1) Please disregard the egregious grammatical error in the title of this post.
2) I should be talking about making baby pigs but I had a burning topic to discuss first.
Late the other night, I had stopped in a small town to fuel up. A random man walking through the parking lot saw our company logo on my truck, walked over and asked what we did. After I replied that we raised pigs, he asked, "You feed all them pigs them hormones and stuff?". I actually get this type of question quite often. Usually, however, the person asking will listen to my response. This particular guy decided to cut me off mid-sentence and began talking about something unrelated. I just pumped my gas and he walked away. I know this story was a bit anticlimactic but illustrates a point- many people think that we "pump our pigs full of hormones".
Well folks, if you are one of the people that think this, I'm here to make your day. We DO NOT feed or inject our growing pigs with hormones. In fact, I can say that about all pork products could carry the label "no hormones added- ever".
I understand that you may be skeptical because, when you are perusing the meat aisle, you may come across a package that looks something like this:
If you happen to notice there are two asterisks by the hormone free label. If we take a closer look we find this statement:
In the interest of full disclosure, there are a few hormone products that are occasionally prescribed for reproductive therapy in sows. For example, oxytocin (same as pitocin used in humans) can be used if a sow needs assistance farrowing. These products are only used as needed and a withdrawal time is observed before an animal that received that product can enter the food chain. This withdrawal time allows the product to be completely excreted from the animal's body so that there is no risk to food safety.
I know that this may seem confusing but unfortunately this hormone myth has been propagated as a marketing tool and as a way to further vilify the modern pork production system. Pigs do grow faster than they did 50 years ago but that is a direct result of genetic improvement through selective breeding and excellent nutrition (more on these topics later). I love to eat pork and am confident that the products I buy are produced in a safe, conscientious manner regardless of the what the label says.
Since we are all clear on the hormone situation, you may be wondering about antibiotics. Again, that is a topic that is horrendously misconstrued. We'll talk about the facts on that in a later post. Stay thirsty (for knowledge) my friends.
Thanks so much for this post! The marketing, while completely legal, is so deceptive and confusing for consumers. I had to print out that documentation for mom's nutritionist last week because even she didn't know any better.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the "fine print" and the truth!
ReplyDeleteDon't you think the person knows there are things feed to pork that he doesn't like but doesn't know what they are called? If he had come up and mentioned things like ractopamine and antibiotics what would you have told him?
ReplyDeletegreat post, love your blog!
ReplyDeleteGreat piece, I get so sick of how Chipotle vilifies the American meat producer.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone for your comments. Hamons- Thanks for bringing up these issues. I appreciate everyone who is concerned about the safety of their food and what goes into making it. Like you, those of us involved in producing food also eat and want the safest, most wholesome products available. I will dig into the topics that you mentioned in later posts but to quickly address the issue, I do on occasion prescribe antibiotics to improve animal well-being and promote animal health. This also has benefits to human health because it leads to safer food products. We have the responsibility to use antibiotics responsibly and adhere to strict withdrawal times prior to harvest to ensure that no antibiotic residues remain. Ractopamine is a product that is widely used throughout the world and is extremely safe. It is not a hormone but does help the animal convert fat tissue into muscle tissue. From a sustainability standpoint, this allows us to better utilize and even reduce resources such as feed and water to raise livestock and provides a lean, nutritious source of protein for a hungry world.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the input!