What's In Your Bacon?

Bacon.  I love it.  I love the fat.  Love the meat-to-fat ratio in my bacon. Delicious with eggs sunny-side up.  Delicious as a snack wrapped in Romaine lettuce leaves.  The perfect hors dourves  with wine or beer.  I want to continue eating bacon, but I want the right kind of bacon, the best kind of bacon.  How do I achieve that?  It depends on what hogs are fed.  I've seen pictures of hogs feeding on grass, but perhaps they are just foraging for something else, something more specific.  A friend of mine writes, "Ever see a wild hog (which are descendant of escaped domesticated pigs).  The meat is fantastic, a little dry maybe, but the critters eat what they normally would eat on their own and survive nicely without one grain of corn or soy.  I, unfortunately, have not had the opportunity to try the bacon from such an animal, but what I have had is wonderful and flavorful.  Pigs, as I understand them, are scavengers for the most part, and eat what they find, including animal flesh." 

Ask.com. Wild hogs eat "mostly acorns in the fall. Other things they eat include hickory nuts, pecans, roots, fruits, mushrooms, bugs, small birds, rabbits, eggs, and even dead animals."  Texas Parks & Wildlife explains that "Feral hogs are omnivorous, meaning they eat both plant and animal matter. They are very opportunistic feeders and much of their diet is based on seasonal availability. Foods include grasses, forbs, roots and tubers, browse, mast (acorns), fruits, bulbs, and mushrooms. Animal matter includes invertebrates (insects, snails, earthworms, etc.), reptiles, amphibians, and carrion (dead animals), as well as live mammals and birds if given the opportunity. Feral hogs are especially fond of acorns and domestic agricultural crops such as corn, milo, rice, wheat, soybeans, peanuts, potatoes, watermelons and cantaloupe. Feral hogs feed primarily at night and during twilight hours, but will also feed during daylight in cold or wet weather."  Based on these two sources, Ask.com and Texas Parks & Wildlife, grass is not a hog's primary source of food; they may eat it, though, as a digestive aid.  Some places do offer grass-fed bacon, but based on what I've found so far that grass is a blend of other grains.  Still, the cholesterol in bacon is terrific for signaling between organs. Has a healing effect.

Bacon comes from hogs. But the question remains, what are commercial farmers feeding their hogs, the meat of which ends up interacting inside the biochemistry of our gut? 

Bacon is a breakfast staple in many homes.  I would not want any GMO in my breakfast bacon.  I learned just the other day that Kellogg's Fruit Loops is made with 100% genetically modified wheat; ditto for the sugars.  Pray for the children. 

So, what are the hogs fed?  Free-range hogs tend to eat roots, flowers, and other things.  Commercially farmed hogs are fed corn and soy grain mix. Okay, what kind of corn are they being fed?

GMO Corn.

GMO Soy.

And other GMO products that increase estrogen into one's system while destroying testosterone, effectively feminizing men, is corn.  Many farmers that I have met have been overweight perhaps because they eat their own product which is fed on genetically-modified, synthetic, pharmaceutical foods.

A reader at the DailyPaul.com commented on the video below [emphasis is mine],

When he fed particular varieties of genetically engineered corn. The starlink corn, infamous for having been never approved for human consumption because of allergy concerns yet ending up in taco bell shells anyway, was one of them. The other one was Roundup Ready Bt Corn (see the link at starlink corn) if I recall correctly.

Of course, as the wise interviewer pointed out in the full video, 

even the GM corn that didn't cause that specific issue could be causing less obvious problems in people who eat the meat and drink the milk of GMO fed animals. It may not be so clear to people who experience health problems that it was caused by genetically engineered foods they were eating. Especially if those problems were sub-acute and that only gradually became worse over time. Just because people are being harmed by something doesn't mean they will automatically correlate the cause and effect properly.

For anyone who did think their health problems were caused by genetically engineered food, it would be pretty hard to prove. Just listen to what he says happened to the people trying to research the issue he was having with his livestock. They were reportedly threatened and told never to talk to him again.

. . . end quote.  The writer of the above comment owns the site, What Is a Dollar?

Be sure to check out the link to this video. The original interview is over an hour long, and it is on Vimeo below.  Be sure to check out all of the comments in the previous link. This is a terrific interview, in no small part, because of the threats that this farmer and others interested in reclaiming our food supply received at the hand of universities and associations supported by Monsanto money.  Folks, Monsanto food is poison and it is making us sick.  They've hijacked the food supply.  As best as you can, eat organic.  People rely on food for their health and strength.  GMO products are stripping us of vitality.  More and more this, to me, is becoming the number one issue concerning our well-being. We've got to take back the food supply.

Jerry Rosman from Ananda Guillet on Vimeo.

Here are some farms from which you can buy bacon online.

NC Smokehouse is located in Claremont, New Hampshire.

Poly Face Farms is located in Swoope, Virginia, owned and operated by Joel Salatin, his family, and staff.  He does not answer email questions, but he is more than helpful by phone, preferring more traditional ways of living.  I like it.  I will call him on Monday to ask for a recommendation on bacon and to find out more on what free-range hogs eat and why and how it is that commercially raised hogs are force-fed grains.  Are grains a hog's natural diet?  I will leave an update in the next few days.

Good Earth Farms is in Wisconsin.

Grass Fed Beef is in Loveland, Colorado.

1990 Rocky Mountain Ave

Loveland, CO 80538

1-888-586-2209 (M-F 8am - 5pm EST)

A tiny caveat: I have not tried the food products from any of the above-mentioned farms.  I have called Polyface Farms and asked to buy products, but they do not ship their products out of state.  All local distribution for Joel Salatin.  I have, however, contacted by email the other farms listed above and am waiting on replies.  When I get them, I will ask for permission to pass them on to you here.

UPDATE, Thursday, June 20, 2013 Wow, the news on pigs and their feed just gets worse.