OUR MISSION

CLEARING A SAFER PATH FOR FAMILY FARMS

A GENETIC SANCTUARY FOR HERITAGE BREEDS, PIGGY BANK IS A CHARITABLE FOUNDATION PRACTICING OPEN ACCESS AGRICULTURE (OAA) TO BENEFIT SMALL FAMILY FARMS

Piggy Bank’s mission is to create a heritage breed pig sanctuary that provides free genetics and business plans to emerging family farms. The sanctuary aims to better the future of our food by creating a community for safer, more enlightened farming practices through the sharing of genetics, livestock, and information. The Piggy Bank Farm, located in Missouri, will be committed to the cause of agricultural transparency, offering all farmers a free online network of knowledge.

Piggy Bank proudly operates as a project of the Trust for Conservation Innovation with federal tax exempt status as a public charity under Section 501(c)(3).

Piggy Bank will initially comprise a group of 90 piglets divided evenly amongst 10 different heritage breeds. Each heritage breed cohort has pure bloodlines selected for efficient genetic management. This agricultural cluster of endangered breeds aims to ultimately produce approximately 600 offspring each year that will only be gifted to farmers in need - never sold. Practices include supporting new farms with herd development; saving existing farms from failure when struck by eco-disaster; and sending pigs to culinary schools for research and awareness. Breeds on the farm will include conservancy listed species (status listed) such as the Mulefoot (critical), Large Black (threatened), Hereford (watch), and many others.

Piggy Bank is more than just a farm. It is an open access movement dedicated to making our foodways more safe, honest, and delicious. It strives to create bio-diversity for the future of agriculture to come.

THE MOVEMENT
HAS BEGUN

OUR PROMISE AND PHILOSOPHY

Piggy Bank will not make money from farmers or pigs, ever. Piggy Bank will give away 600 pigs a year to small and family farms, and help arm them with comprehensive business plans. Once the pigs are market ready, we will help farms connect to sales outlets on a regional basis. Our philosophy supports social, fiscal, and environmental transparency.

WE CALL IT…OPEN ACCESS AGRICULTURE

What is Open Access Agriculture (OAA)?

In the early 2000s, widespread public accessibility to the World Wide Web fueled the open access movement. This prompted a new marketplace of openness and license-free collaboration. Although the growth has been exponential, this philosophy has not yet reached the agricultural sector. We believe OAA is the missing link for the survival of small and independent farms in the low-margin, high-value family farming sector.

Piggy Bank will practice OAA in all aspects of our vision, strategy, execution, process, genetics, foundation, pitches, business plans, budgets, culinary industry networks, and animal health reporting.

Piggy Bank will aim to accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation. We hope to inspire new agricultural systems to come together and share ideas on our open platforms.

OPEN ACCESS AGRICULTURE’S (OAA) CORE IDEAS:

Open Access – The free and legal right to view all farm assets, from economic to scientific
Participation – The legal right to utilize any idea or part of the Piggy Bank project
Transparency – Full and detailed visibility of any document or idea
Learning – Unrestricted public access and mutual support for research and education
Network – Full access to our business network of chefs, restaurants, points of sale, etc.

CORE VALUES

FROM PASTURE TO PLATE

Piggy Bank aims to inspire an agricultural movement with vision and values:

WE BELIEVE

IN A CULTURE OF HELPING

The Piggy Bank movement strives to benefit every single independent farmer that wants to raise honest food. We will prioritize efforts that empower disadvantaged and ill-connected communities, and assist in overcoming barriers to learning and participation by building a safer, healthier food system one pig at a time.

DATA SHALL BE ACCURATE AND UNBIASED

We know any one community cannot be free from bias. But we believe that collaboration among a diverse set of parties, combined with honest practices, is the only way to proceed. The overall goal will be to facilitate financial success through education and access. The team will strive to provide information that is accurate, neutral, verifiable, comprehensive, and unbiased. Farmers will trust us because we will build content around relevant topics that create simple tools for achieving success.

PROTECT OUR INDEPENDENCE AND SECURITY

The Piggy Bank Foundation depends on donations to provide the infrastructure for the movement. In order to stay free of influence and contamination, we reserve the right to refuse donations that could restrict our operations or steer us away from our priorities and mission. Piggy Bank avoids at all cost the over-dependency on any single revenue source.

ALWAYS VALUE DIVERSITY

Piggy Bank is a movement enabling local farming diversity in a global community. We will strive to maintain a diverse staff with the goal to create a genetic sanctuary that enables responsive solutions and open access to information. A healthy mix of demographic and cultural characteristics between farmers, chefs, workers, culinary schools and students, donors, advisors – and, of course, pigs - is key to our future success.

PIGGY BANK AS CROWD-DRIVEN MOVEMENT

For over 20 years, Taste Network LLC dba COCHON 555 has produced live events in more than 50 cities and multiple countries. As Piggy Bank is created and managed by its key stakeholders, we will leverage this related national community and its followers in order to grow Piggy Ban. Each year, the goals will be published online and shared with at minimum 275 donors, at which point our nation will be asked to make small, subscription investments that are packed with value and benefits. Reaching our minimum, crowdfunded goal of $275,000 each year will sustain the vision for building a “transparent industry” dedicated to preserving heritage species.

GETTING A NATION READY

FOR SAFER FOOD

Together, we can improve the state of the heritage breed pig industry and sustain small and family farming.

Together, we can clear a path and provide powerful and accessible information for emerging family farmers to develop their business responsibly and robustly.

WHO WE ARE

THE TEAM

Our team is committed to building a genetic sanctuary. Our purpose lies in guaranteeing the stability of the founding herd, our greater project, and the resulting community. Our passion is dedicated to the creation of a culture where business plans, development and sales networks, and heritage breed genetics are free currency. The Open Access Agriculture (OAA) movement begins now...