Pork
Production
Pork production is an important
component of American agriculture and an important part of the American
diet and way of life. Fewer than100,000 farms were producing pork in 2000
with production is concentrated in the Corn Belt states and in North Carolina.
Modern pork production is mostly done in enclosed buildings to protect
animals from the weather, from predators and from the spread of diseases.
While larger operations enabled farmers to significantly increase the
efficiency of production using less labor, it resulted in environmental
challenges with larger amounts of manure concentrated in a small area.
This module will look at pork production as it has evolved over the past
300 years in the U.S., at the economic value of pork to the U.S. and American
agriculture and at typical production and manure handling systems in use
today.
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