But for some poor Filipinos, it's not just about healthy food. Philippine native pigs can be their primary source of income or a sustainable sideline if you live in the farms.
From being a streamline of money when their children need to enroll to their school to a main source of income when their is no crop to be awaited, Philippine native pigs are now becoming more popular to health conscious people as well. I guess that trend is now going with these little fellas and now is the time to show off how healthy their meats are!
As I go on to different farms everyday, I can see more and more backyard farmers having their own little black pigs wandering around their mini garden. Maybe now their reason for domesticating these native pigs is just for another streamline of wealth but I also hope they will know how significant it is to them to have a sustainable income if they will just maximize the potential of these little pigs to be the healthiest source of meat in the country.
Enough of the antibiotic from the commercial meat coming from large scale farms. The Philippine feed industry had become so prosperous already just because people are lazy to learn and develop the native industry.
A massive campaign about the significance of these little black pigs to hog raisers should be implemented followed by seminars and short courses to nourish the industry. If these happens, the meat industry and the hog raisers at the same time will begin appreciating these little black pigs or what is popularly known as the Philippine Native Pigs.
On the the topic: "Philippine Native Pigs: Profitable and Healthy Food", I do not think it is a "profitable" business. Firstly, this type or variety of pigs are slow-growing pigs. They are costly to raise as they eat more than they cost you to raise them for their feeds. Unless you have a large compound where they roam around and freely find their food, you can save on their feeds. Nevertheless, you need to buy rice tuyo or the ground husk of rice from mechanically ground round or polished or milled rice. It is very hard to go and find their food. Howerever costly, their meat is, still the labour and expense you invest is not feasible. In fact, in many vllages of the Philippines are now turning to fast-return benefit from their swines. Villagers do prefer to buy piglets of another varieties that can easily grow. In 4-5 months you can already sell them whereas the Philippine native pigs, you will have to wait for at least 10-11 months before they are sold. Philippine native pigs re now disappearing rapidly in many Philippine villages just as Carabaow do due to the mechanisation of ploughing lands: ricefields, corn fileds, tobacco fields, etc. When I was in the Isabela this year December 2016 and January 2017 I found that there were very, very few Carabaos (KalabaW) to be seen. Not only in Isabela, biut also in Ilocos. I love the idea of turning to raising native Philippine pigs even though it is not easy to raise for and takes time for you to sell them. At least, let's raise them for puprposes of our family consumption as they are organically raised and needless to say their meats DO taste far better. Sadly enough, I wanted to have a taste of a native Philippine pork, but I was informed of the difficulty in raising them. They are very, very slow-growing type of pigs.
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Ross Galán, Ph D
NLP Spiritual Life Coach