ST. MATTHEWS, S.C. - Caw Caw Creek hog farmer Emile DeFelice moves about freely among the pigs as they roam over large tracts of Calhoun County land.

A water trough is set hundreds of yards from a central feeding source that consists of locally grown corn and byproducts from Columbia-based ce.jpgied organic farm processor Anson Mills.

The pigs travel to and fro to their feeding destinations, foraging in the field for grass, earthworms, termites and grubs. Large pigs can be seen with smaller pigs as they would in the wild.

While fences are in place to keep the pigs from straying too far, the pigs' environment is just the way DeFelice -- and needless to say the pigs -- like it.

"You have to let the pig be a pig," he said. "I allow them places to sleep and to wallow and ways they can express their pigness."

"I am a set designer," he said. "I create conditions under which the pigs thrive. I use all their characteristics as an asset."

DeFelice says he is a part of growing -- albeit still small -- trend toward sustainable livestock production.

"It is market-driven," he said. "We have really been pushing in this state a volume mentality. Other states have been ahead of us in pushing value."

South Carolina, DeFelice says, is ideal for sustainable farming growth with its relatively inexpensive land and a fertile climate.

"Where there is a will there is a way," he said. "Most new farmers are not coming out of farm families but from people who see opportunity in a structure that has been failing. The pieces are still there for people who are innovative enough to put things back together."

A case in point of ingenuity could be DeFelice himself.

His entry into the hog-farming business was in many ways by default.

The Georgia native graduated from Emory University with a double major in French and philosophy and a master's degree from the University of South Carolina in international studies and agriculture politics.

While growing up in Georgia surrounded by farmers, DeFelice said his interest in agriculture grew after studying Haitian politics, which is heavily linked to traditional Haitian agriculture.

He tried his hand at selling garden produce in the back yard of his Columbia residence and found it was the thing he wanted to do.

"I thought I could sell this stuff and get out from behind the desk and hitting the streets and restaurants," DeFelice said, noting the money coming in was not much but he did manage to pay the $340 monthly mortgage on his residence for a nine-month period. "I did not expect to be heading down this path, but I guess I was young enough and foolhardy enough to think I will try this."

DeFelice said he felt like he was a lone ranger in the field.

"This was pre-Food Network, pre-organic trends and pre-small local everything," he said. "I did not know anybody doing it and no context for it except that I liked having my hands in the soil, growing, eating and selling good food."

DeFelice's love grew, so he purchased about 2.25 acres in Lexington to try his hand on a slightly grander scale.

"I failed miserably," he said, with a slight laugh, joking that he grew the "world's best nut grass" (considered a gardener's worst nightmare). "It looked like a wheat field. The more I killed it, the more it grew. I had no business or agriculture training. It was a hysterical thing. I had to learn everything the hard way."

But learn and work he did on rented and family-owned farms where he began to experiment with hogs, pastured poultry and ducks.

He grew fresh herbs, produce, flowers and delivered the products to restaurants in the Gervais Corridor, the Columbia Vista, Five Points and Forest Acres.

He would deliver the produce -- and eggs, chickens and meats -- for the good portion of eight years, seven days a week until the workload became too much to handle.

DeFelice would take a six-month break he describes as an "epiphany," learning the importance of having a product that "would sell itself" and how to do so with less overhead, less equipment and "less everything."

"When I had an open mind to things and stopped imposing my ideas to the system, I erased the chalkboard and the system started talking to me."

Within a short time, DeFelice would set up operation on his parents' 200-acre farm. Half of the farm was obviously ideal for a cow pasture and for making hay.

The other 100 acres were bush hogged with little creeks and rivers and valleys throughout.

"Holy Christmas, that is a pig farm," DeFelice said, recalling his enlightenment upon seeing the property.

With a desire to raise high-quality pork, DeFelice began to research how old-fashioned Southern hog farmers and European farmers raised their animals.

He attended North Carolina A&T University's program for small-scale hog producers and learned about a.jpgicial insemination, castrating pigs and farrow management.

"I was more motivated than some of their paying students," he said.

And the rest has been history.

Creating a natural environment for the pigs and feeding them without hormones or antibiotics has created for a better quality of pork combined with lower maintenance and humane treatment for the pigs. The pigs don't receive shots or medication, no are they physically adulterated. Diseases are also kept under control since the animals roam and "do not live in manure" as in more confined places.

And cooling?

"Pigs don't have sweat glands except on the end of their nose," he said. The mud they wallow in serves as a cooling mechanism by allowing evaporative cooling.

"Even if you don't subscribe to animal welfare ... people do care about meat quality," he said, explaining that a happy, relaxed pig leading a good life creates supple pork.

"A stress-free life equals tasty meat," he said.

DeFelice expressed his criticism that agriculture has been replaced with the term agribusiness.

"That erases culture," he said, referring to the term agribusiness. "Agribusiness is part of agriculture."

DeFelice says he is optimistic about the future of organic farming in the South Carolina, which he notes is blessed with an abundance of crops and a wonderful, varied environment and terrain.

"We have seafood, geese, duck, fudge, goat milk," he said. "We should be making ice cream, butter cheese. Every school child should be drinking South Carolina milk. It is possible."

T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski can be reached by e-mail at gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5551. Discuss this and other stories at TheTandD.com.

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