One hundred years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find a family in Appalachia that didn't raise hogs — especially among families of limited means. Tradition and necessity sustained hog raising for generations, shaping local economies and ways of life. Have a conversation with a native Appalachian over the age of 75, and if you listen long enough, you will undoubtedly hear a story with a hog at the center of it. Today, many adults have never laid eyes on a live pig outside of a county fair.
So, what happened to the Appalachian tradition of raising hogs?
To answer that question, we first have to understand why the practice was so common. Hogs were particularly well suited to families with little money because they required less land and purchased feed than most other large livestock. A pig could largely earn its own living in the woods, supplemented with scraps from the family table and some corn here and there. Hogs root, dig, scratch, and eat whatever they can find on the forest floor.
I recently heard from a farmer whose group of nearly finished hogs was consuming 500 pounds of feed per day. Shortly before slaughter, the farmer moved the hogs into a large acorn grove, where they barely touched their feed for two weeks. Forest-raised hogs may not finish as quickly as the animals raised in the concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, that supply most of the pork Americans eat today. In the right setting, however, pigs can find much of their own sustenance.
Historical accounts frequently describe children being put in charge of the family pig. Their job was to follow the animal through the woods and make sure it did not wander away. This allowed the pig to forage while reducing the family's feed bill. In effect, the family traded labor for the cost of feed. People with almost no money could use their own labor and the resources around them to produce food.
Families also cut distinctive notches into their pigs' ears to identify ownership, much like cattle were branded in the West. Those markings were especially important when several families allowed their hogs to forage in the same woods.
But that was not the hog's only advantage. Nearly every part of the animal could be used, and much of its meat could be preserved. In a world without refrigeration, this allowed families to store food for long periods. Along with a hog, nearly every farm had a smokehouse.
Hams and pork bellies were cured during the cold of winter and stored in the smokehouse until needed. Properly cured meat could remain edible for an extended period without a freezer. That can be difficult to imagine today, when even shelf-stable foods carry "sell-by" dates. A century ago, however, families might still be eating cured pork in the fall from a hog slaughtered the previous winter.
Fat was rendered into lard for cooking, preserving valuable calories for the times when families needed them most. There was not a grocery store offering abundant choices on every corner. Families had to protect themselves against scarcity and preserve what they harvested. For that purpose, hogs were nearly unmatched.
Now that we understand why hogs were so important, we can consider what happened to the tradition.
Refrigeration drastically changed the availability of commercially raised meat. When families wanted pork, they could increasingly buy it from a store. They no longer needed a smokehouse or had to cure most of their meat. Refrigerated transportation also brought commercially produced meat to communities that previously had little access to it. Pork gradually stopped being tied to the seasons as it had been in the past.
At the same time, industrialization drew people away from their homes and farms. Americans increasingly punched a clock and worked for wages outside the household. They had less time at home and less opportunity to raise their own food. Transportation changed, forests became less productive for grazing, and cash income grew more important. For many people, it became easier to earn a wage and use that money to buy food from a grocery store.
Industrialization also brought large companies that purchased land Appalachians had customarily used to forage and graze their animals. Families were pushed onto smaller parcels with less access to woodland and a more limited ability to produce feed. This, in turn, made them increasingly reliant on the commercial food system.
In my opinion, one of the greatest losses during this transition was the sense of community that surrounded the family hog. I have heard stories from older Appalachians who remembered entire groups gathering to slaughter their pigs. A dozen families might walk their hogs down the road to the home of a neighbor known for butchering. They would trade, celebrate, cure their meat, and reap the harvest together.
When was the last time we heard of families coming together to accomplish the shared goal of feeding their families?
We may never return to a time when every family kept a pig in the backyard and neighbors gathered for butchering day. Still, I believe we would benefit from coming together with our local communities and breaking bread. It is possible to enjoy the conveniences of modern society without forsaking the people and relationships around us.
Today, we have the privilege of gathering by choice rather than necessity. We should not waste it.