It’s getting to be a regular, sad story – governments drunk on power, corrupt by the business interests which keep the “elected” in power, hammering Mom and Pop Americana who are simply trying to make a living.
Enter Mark Baker, owner and operator of Baker’s Green Acres. Baker left the military about nine years ago so he and his wife could start their small farm, which is located in Marion, Mich. “Since then,” National Public Radio reports, “he’s put a whole lot of love, money and time into developing tasty charcuterie: salted and cured pork, derived from his hybrids of Russian boar and the heritage breed Mangalitsa.”
The affable Baker says his chefs “love it.”
“They like the dark red meat, the woody flavor and the glistening fat,” he says.
Well, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources is no fan of Baker’s cured meat; in fact, the agency says his herd is an invasive species – just added to the “invasive species” list, in fact – and now it must be destroyed. Oh, and for kickers, Baker will owe the state a whopping $700,000 in fines. He also faces jail.
“According to the agency, there are two species of pigs: Sus scrofa, or Russian boar, which are the subject of the order; and Sus domestica – domestic pigs, the source of most bacon and ham,” NPR reports. In an August 2012 ruling “the agency listed eight visual characteristics they argue are common to Russian boar and their hybrids. The wording indicates that a pig with just one of the listed characteristics could potentially be identified as a Russian boar or Russian boar hybrid.”
In other words, the agency says Baker’s herd is feral and, as such, illegal.
