Never in my wildest dreams did I think that the "local food" movement has come so far: Chefs brawling over the origin of heritage of pork. This is what I call a revolution!
The Oregonion ran a story about this incident. I'm not certain why these guys ended up in front of Strip-club, drunk, at 1am after this event. However, lets put that issue aside for now. The crux of the argument centered around a certain red-wattle pig flown in from Iowa that took first prize in a cook-off of heritage pork held in Portland. As Chef Eric Bechard said: "We as Oregonians pride ourselves on sustainable and local, so to be in a room full of those people, who then voted for this Iowa pig, it was disappointing."
I believe that Bechard has a point. The Cochon555 event flyer advertised 5 Chefs, 5 wines, and 5 pigs but neglected to mention the source of the pigs. This is a huge oversight for such an event, held in a City and a State famous for leading the locally grown revolution. To source a pig all the way from Iowa is particularly egregious, especially considering how many Oregon farms raise Pork: yes, even including the famous red wattle hogs. The source of the food for events such as these needs to be front-and-center in an age where small producers are constantly fighting against imported products.
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We couldn't agree more! Thanks for piping up, John. I read your newsletter for the first time (via the Eugene Local Foods link) this morning and am planning a trip back to Longs Meats and Capella Market... I left both empty-handed and disappointed yesterday when I dropped by to get some nice meat cuts for my mom and me to enjoy at the coast... Nothing real local and no farms I had ever heard of... bought a bottle of wine at Capella and came away looking for local meat with integrity on the web! After a visit with the That's My Farmer leadership team to your farm last week and hearing your beautiful story, how could I not? Thanks for the tip about mentioning your name as a meat source wherever we shop. Why haven't I thought of that? Of course, that's exactly what we must do. Please keep up the great work. Your farm and family are a treasure in this community!
I have to agree that bringing in a hog from Iowa was just not called for. (They had one from Kansas as well). And as the farm that actually supplied the Cochon event with a LOCAL Red Wattle hog (grown in Dallas, Oregon), I thought it was even worse form for them to bring in an out of state Red Wattle. The least they could have done was to bring in a totally different breed.
The Cochon 555 group has been using hogs from Heritage Foods USA for many of their dinners all across the country. I suspect it is easier to call them and "get a hog" rather then take the time to find local hogs.
Wendy Parker
Heritage Farms Northwest
Dallas, Oregon
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