Pork Dominoes

Infrastructure upgrades are on the horizon for North America’s pork producers. Sliding profits and new rules are shuttering operations, making way for system redesign.

First, some terminology:

A sow is a female hog. Sows are the primary producers of meat in the pork supply chain. The owners of the animals and the barns control how pigs are raised.

When pregnant, i.e. gestating, industrial pork operations use ‘gestation crates’ to house sows in narrow stalls as shown below. About a week before giving birth, sows are mov…