the pork industry

Efficiency, Mass Production, Assembly Line, these are key terms in regards to the development of of the American Free Market that we know today. Following World War II, the 1950's and 1960's saw America's economy expand to unprecedented heights thanks to new modes of economic thought. The cattle industry, especially for the swine, was no exception. Enter Dr. Glenn Grimes from the University of Missouri. In 1958 the biggest development in the production of pork was the move from small farms producing swine, to large mass production techniques more in line with the factories of the day. The problem was with the unsanitary nature of the swine. The first attempts to organize the swine in pens of 500 failed and they were forced to "spread out the hogs and keep them in small groups. The first large operations were pasture operations and we rotated them for sanitation."

In 1954 the National Swine Growers Council was formed. It is pivotal to understand the inception of the NSGC because through its system of "check offs" its member were able to form into a powerful lobbying group. The "Pork Checkoff" is a communal system found on a group of Hog producers donating a portion of their earnings into a common trust. This trust would grow into the National Pork Board. The pinnacle of the Swine Industry would be the pass of the Pork Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act of 1985, you may be more familiar with its popular ad campaign "Pork, the other white meat".

Prior to the growth NSGC and the NPB, the cattle industry had held the reigns in terms of top consumption by Americans. The growth of the Meat industry began with investors purchasing farmland for cattle grazing. The "feedlots" from 1940's and on took the cattle industry by storm. From 1940 - 1969 the number of cattle nearly doubled from 60,818 to over 106,000/head. The number of farms actually producing cattle dropped from 4.85 million farms with cattle in 1940 to a mere 1.7 million farms with cattle. The growth of the Interstate Highway System and refrigerated trucks further streamlined the process. Packing houses were formed adjacent to the feedlots. Compounds where pigs, chickens, and cows could be systematically produced, slaughtered, processed, and shipped to the grocer became the main staple of the Meat industry.