Why Pork Production in the U.S. is both a Moral and Virtuous Activity

Pork production in the United States is a moral and virtuous activity in that it creates an abundant, continuous, safe, low-cost and nutritious supply of food for people and families in this country and all over the world.  Providing food for others as a vocation is to daily dedicate oneself to the most elementary affirmation of life itself, for without food there is no life. 

Beyond this most basic affirmation of life, food plays an equally fundamental role in creating and defining the deep cultural bonds and family traditions which connect people to each other and to their history thereby creating and sustaining the human family in all of its rich and diverse customs and identities.  By daily shouldering the unique and challenging production and economic risks and performing the hard work inherent in agricultural endeavors, pork producers along with other farmers free countless millions, whose first obligation would otherwise be to grow food for themselves and their families, to follow their own callings and passions, explore alternate careers and enables them to create value and find fulfillment in every other field of human venture.    

Through wise decision-making within the rigorous demands of a competitive economy and the legal and social boundaries which communities rightly require, U.S. pork producers assure the world and their local community that scarce societal resources will not be wasted, plundered or diverted from more critical uses.  Operating within this disciplined market and societal framework protects valuable natural resources and the environment, frees resources for alternate uses, provides a rational, fundamentally fair and sustainable framework, and creates opportunity while upholding the common good and assuring that people of limited means both within and outside of the rural community will have access to affordable food.   

Modern pork production is a complex and demanding vocation which is economically linked with a wide and diverse community of rural and urban businesses as well as other farmers and families in rural communities.  Purchases by pork producers create extended networks of robust economic activity in rural and urban areas.  This activity supports people in the communities and neighborhoods in which they live often lifting them from poverty and contributing to a better quality of life for the entire community.