Hog Confinements shouldn't be around!

 As many of you know, most any pork that we buy at the store comes from a building like the one shown in the picture to the left. These buildings are a source of income for both the farmer and the contractor.

 The farmer receives around $40 dollars per hog space, and takes care of the pigs and makes sure his barn is working properly and is UP TO DATE. And the contractor provides feed, medicines, and other essential items for the pigs.

 First. Lets review one of these barns. Most of them here in Iowa are made up on a 10ft deep as the foundation, from concrete. The "Slats" can then be placed around this foundation and turn it into a "lagoon", The lagoon hold all of the urine and feces that the hogs will convey. If you look closely in the picture above you will see that the pits are starting to OVERFLOW in the hog confinement barn.

 These large confinement operations are just not the right environment for a pig. The temperature is constantly high in the barns, the humidity is way up to. And the smell is outrageous. Not only that, but take a good look at these pigs in the picture above. They are crowded and they have very little room to move around. The confinements are a very stressful environment for the pigs and lead them to have tougher meat after butcher due to the fact that most of their lives we're VERY stressful. They are never given the chance to see the light of day or to rut in a little dirt like they are naturally suppose to. Until China bought  Smithfield Foods®, America was the only nation that had hog confinements in the WORLD! That, to me, is astonishing. But the worst part is disease. New hog disease develop ALL of the time. And to think, before confinement barns we around, hog disease was scarce. It was their, but NOT on the level it has gotten to today. The last P.E.D epidemic was devastating to a lot of producers!

 Now. On top of the above writing, the worst part is that the pigs are feed a medicated ration constantly. The producer thinks that this will "help" the pigs survive the rough environment of the hog confinement. They also have medicated water supplies and when they are young until they get to the finisher barn are shot it shots every other day or so. The pigs are honestly more prone to dying, or getting a disease then they are when they are free ranged or even outdoors on concrete. Pigs love the sun and the natural environment. Watch the video below if you have never been in a hog confinement barn to get a taste of how it is.