Seth and Jennifer Van Zante run a small farm in southeast Iowa. They raise pigs and cows and grow corn, soybeans, and alfalfa hay—all while working part-time jobs off the farm and raising four children. Jennifer says they have always known that they wanted to raise their family on a small, sustainable farm. But she wishes more consumers knew that farms like hers still exist.
“Farmers really care about their animals. We’re still out there raising pigs in the sunshine and wide-open spaces,” says Jennifer. “We’re always learning, always trying to be better. It’s 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”
The Van Zantes’ county is heavily populated with hog confinement farms. Hogs outnumber people by a significant margin in Iowa today. According to the National Pork Producers Council, the average inventory of hogs per farm increased from 825 in 1997 to 4,532 in 2022, with some farms housing more than 5,000.
Having grown up just 40 miles away from their current farm, Jennifer witnessed this confinement hog farming boom. She knew she wanted to go a different way with their family farm. “We just knew that wasn’t going to be the way that we would raise hogs,” says Jennifer. “There was no question that we were going to raise them outdoors with plenty of space so they could see the sunshine and root in the dirt…that’s the only way we knew how.”
The Van Zantes’ way of farming requires more labor and flexibility than confinement hog farming. Their pigs are given fresh beds of hay, access to ample outdoor space, and no antibiotics. Because the pigs aren’t housed in a large building, the Van Zantes take extra steps to care for their animals while allowing continual access to fresh air and sunshine. For Jennifer, it’s worth knowing that they are raising a healthy animal. “You can see that the pigs are happy,” she says.
But the rapid expansion of confinement hog farming and agricultural consolidation in the region means that hog farmers are incentivized to raise as many hogs as possible, as inexpensively as possible, if they want to sell in the conventional market. The Van Zantes could only remain small and sustainable through a different kind of market.
In 2017, Seth and Jennifer started partnering with Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small to mid-sized, independent family farmers and ranchers who uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming in exchange for a guaranteed, stable market for their products. This meant they were protected from hog market volatility and fairly compensated for their work.
“Without Niman Ranch, it would just be too hard for the small farmer with just a few hogs to try to market those,” says Jennifer. “We’d probably just raise some for freezer pork and some 4-H projects, but not the capacity that we’re doing right now.”
While construction alone for a confinement hog barn can cost upwards of US$1 million, a farmer can typically start raising pigs for Niman Ranch with their existing infrastructure and a small plot of land: “If you have a barn and some gates and meet space requirements, you can make that work. Even if you had 10 sows, you don’t have to be enormous,” says Jennifer.
The Van Zantes raise around 500 pigs for Niman Ranch today—just a fraction of the average Iowa hog farm, which is estimated at more than 4,600 pigs—and they likely won’t grow any more than that, says Jennifer: “That’s just what our farm can handle and what we know we can handle as farmers right now.”
Joining an independent network has also helped the Van Zantes support the next generation. Seth and Jennifer’s sons have both received multiple scholarships from the Niman Ranch Next Generation Foundation, the company’s philanthropic arm, to support their college education. The Foundation aims to support young farmers who are committed to sustainable practices and helping their rural communities thrive. It receives donations from well-known food businesses including Chipotle and ButcherBox.
“The amount that they give out is significant for farm families to keep their kids in school,” says Jennifer. “To see all the restaurants and the grocery stores coming together to support the farmers who are raising the meat that’s in their store, that’s incredible…I don’t think you see that with your large-scale operations.”
Jennifer says that witnessing the next generation’s enthusiasm, increased interest in local food systems, and support for independent farmers gives her hope for the future.
“People are putting good quality meats in their grocery store cases and on the restaurant plates,” says Jennifer. “The numbers continue to grow. I don’t have any trouble finding customers who want farm-fresh pork or beef. Farmers markets are making a comeback, everybody’s wanting that again. They’re seeing the benefits of less processed food.”
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Photo courtesy of Seth and Jennifer Van Zante
