Phillip Calmer has been farming on his 150-year-old family farm in northwest Iowa for half a century, upholding his family's legacy of sustainable and humane pig farming. Today, he and his wife Jody grow 1,200 acres of corn and soybeans, raise pigs outdoors, and support three staff members including their sons. But the Calmers emphasize that their family-scale, independent farm is not typical for Iowa.

“Nothing is like it was when we were growing up,” says Phillip. “Main Street would be fuller on the weekends. We had a theater and two or three grocery stores, bars, and clothing stores. And now, it’s all gone…It’s like that all over [rural Iowa]. Every town’s struggling.”

Iowa is the top hog-producing state in the United States, producing almost one-third of the country’s pork. But widespread farm consolidation has contributed to the deterioration of many rural communities. According to the U.S. Census of Agriculture data, from 1982 to 2017, the state’s hog production tripled while the number of farms with hogs fell by 86 percent.

“[These large companies] own millions of hogs…the hogs have never seen the light of day. They are totally closed up. It’s just like being in jail,” says Phillip.

Raising pigs humanely and in the fresh air and sunshine was never a question for the Calmers. “It’s the only way we know how,” Phillip says, but in an area dominated by confinement farms, “it’s really very, very unconventional.”

This philosophy fit well with Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent family farmers and ranchers that uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices in exchange for access to a stable, premium market for their products. Phillip and Jody joined Niman Ranch more than 10 years ago. They say that without it, they would not be able to make a living off sustainable and humane pig farming alone.

“I might be a truck driver or something,” says Phillip, regarding his potential pivot from a career in sustainable and humane pig farming. “Because there isn’t any money in commercial hog farming.”

Read the full article about sustainable and humane hog farming by Emily Payne at Food Tank.