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2K views 21 replies 13 participants last post by  haypoint 
#1 ·
I've listened to some pasture Pig Farmers talk proudly about not feeding their pigs "Animal by-products". I don't get it. Aren't pigs omnivores? Even if you're not feeding pigs animal by-products, aren't they eating animals in the field? A mouse, rat, rabbit, bird, chicken eggs, etc, the pig may come across in the pasture? What's the big deal about not feeding your pig part of the natural diet of an omnivore? Or am I just simply misunderstanding the phrase "animal by-products"?
 
#4 ·
Some eggs are marketed as "Vegetarian", but anyone that has free range knows chickens aren't vegetarians.
Most people have co ncerns over their food. Most people cannot research every food ingredient. They depend on what they think the words mean. Food producers capitalize on this by inventing words that seem to be good or better.
Stores can increase sales by marketing their meat as "pasture raised", but that is meaningless. Adding "hormone-free" on chicken creates the false belief that some chickens are fed hormones. Not true. But it sells product.
Few people know that makeup and lipstick comes from piles of animal guts, hooves and hide. All by-products.
Because of "Mad Cow", BSE, cow, goat and sheep by-products are not added to cattle feed. But millions of pounds of animal byproducts are added to other feed.
Rendering plants collect guts, bones, used cooking oils, trimmed fat, hooves. Thee oils are made into bio-diesel. The hard fats to cosmetics. The rest is ground and cooked into a product that looks like greasy coffee grounds. It is tested for contaminates and then added to livestock feed.
When you buy pet food that says beef, chicken or pork, do you really think it is ground rump roast, chicken breast or pork loin? Spleen from a cow is beef, feathers from a hen is chicken and pig lungs are pork.
I see lots of so called livestock feed that has for the primary ingredient "grain by-products". That's not grain, folks. That's almost grain.
 
#7 ·
Hogs have eaten anything that falls into the pens and their own. I have seen chickens eat snakes, lizards and kill and eat baby chicks other chickens eggs and just about anything they can nibble a piece off of.

Tempest in a tea pot I recall some of the arctic explorers ate their shoe tongues and sled dogs and I am sure the lashings.

Chitterlings are guts and natural casings.
 
#8 ·
The big thing with pigs is trichinosis. Eating animals infected with trichinosis will cause your pork to need cooking. Most of the general populace can't be trusted to cook their pork before eating it, so "animal by-product free" adds an extra layer of food safety in some people's minds. The reality is that mice and rats are huge trichinosis carriers, and there really is no guarantee that infected rat or mouse parts won't end up in hog feed no matter what type of operation it is.
 
#11 ·
Our Conservation Department is trying to say Feral Hogs are uneatable. So people won't hunt them. Thing is people including me have ate them for years.

big rockpile
 
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#14 ·
Our Conservation Department is trying to say Feral Hogs are uneatable. So people won't hunt them. Thing is people including me have ate them for years.

big rockpile

Unless they have been poisoned, drugged, or have been eating in a contaminated soil site, I would say they are more healthy to eat than confinement raised hogs fed factory processed food. They are what hog was intended to be. Nature is feral. Feral just isnt nearly as profitable to the money people.
 
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#17 ·
My feral chickens taste way better than commercial poultry on a diet that includes maggoty roadkill. The wild or heritage woods raised pork I have eaten has all been better than commercial cardboard, I mean pork. Of course, we always fed old boars to the dogs and ate sows or young pigs. Sometimes we cut one and turned him back loose. If you could bay one of those the next year it was some dang fine eating.

It may come as news to some, but actually cooking your meat can kill pathogens in it. So you can actually take wild pork, or milk that has been harvested by illegal immigrants that dropped the inflations in manure and didn't spot a mastitic cow in the string, and you can cook that and make it safe for human consumption.

As a pest control professional, I can tell you that there is no such thing as a vermin free container. It is still probably a good idea to cook pork from a grocery store. They really ought to consider purposefully infecting commercial hogs with trichinosis. Charlie Darwin needs a lot of help these days from the looks of things. I understand why the commercial hog industry is trying to promote the idea that their product is trichinosis free. Cooking their inferior product to trichinosis safe temperatures renders a near flavorless substance to a tough and flavorless substance.
 
#22 ·
This sounds like factory farm promoted propaganda
I understand how you feel. It is always tough when the way things are runs counter to how we wish they were.
I wish Whole Foods didn't have far more tainted and recalled food than any other food store.
I wish people didn't get sick from drinking raw milk each month.
I wish pastured pigs were kept on grassy pastures.
I wish pastured pork was healthier for the pigs.
I wish pastured poultry was healthier for the chickens.
I wish old time plowing and weed cultivation reduced topsoil erosion over modern no till methods.
I wish organic gardening and orchards didn't use toxic chemicals.
But I'd be wrong.
But, I am willing to face the truth and not engage in class warfare. Feel free to try it.
 
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