. We had killed off most of the bears, and wolves, and pushed Natives to the West. We had cleared timber and fenced in farms and were "civilized" by then. Haha

It's still amazing the progression Grandpa saw in automation, electricity, plumbing, and so many other technologies we take for granted.
 

Baymule

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@greybeard Trinity county was still open range up to 1981 or 1982. What amazed me was that people's horses still came home every night for feed.
 

rodeogirl

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There are a lot of places in Wyoming that are still open range. I also believe that wyoming is a fence out state for cattle mules and horses.
 

misfitmorgan

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Michigan is still open range in many places but you must have a permit to do so, we are still a fence out state but some judges are over turning that where large amounts of damage are done.
 
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