The Pig Prof
Mark Honeyman trains the next generation of pork producers
Mark Honeyman, a professor of animal science at Iowa State University, is changing the way Iowa raises pigs — by training the next generation of farmers and pork producers how to practice alternatives to confinement farming.
Over the past 15 years, Honeyman has taught over 1,000 students, how to incorporate environmentally friendly manure-management plans into their farming practices. In his classroom, he teaches alternatives to conventional farming, approaches that minimize water and air pollution and can be better for the environment in the long run.
Honeyman envisions a hybrid farming system that would reduce the stresses that livestock and meat production place on the environment. As coordinator of Iowa State’s research farms, he studies alternative methods of swine production, focusing particularly on hoop barn farming.
Honeyman does not prefer one method of farming over the other. Farmers need choices, he said.
“We have a mindset in the United States’ agriculture that there is one best way to do things,” Honeyman said. “Open your mind to alternatives.”
— Jamie Rondinelli