In 2019, after decades of raising conventional pig breeds, I faced a conundrum. I loved the flavor of pork and depended on it as one of my main sources of protein. But purchasing weaned piglets each spring to feed through the summer months and butcher in late fall had become an increasingly fraught endeavor. I was sourcing large amounts of conventionally produced grain from corporate sources at prices that made the eventual pork chops far too spendy for my working-class salary – a situation that violated both my environmental ethics and my budget. And while the young pigs were pleasant and agreeable, their aggression ballooned and their friendliness faded as they swiftly put on weight with their pricey grain-fed diet. They just weren’t any fun. Expensive non-fun.
Pigs of all breeds are intelligent animals, able to form relational bonds and feel fear and pain. As domesticated animals, they exist to feed humans and I was quite willing to kill and eat them, but only under humane conditions that recognized their innate sociability and made their lives and deaths as happy and healthy as possible.
As omnivores, pigs don’t have to consume a diet dependent on irrigation and fertilizers. There are a number of pig breeds – largely ones that haven’t been selected for factory settings – that still eat greens and grass, that are quite happy snuffling about for edible bits of all kinds. Fortuitously, the ability to forage often accompanies the characteristics that I want in pigs – a more gradual growth curve, less aggression, and consistent affability.
I made the switch to KuneKune hogs five years ago, and now consider myself an enthusiastic convert. A great many folks raise KuneKune’s as pets, a role the pigs perform with aplomb and expansive personality. But I reserve my missionary zeal for the way KuneKune’s fit within the farmstead, making use of food scraps, grazing down patches of out-of-the-way grass, unworried about barking dogs and peacefully cohabiting with all manner of fowl, providing delicious meat and abundant lard. KuneKune’s are easy keepers, accepting of fences, able to withstand a range of temperatures and weather conditions with only rudimentary shelter.
Best of all, they are always in the mood for a friendly chat and a scratch. Always.
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