Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
8
Communities
Paul and Phyllis Willis
The individuals in the preceding quotes, and thousands like us
across the country, bear many of the costs associated with indus-
trial meat, egg, and dairy production. Factory farms, also known
as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), have become
the dominant way of raising farm animals in the United States.
Phyllis and I have been farming since 1976. We started raising
pigs when a neighbor called me and said he had a sow with five
pigs and he would sell me the sow and give me the pigs. Within a
year, I had ten female pigs. I borrowed a boar from a neighbor, and
four months later we had seventy piglets. We continued expanding
our herd and accumulating outdoor huts and started raising pigs
on pasture in a natural system much the way I had learned as a boy
working with my father. My job back then was to ride my bicycle to
the field and check on the pigs twice a day.
Fast forward to today. We now have over 500 farmers in the
Niman Ranch Pork Company, and Phyllis and I have had visitors
from all over the world just because we are raising pigs the right
way and not producing protein units in a pollution factory.
Industrial factory farms tend to cluster in regions where input
costs are lower and environmental regulations are more lenient;
Paul Willis serves as the manager of Niman Ranch Pork Company and is the owner
and operator of the Willis Free Range Pig Farm in Thornton, Iowa. Phyllis Willis is a
community activist.
