agri-Culture
agri-Culture
Jun 15, 2020
Ep 067 The Mangalitsa Fashionista: Babe Meets A Close Shave
Play • 37 min

Off to New Mexico.  High desert all around, blue mountains behind, dry breezes, and the infamous sheep-pig.  All of that and more are found in this podcast, even if some parts of that last sentence sound less than plausible.  

It was there that we met Zach and Ethan, two brothers who raise the rare but deliciously fatty Mangalitza (or Mangalica or Mangalitsa, depending on who you ask).  This is a Hungarian breed of pig that is well-known for hitting the top of the pork charts for taste.  It is also known for hitting the hairstyle charts as well, and looks – I kid you not – as if there was a poodle somewhere in its ancestry.  This is not a result of the fallout from neighboring White Sands missile range, as these pigs have looked this way since they arrived on the continent.

All teasing about historical nuclear testing aside, this is a remote area.  Lonesome, beautiful, dramatic and still, this is not an area for the faint of heart to practice the art and science of agriculture.  Inputs and outputs can be somewhat limited and expensive, so there’s a solution to that, which is big in this neck of the (non)woods of the Southwestern United States.  Sustainability.

“Meeting the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”  That’s the definition of “sustainability” used by many organizations, including the U.N., smart businesses, and well-known economists.  Sounds like the basic concept of intelligent agriculture, at least to us.  And to these hardworking farming brothers, the third-generation to live on this land, it’s a way of life.  Especially if you raise the infamous Hungarian sheep-pig.  

Okay, Mangalitza.  But we just like to say, “sheep pig.”  Bet you’ll do that all day now.

Links:

https://www.mangalica.com/en/characteristics-of-the-mangalica-breed/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mangalica
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/development-agenda/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sustainability.asp
https://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/meet-mangalitsa-hairy-pig-thats-kobe-beef-pork/
https://web.archive.org/web/20120210223557/http://www.agroservice.hu/mangainfo1.htm
https://quiviracoalition.org/regenerate2018/
https://conalma.org/usda-online-tool-marks-much-of-nm-as-a-food-desert/
https://gonm.biz/why-new-mexico/climate-geography

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