One of Jono's Tamworth sows feeding her piglets. Photo / Supplied
One of Jono's Tamworth sows feeding her piglets. Photo / Supplied
The New Zealand Pork Industry Board is collecting signatures on a petition urging the Government to apply the same animal welfare standards to imported pork as those required by New Zealand pork producers.
Ngaruawahia pig farmer and owner of the butchery Soggy Bottom Holdings, Jono Walker, is a local producer who signed the petition, although he operates differently to big commercialised pig farmers.
"I agree with the petition. It is only fair that imported meat has to meet the same standards as our pork. But it doesn't really affect my business."
"I run a small-scale farm and do not sell wholesale or courier my products. I only sell direct at the Cambridge and Hamilton farmers markets."
About 60 per cent of pork consumed in New Zealand is imported, the majority coming from countries whose production practices would be illegal in New Zealand.
Chief executive of NZ Pork David Baines says: "New Zealand's pork sector operates to high welfare standards compared to many other countries. Our commercial pig herd also has a high health status and is not affected by the diseases [that affect pork industries overseas]. It's time for this cheaper imported pork to either shape up or ship out."
Overseas, some pig farmers castrate all male piglets, often without pain relief. In New Zealand, this procedure is rarely ever carried out, and if it is, only a veterinarian can do so and mandatory pain relief is required.
Gestation stalls (individual pens where sows can't turn around) for pregnant sows and the use of antibiotics as growth promoters are also banned in New Zealand.
Jono runs the farm and butchery and sells his pork products at the Hamilton and Cambridge Farmer's Market. Photo / Supplied
Jono's pigs live outside and he feeds them dairy products. "I don't use these stalls. My animals are more expensive to grow, because they grow slowly and live outside. But they taste better and get treated better.
"My animals are Saddleback and Tamworth pigs, two heritage English breeds that do well outside. I have 10 sows and two boars [permanently on the farm] and I kill about six pigs a month, which is enough for me to sell at the two farmers markets."
He says most people want cheap meat and don't care where it is coming from. "That is why pigs and chickens are the two animals that get abused the most. But that cheap meat is full of antibiotics and growth hormones. You are better off not eating this horrible, toxic meat at all. But some people will always buy the cheapest and don't care about animal welfare."
If the petition is successful, it might push the meat price up, Jono says. "Which then makes my meat better value."
He spent 15 years running his farm and butchery, but before getting into the meat business he worked as a forester.
On the farm, Jono has Saddleback and Tamworth pigs, two heritage English breeds that do well outside. Photo / Supplied
"I started keeping pigs just for fun, but then I got a few too many. Also, I was horrified by what New Zealanders called a sausage. So it went from a hobby to a business."
He says he loves the variety of his job. "There is the work on the farm and in the butchery and selling on farmer's markets twice a week. I don't really employ anyone, but I have an 80-year-old retired butcher come to help me, who has been a great mentor to me. Making sausages is very simple, it's just quality meat with herbs and spices."
When his wife, a nurse, ran a marathon in Germany a couple of years ago, she was hosted by a family who owned a butchery as well - and they and Jono swapped recipes.
Although Soggy Bottom Holdings is a mixed farm and also has beef and sheep, pigs are Jono's favourite animal.
Jono says making sausages is simple: "It's just good, quality meat mixed with herbs and spices." Photo / Supplied
"I like pigs because they are great characters and they are intelligent. You can do so much with them. Sometimes it gets a bit hard for me, because I get attached to them, but that's life, you have to get on with it."
