This past weekend I worked at the Pennsylvania Renewable Energy Festival.  While driving there on Sunday morning, I got stuck behind a massive truck.  I noticed something moving inside the truck and realized I was boxed in by 3 livestock trucks.  Finally, after peering in closely I recognized the skin of pigs.  These pigs were stacked to the roof, heading to slaughter.  I began to think about the repercussions of decisions I make.

Those pigs were going to slaughter, getting butchered and then shipped throughout all of the US as food.  It doesn’t matter that some people in the immediate region would buy meat from those pigs, those pigs will still be divied up at the packing plant and sent to various different locations.

We talk about efficiencies all the time..this is extremely inefficient!!!  Why waste so much energy?  I say this because there are plenty of pig farmers in my immediate area that are struggling to find outlets to sell their meat.  This is the problem of the grocery store.

Why do we need a middle man? We now have plenty of farmer’s markets.  The more farmer’s markets grow, the better food we get, the healthier we become and the less energy we waste.

Next time you buy pork…think twice about it.  Don’t buy the factory farmed pork, buy the pastured pork raised with a good life!

Industrial pigs heading to slaughter.

Pasture Raised Turkeys:

Turkeys out on pasture.