As a small grain and pork producer for 40 years, since 1955, there have been many changes through the years in food. Today, there are people who do not know where their food come from.

In my opinion, a big portion come from grain.

I will list some of the food that comes from grain; if not for grain, here are some things our grocery stores would be without: cornmeal, flour, eggs, milk, meat (other than grass-fed animals), doughnuts, cakes, pies and cereals. Restaurants — such as Hardees, McDonald’s, Bojangles and Waffle House — would close due to lack of grains. Even our seafood restaurants would be without batter and hush-puppies.

The biggest waste of our grain is hogs.

We currently have more than 11 million hogs in North Carolina. These hogs are fed grain and eat an average of 4 pounds per 100-pounds of weight per day. If 2 million of these hogs eat 4 pounds of grain a day, that would equal 8 million pounds of grain per day. This is the same grain humans eat.

We have millions of children going to bed hungry. We could feed more than 800 million people with the grains used for livestock, not to speak of the thousands of gallons of clean-burning fuel that could be produced — which would stop fracking — or how many gallons of water that would be saved from the growing of hogs.

Even our air would be cleaner from the lack of methane gas produced by hogs.

I believe the solution people can take to live more healthy and cleaner lives is to quit buying pork.

Hull White

Clarkton