Together, midsize pork producers aim at niche markets

Food & Drink Weekly, August 1, 2005

Together, midsize pork producers aim at niche markets: After the hog market crash of 1998-99, four hog producers in Hubbard, Iowa, decided to band together to save their midsize farms. Now called Iowa Farm Families, the business sells branded pork products processed from 5,000 hogs a year to grocery stores and restaurants across Iowa and is expanding its marketing efforts to the East and West coasts.

Targeting specific markets for organic pork, antibiotic-free swine, or hogs raised outdoors instead of in a confinement building can offer an alternative to the "bigger is better" mind-set that requires farmers to produce as much as possible as cheaply as possible, said Gary Huber, coordinator of a niche-market working group for Practical Farmers of Iowa.