GMOs, bacon & a side of bullying: what a Minnesota hog farmer wants dietitians to know

Fourth-generation farmers don’t usually end up in the comments section defending their livelihood to strangers on the internet. But Wanda Patsche of southern Minnesota has been doing exactly that – and she’s not stopping.

Wanda and her husband Chuck raise hogs and grow corn and soybeans on their farm, selling pork directly to Hormel and running an on-farm feed mill that closes the loop between what they grow and what their animals eat. She’s also a blogger, a grandmother, and one of the more candid voices on agricultural social media at Minnesota Farm Living.

In this episode of the Food Bullying Podcast, Wanda joins Michele to clear up some of the most persistent misconceptions about hog farming, GMO crops, and why your grocery store meat counter deserves more credit than it gets.

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The antibiotic question – answered by someone who actually uses them

One of the most common assumptions Wanda hears: that farmers pump animals full of antibiotics without much thought or oversight. The reality is considerably more structured.

Antibiotics on their farm require a veterinarian prescription and must be followed precisely – including withdrawal periods before animals can go to market. When hogs leave for the Hormel plant in Austin, Minnesota, they’re tested on arrival for antibiotic residue. The tolerance is zero. Farms that fail don’t just lose that load of animals – they risk losing the relationship entirely.

“Antibiotics cost money,” Wanda points out. There’s no economic incentive to overuse them, and every regulatory and financial incentive to use them only when an animal is genuinely sick.

For dietitians advising clients who ask about antibiotic use in pork production, this is the supply chain context that’s rarely communicated – and rarely found in one place.

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How GMO technology actually reduced chemical use on their farm

Wanda is old enough to remember farming before GMO seed technology existed, and the comparison is instructive. Before GMOs, her husband wore goggles and gloves to apply herbicides that required multiple passes across a field. The chemicals were more toxic, less effective, and the fields still had weeds.

Today, their corn ground gets one pre-spray before planting and one application when the crop reaches about a foot tall. That’s it. The GMO varieties they plant are more disease-resistant, require fewer crop protectants, and consistently outperform what was possible a generation ago – this past harvest was a record-setter for their operation.

She’s also quick to call out the labeling absurdity that frustrates farmers and confuses consumers in equal measure: products like water, cat litter, and salt labeled “non-GMO” when there has never been a GMO version of those products. That’s not transparency. That’s fear-based marketing – and it’s a direct contributor to the food bullying problem.

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Hog farming then and now: the animal welfare story that doesn’t get told

Forty-five years ago, the Patsche hogs lived outdoors. That sounds idyllic until you factor in Minnesota winters, social hierarchies among sows that sometimes turned fatal, and the helplessness of watching healthy piglets born during a disease outbreak die despite every effort to save them.

The move to indoor gestation barns in the early 1980s wasn’t driven by corporate efficiency – it was driven by the inability to adequately care for animals in outdoor conditions. Bringing hogs indoors meant controlled temperatures, individual stalls that eliminated the violent social sorting that happened in group housing, consistent access to feed and water, and the ability to identify and treat health issues quickly.

The genetics changed too. Outdoor hogs needed back fat to survive Minnesota winters. Indoor hogs, coinciding with a consumer shift toward leaner pork, could be bred differently – and the meat on grocery shelves today reflects that evolution.

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The closed-loop farm: corn, soybeans, manure, repeat

About 40% of the corn the Patsches harvest goes directly to their on-farm feed mill to feed their hogs – a level of vertical integration that’s becoming less common. Their soybeans go to a processing plant four miles away, where the oil is extracted and the remaining soybean meal is trucked back to the farm as additional feed. Ninety percent of what their hogs eat is corn and soybean meal; the rest is minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients.

The manure loop is worth noting too. What was once considered a waste product – something farmers had to pay people to haul away – is now recognized as a genuine soil amendment. The Patsches consistently grow better crops using hog manure, which completes the cycle: crops feed the hogs, hogs improve the soil, better soil grows better crops.

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When bullying comes from other farmers

Wanda has navigated consumer skepticism online for years and built thick skin doing it. What caught her off guard recently was something different: criticism from other farmers. Posts she didn’t consider controversial were shared on X without context, generating a wave of comments that were, as she describes it, belittling – things people would never say face to face.

She cried. She considered stepping back. She didn’t.

Her point for both farmers and the dietitians who want to support them: the pressure to constantly justify standard practices takes a toll. Agriculture already carries one of the highest rates of mental health struggles and suicide of any profession. Adding social media pile-ons – especially from within the farming community – compounds a problem that doesn’t get enough attention.

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Shopping confidently: a farmer’s perspective on her own grocery cart

Wanda buys meat from the grocery store without hesitation. She’s toured meatpacking facilities and came away impressed. She knows her family’s pork likely ends up in grocery store cases and is comfortable with every step of that process.

Her only organic exception? A local farmer who makes genuinely excellent tortilla chips. Not because organic is safer or more nutritious – she’s clear that organic is a growing method, not a quality designation – but because they taste great and she likes supporting her neighbor.

For dietitians helping clients navigate food anxiety, that framing is useful: confidence in the food system isn’t naivety. It’s the informed position of someone who understands exactly how the supply chain works.

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Connect with Wanda Patsche: Find her at mnfarmliving.com, on Facebook, Instagram, and X.

Want to bring real farmer voices to your next conference or event? Michele Payn speaks to agricultural organizations, agribusinesses, and dietitian associations on food bullying, consumer trust, and the science behind modern farming. Book Michele to speak →