The Lost Taste of Pork

Finding a New Place for the Iowa Family Farm

PAUL WILLIS RAISES ABOUT 2,500 hogs a year and cultivates about 600 acres of corn, soybeans, and oats just outside Thornton, Iowa, two hours north of Des Moines. Four hundred and seventy-five people live in Thornton, which is dominated by the grain elevators of the local farmers’ co-op. I stopped for toast and coffee at the Chit Chat I (the check came t…