Pork that tastes of sewage

[grgsrvc]

Willagro how do you know what sewage
tastes like?

[Jay-mo]

Obviously, good pork needs to start with a good quality hog. The point I was making is that the butchering, cutting and wrapping has a large part to play in the final product.

I totally disagree with your comment on barn or pasture raised pork.
Maybe the thought that your pork chop once frolicked in some imaginary grassy glade helps it taste better, but I've seen lots of pasture fed pigs who spend most of their day neck deep in a mixture of mud and their own $hit, when the nice clean straw pile beside them goes ignored.
They're pigs, if they want to cool off they find the nearest source of muck, whatever it may be.

[wilagro]

grgsrvc: I know what it smells like...I have toured these "factory farms" where the stench was almost unbearable.

[tman]

I don't fall for any game that anyone plays. "there is very little the
rancher/farmer does that affects the meat"...wow, that scares me when someone says that. It shows me extreme ignorance or denial.

I have formed my opinion of how meat should be raised and produced after working in 5 feedlots in Western Canada and the States. A lot of people like grain fed and that's great.

I have eaten grain fed beef that tasted great and I've eaten grain fed beef that tasted so bad I threw it out. I've eaten grass beef that tasted great but I've never had to throw any of that meat out. Mind you 99% of it has been from our own animals. Dad use to feed grain to the animals and that meat tasted good too.

But if you can have just as good of meat from grass as from grain, why not do it. It's healthier for us and the animal.

[skhadenuf]

There is no doubt that the "factory farm" style pigs do taste different well plain and simple sometimes like shit, no way an animal standing above it's own crap 24/7 is not going to absorb some of that smell, but I do think some of it is what feed they are on also, corn vs peas wheat etc. I truly miss the good old days we used to butcher our own on the farm, fortunately we have a neighbor that lets his animals outside, not totally wide open free range but big enough space during summer, winter he has huts with heatlamps, great tasting product. Should note the local hutterites buy his pork even though they have their own barns they won't eat their own pigs due to the methane smell of the meat.

[skhadenuf]

There is no doubt that the "factory farm" style pigs do taste different well plain and simple sometimes like shit, no way an animal standing above it's own crap 24/7 is not going to absorb some of that smell, but I do think some of it is what feed they are on also, corn vs peas wheat etc. I truly miss the good old days we used to butcher our own on the farm, fortunately we have a neighbor that lets his animals outside, not totally wide open free range but big enough space during summer, winter he has huts with heatlamps, great tasting product. Should note the local hutterites buy his pork even though they have their own barns they won't eat their own pigs due to the methane smell of the meat.

[grgsrvc]

I was trying to get the point across that the big meat buyers/packers don't like to be
liable for their product and like to download the liability onto the farmer/rancher
whenever they can. I can say this though the modern "factory farm" has a much safer
meat product then some pasture raised disease ridden worm infested hog out wallowing
in the muck/crap that is their hovel. The modern hog barn uses water misters to
shower the hogs down when the temps are to hot. they don't lay in their feces as the
floors are completely slatted. And if the methane gases were that concentrated to get
into the meat the hogs would be coming out of the barns on gurneys instead of walking
out on all eight hooves.

If you have a bone to pick about the meat taste of pork go to the pork producer not
the Hog farmer. Obviously taste is very subjective to the individual but it is hard
to measure adjectivally. So I really can't put any credibility into anyone saying
"something tastes better 50 years ago because of this reason" type of rhetoric. Give
me the facts dude not some conjecture based on your own preconceived opinions.

[skhadenuf]

Well sounds like you are a so called factory farm style producer, I am a customer. When I run out of pork from my neighbor I buy at the store. I can't tell you exactly scientifically how many times I bought pork from the store and as a matter of fact it tasted like shit in my opinion, it tasted like old boar pork, in fact other times the whole house stunk to the point we threw it out and couldn't stomach to eat much else after that. But what do I know I am only a consumer. Keep producing your mistified with water pigs loaded up with every chemical there is to make them grow, keep them healthy? ??? standing one beside the other all nice and clean and shiney on top of the grated floor covering that sludge of shit and chemicals, that don't smell right?
Also a fact some of those producing in those kinda barns are buying the stuff they eat from my neighbor, they say it's the taste but hey maybe it's knowing what they put into them who knows but that's a fact they do it.
I guess you're right since I am only a consumer I shouldn't tell you my experience so you could fix the problem because you're not interested in hearing it, so from now on I maybe won't take a chance at all on the store stuff and just eat something else.

[grgsrvc]

I will take umbrage to the allegation that hogs are loaded up with
chemicals. Fact of the mater is hogs are not allowed to be shipped
for slaughter with drug residues in their system. I can say with
great certainty that hog producers do not run around all day with a
needle shooting up every critter that looks cross eyed at them. If
there is a problem needling the hog is a cure for the symptom and
the good operator instead looks for a solution to the problem and
does not needle every hog to solve it.

[Jay-mo]

I keep hearing about these store bought, "factory" raised pork products that skhadenough and friends keep having to throw out because they stink so bad.
Where the heck are you guys shopping at???
My guess is that it happened once about 20 years ago and everytime they re-tell the story they add another imaginary incident.

[skhadenuf]

Pick 10 people on the street that have eaten both store bought and farm bought and ask if there is a difference, not even close results. Problem with a few younger and city people is that they have never tasted the more traditional way of all meats pork beef chicken etc. they don't even know there is something actually tastes what it is supposed to taste like.
As far as imagination you keep imagining you have a good product, I could care less if the factory style production ended or not like I said have a good neighbor producing what I like. People are coming around to the propaganda about all these things being good and "safe" to eat, but it will in time.
As far as the crap I threw out that was just last fall not good odds when I don't buy that much to begin with, haven't bought any from store since, besides processed stuff occassionally. Get a real kick out of factory people talking about the worm infested disease open range hogs, how exactly do you get rid of your worms and disease, by using chemicals, in small confined areas 1 gets it they all get it so pretty much all have to be vaccinated, maybe read a few papers as to where more difficult mutating diseases are coming from.
And I am not saying every intensive operation has people walking around constantly with needles, some are better managed than others, or have had better luck not getting diseases etc. but how do you know which one your getting in the store?

[grgsrvc]

Now you are trying to use statistics "pick 10 people and ask them"
You just lost your argument. As Mark Twain so famously said "Lies,
Dammed Lies and Statistics. Anytime you try to use conjecture like
that you only sway the unenlightened to your side of the debate. If
you want to have a debate about whether there should be 10,000 sow
vertically integrated farms or smaller two employee style 250 sow
barns, and whether one will produce a better meat product. I have no
problem with that. But to lump every hog producer into the "they all
have meat that tastes yucky" category is just not right.

As a consumer of Pork you have the right to complain and demand
accountability if you have a bad product. But don't say "the whole
system stinks and we should revert to the way of doing things 100 yrs
ago". Thats not going to happen and neither should it. But you are
allowed to vote with your wallet and go to where you think the better
value is. Just don't smear the whole industry with the same brush as
it just isn't a fair criticism to make. Some farms do need to clean
up their act and others are doing a very good job.

[johnseba]

Same think in my mind that "everyone must be happy with the product that they are getting from the stores".

[johnseba]

Same think in my mind that "everyone must be happy with the product that they are getting from the stores".

[johnseba]

Yeah! BBQ pulled pork is good.