Today, the population continues to grow while the number of farmers declines. This leaves farmers with the large task of feeding more and more people. Pig farmers not only have the task of trying to produce as many pigs as possible but they also face the issue of misconceptions and product labeling. Consumers may hear something that they don’t know much about and they misinterpret it to be something negative. Product labels also make pig farming more difficult because consumers search for products with emotional appeals, but may not necessarily be able to differentiate between the labels.

 

To me, real pig farming is any way of farming that produces pork for consumers. This means pig farming like: conventional, show, pasture raised, organic, and even 4-H type farming. Conventional farming and show pig farming are both very alike but also different. Commercial farms are bigger and want to send out as many pigs as possible and show pig farms want to produce top notch pigs for shows; rather than focusing on more pigs they focus on pigs with show ring characteristics. Then there are also 4-H members raising show pigs by buying them at 60 pounds and raising them until market weight to show and sell them.

 

My point is that regardless of whether someone breeds their own, buys them to raise for a fair, or raises them on a pasture, all pigs are used for the same purpose. Anything a pig farmer does is real pig farming because it is something real that happens everyday to get pigs into the market. I believe that raising show pigs for the show ring is a way of real pig farming; it is just different from farrowing and gestation stalls of a conventional farm.

 

The #RealPigFarming is a social media tool we can use as producers to post things about pigs to explain pig farming and how we raise our pigs. The hashtag allows many posts to be linked together and allows farmers to share facts, images, and answer questions in a way to reach anyone with social media. #RealPigFarming means showing people what happens on pig farms, how pigs are raised, and answering questions. Using social media producers can reach a large audience and get others to see that things that may seem negative, like a farrowing stall, are really to improve animal welfare and to keep piglets safer and healthier. Producers get to explain that keeping animals healthy and safe is the main goal, and that is what #RealPigFarming means.