The artisanal product would be pigs such as those raised by Willis and the 430 farmers he has recruited for the Niman Ranch Pork Co. from 12 states -- 10 in the Midwest, plus Virginia and North Carolina. His business, which he sometimes calls "free-range pigs," started 10 years ago and is growing by about 20 percent a year.
Whole Foods Market is a major customer. Others are Chipotle Mexican Grill, owned by McDonald's, and upscale restaurants.
For Paul Willis, letting hardy pigs "explore and rut and run around" is a blow against the "industrial paradigm."
(Peter Slevin - Peter Slevin -- The Washington Post)
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Niman farmers are bringing back hardy breeds of hog, which they let run and root outdoors. This avoids confinement and antibiotics alike.
Boosters argue that fatter and moderately muscled pigs make tastier dishes. What Willis calls an "industrial pig" is bred to be what the business calls 56 percent lean, whereas Niman favors 48 to 51 percent lean.
Then there's the happiness factor. It may be a taste component that cannot be proved, but Willis swears by it.
"A pig likes nothing better than a 20-degree day in winter, when it's sunny and they can play in the snow," said Willis, once a poor farmer who considers his work a crusade against the "industrial paradigm." He has an endorsement from the Animal Welfare Institute and tries to recruit like-minded farmers, including those who surrendered to the market but want another chance.
"We're not pork producers. We're hog farmers," Willis said. "We're marketing two things. We're marketing an opportunity for farmers, and we're marketing pork to consumers. Maybe we can do a small part in renewing the countryside."
Chipotle developed an ad campaign around the concept, with one poster that announces from Thornton, "Welcome to Porkutopia," and another that says, "For pigs, it's the good life. . . . Try the pork in your burrito, taco or bol. It may just be the nicest meal this side of Thornton, Iowa."
Artisanal pork. Pastured pork. Free-range pork. Natural pork. All are names for the work Willis and a growing number of similar farm operations across the country are performing. Another term for it is "niche pork," signifying the limits of the sector's reach. Yet it may be that the high-end hogs are influencing consumer tastes just as human dietary preferences are breaking with recent patterns.
"It has been a remarkable yield for pork demand. It's the perfect storm," said Steve Meyer, an Iowa consultant and former chief economist at the National Pork Board. He said avian flu in Asia and scattered bans on imported beef helped the U.S. industry, and that Atkins "gave permission to those who weren't on the diet to eat more meat."
Yet Meyer is another economist fascinated by the pork phenomenon who found himself exploring nonstatistical explanations.
"I have zero evidence, but I think after September 11 there was a degree of fatalism that entered American thinking," Meyer said. "Some of us said life's too short to eat tofu and greens. Life's too short, and I want a steak."
