Page 28 - aruba-today-20161231

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 31 december 2016

Race to save rare breed of pig hinges on eating them

PATRICK WHITTLE hardiness and high yields
Associated Press of meat and lard, said
WASHINGTON, Maine Darlene Goehringer, a
(AP) — Susan Frank and mulefoot farmer in Hurlock,
her dogs spend their days Maryland.
shepherding hairy, black “If nobody wants them
pigs with names like Bacon, for pork, who would keep
Pork Chop and Yummy them?” Goehringer said.
around a chunk of Maine “This isn’t like raising a par-
woods. Her farm, which rot.” The drive to save the
raises and fattens the rare mulefoot is motivated in
American mulefoot hogs part by the importance of
for slaughter, is essential to preserving genetic stock,
their survival, she believes. said Jeannette Beranger,
Frank’s mulefoots are rep- a programs director with
resentative of a breed that the Livestock Conservan-
was once the rarest of all cy. Mulefoots, like other
U.S. livestock according to old breeds of livestock, are
some agricultural census- genetic storehouses that
es, and remains critically can’t be replicated if they
rare, according to the Live- become extinct, she said.
stock Conservancy. There “Even though we’re not
are fewer than 500 regis- going to feed the world
tered, purebred, breeding with mulefoot hogs, the
mulefoots in the country In this Thursday, Dec. 8, 2016, three-day-old mulefoot piglets nuzzle their mother at Dogpatch reason you want to keep
(they are even more un- Farm in Washington, Maine. them around is because
common elsewhere), and Associated Press they might have qualities
that might not be present
France bans pesticides Frank’s Dogpatch Farm was the subject of a vibrant in other commercial hogs,”
Beranger said.
accounts for a dozen of industry including some 200
in public green spaces them, along with some 170 herds a century ago. But its Frank’s farm has 20 acres
of fenced-in birch, beech
others, some of which are tendency for slow growth
cross-breeds. and small litters reduced and hornbeam trees
PARIS (AP) — French chil- by French lawmakers that The way to save declining its appeal for industrial pig where the hogs roam free,
dren will soon be able to also includes a ban on plas- breeds of livestock, she ar- farming, and the mulefoot noshing on feed pellets
frolic in the grass without risk tic bags for vegetables. gues, is to get people to eat was down to just one sig- and the occasional apple
of intoxication. Pesticides The pesticide ban covers them — thereby increasing nificant herd in Missouri a or pumpkin. She wants to
will be banned in all pub- public forests, parks and demand that will lead to decade ago, when a slow organize a food festival
lic green spaces from Sun- gardens, but local authori- more breeding. She wants drive to save the breed be- based around mulefoot
day while non-professional ties are still allowed to use the mulefoot restored to its gan. products, with some winer-
gardeners will no longer pesticides in cemeteries. early 20th-century status as Frank got into the business ies and breweries.
be able to buy pesticides The new law also stipulates a premier pig. in 2012 after acquiring her Until then, she’ll be rais-
over the counter. The new that pesticides will be pro- The U.S. Department of first three purebreds. The ing her pigs and working
measure is part of a larger hibited in private gardens Agriculture is listening. pigs were popular with to convince restaurants in
green program adopted from 2019.q The agency is giving her small farmers and home- food-crazy places like Port-
$50,000 to help increase steaders because of their land, Boston and New York
interest in products made to use their meat.q
with mulefoot meat, and
Frank is spreading her gos-
pel to chefs, restaurants
and markets around New
England and New York.
“I know it sounds weird,
but you have to eat a
rare breed to help it come
back,” she said. “I see it as
a way to spread the word
about mulefoot.”
The mulefoot is named for
its non-cloven hoof, and