[089723645897236]

The current method of hog farming is basically the worst possible version of traditional farming evolved through technology. Quonset huts, gestation cages, and fecal lagoons. Instead we could have mob grazing free range pig farming integrated with agroforestry, leading to animal waste going directly where it is the most useful i.e. as manure. Even the existing system could be set up to use natural swamp permaculture techniques to filter the waste or even capture in a biogas plant. Instead of lagoons of pig shit we could have useful forest products and methane fuel. Monoculture hog farming is showing it's limits environmentally and agronomically.

The barriers right now are the incumbent methods of farming subsidized by BigGov on behalf of BigAg and BigChem, and the lack of suitable off the shelf technology to make any of these ideas feasible for the average hog farmer. Until then they are going to keep putting up quonset huts and digging shit lagoons.

[drak0n1c]

Hog and wild boar grazing destroys ecosystems because they eat roots and even tear up the roots of plants and trees they don't eat. Hawaii's forests are being killed by boar (http://hawaiianforest.com/wp/species/).

The vision of Hog Cowboys is nice, but how do you ensure the grazing is light and the hogs stay controlled? If they get loose feral boar is a completely different beast than feral cow.