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Who they are and what they raise.
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Memphis Magazine
The late Mark Newman at the downtown Memphis Farmers Market, where he and his wife Rita were regular vendors.
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The new logo for the farm is a replica drawing of the pig that Mark Newman drew for years, both on chalkboards at farmer's markets and as "pig tattoos" drawn on little kids.
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Berkshire sow and 10 piglets.
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"Berkies" big and small, in the field.
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David, Chris, and Mark Newman
“I’m just an advanced butcher,” David Newman said in a recent phone interview. An advanced butcher who happens to hold a Ph.D. in Animal Sciences and is one year away from tenure at North Dakota State University, where he’s an assistant professor specializing in swine, teaching courses like “Advanced Pork Industry Systems.”
I met Newman and his brother Chris a few weeks back while at Olio talking to Ben Poremba about his new venture, The Dining District. Chris and David were there delivering one of their heritage Berkshire pigs—a delivery that included a hands-on demonstration of butchery for Elaia’s chefs. Poremba said that I should interview them because their Newman Farm Heritage Pork is famous among well-known chefs nationally (David Chang, Mario Batali, Nate Appleman) thanks to their dad Mark, who passed away last year. Poremba also spoke enthusiastically about David’s research published in academic journals.
The family, including Rita (their mom), Susan and Courtney (their sisters), their wives, brothers-in-law, and children, and John Cagle, the full-time farm manager who’s been with them for 25 years, had to regroup on the farm, located in Myrtle, Missouri, near the Arkansas border, after Mark Newman’s death and decide how to proceed. This “pig family”—as David affectionately referred to them— has always done everything themselves—“from farrow to finish,” he said. With 125 sows, 15-20 boars, and 25 piglets per sow per year, on a 300-acre farm, that’s no hobby farm.
What magnifies the work is the fact that unlike the conventional swine industry, the Newmans raise their pigs outside, with the sows farrowing in huts. David explained that it’s a “British-based pasture-farrowing system,” adopted by Mark after he spent time in Britain during the 1990’s studying it. The work load increases even further since they rotate the whole breeding process, with sows farrowing every week.
There are no breaks for pig farmers especially with that rotation, so now David and Chris trade off to help their mom and Cagle. David travels frequently between Minnesota, where he lives when he’s teaching in nearby Fargo, and the farm (he and his wife have their own farm across from the main property), while Chris, who was recently named one of Arkansas Business’s “40 Under 40,” devotes his time to his transportation company, Newman Delivery, when he’s not working on the farm.
David referenced the word “quality” several times when explaining what sets their farm apart from other farms: the pigs’ quality of life and the quality of their product. “Quality over quantity every time,” David noted. With their dark red, marbled meat, Berkshires are the perfect pig to produce that quality. And the fact they’ve been around for hundreds of years—Cromwell’s army took them into battle, David shared—makes them popular with farmers and chefs tapping into culinary trends like charcuterie platters and distinctive chops.
In addition to working directly with restaurants, the Newmans also sell their pork through Heritage Food USA, a direct-to-consumer mail order company that specializes in heritage breeds (meaning they’re “old school” and haven’t been crossbred, explained David). (Heritage Food’s founder, Patrick Martins, also founded a pretty spectacular radio network, with programs devoted to nearly every possible food topic around.)
Locally, you can find Newman pork at Farmhaus, Annie Gunn’s, The Libertine, Salume Beddu, Niche, Jim Fiala’s restaurants, Truffles, and Sidney Street Café. Regarding Kevin Nashan, Sidney Street’s chef-owner, David echoed what so many others have said about the chef’s genuine niceness and willingness to champion others and their products, like Newman pork.
“We built all of our restaurant business by going through the back door rather than the front,” David said as he told his dad’s story. “He would make cold calls at the worst time possible—he would just start talking about the farm, the family, and give samples. He created a good brand,” he continued about his dad, whom he also described as “wildly passionate about pigs.” Mark and Rita met chefs as well at the Memphis Farmers’ Market, where they went every Saturday for years, leaving the farm at 2:00 AM to get there on time.
Married for 40 years before Mark passed away, Rita and Mark had over 30 years of experience in the diverse livestock business, which included conventional pig farming and pasture-raised farming of conventional sows before turning to the niche market of raising a heritage breed in pasture, and direct sales. “We’ve been lucky enough to be in our position where you can create your own market; you can make more money on 250 [heritage] sows than a thousand [conventional ones],” David said.
Drawing on his science background, David explained that “every piece of a pig is going to taste different because of its biochemistry and physiology,” which is why it’s so important for him to demonstrate to chefs how one of the farm’s pigs should be butchered. “Chefs know a lot of chemistry” without realizing it, David said, continuing, “It blows me away as a scientist how much science there is in the kitchen.”
As an undergraduate, David took a class on meat to approach it from the “inside out rather than outside in” and became hooked. Ultimately, he taught his dad how to butcher the pigs, and they formed a “good tag team.” While he’s learned a great deal from watching chefs cook, both in their restaurants and when they visit the farm, David laughed, “A chef can even learn something from a farmer.” For example, award-winning Memphis chefs Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman of Hog & Hominy and Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen fame, enjoyed Rita’s wilted lettuce salad so much while visiting the farm, they put it in their cookbook.
Gearing up for a conference at which he and Temple Grandin were invited to speak on humane animal handling, David also has the new academic year to think about on top of the daily operations at the farm. Whether he’s delivering pigs and demonstrating proper butchering techniques or working with graduate students in the research lab or classroom, David, along with his mom, brother, and sisters, is carrying on his father’s legacy.
The younger Newmans’ story is set in stark contrast to the recent New York Times opinion piece, “Don’t Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers.” It’s true that they hold other careers outside of farming, but those careers were directly influenced—enhanced even—by their upbringing. David summarized his father’s legacy this way as he compared other family farmers to his family: “There are lots of people who have a great story and mediocre product. We have a good story and great product.”
On that, Professor, you’re wrong: your story is great too.
