I'm the cynical skeptic in the audience. We are at a breakfast at the International Food Bloggers Conference that is sponsored by the National Pork Board. Yes, there is bacon. The first talk of the morning is about ethical farming by PorkCares.org. I find it interesting that the Pork Board chooses PorkCares.org as their URL. Can we say "lobbyist terminology"?

First you should know that I love pork. It is my favorite meat. Yet I can't help be caught up in the news stories that are about the poor treatment of animals on some farms. (The panelists remind us that these are the minority of farms, not the majority.) I can't help feel for the sows that can't even turn around in their gestation or farrowing pens. As I listen to their presentation, I tweet out, "i'm skeptical too. feels like bit of whitewash at this moment. awaiting Q&A time".

The featured speakers are two women representing two family pork farms. I appreciate them coming and putting out their businesses for us to "see". They are from farming families and I have a great respect for them just for that. And I am sure they are part of a largely misunderstood part of farming as the issue of gestation crates has been a big news story as more and more companies say they will no longer buy from farms that use gestation crates.

First they explain that gestation crates are for the sows during pregnancy. They are used as a way to separate the sows to ensure they get fed properly with the nutrition they need during pregnancy. Sows can get bitchy and become bullies and so an alpha sow could monopolize the food if the sows were all held together. They may even fight.