Farmers skip the middlemen to get a ‘better deal’ for higher quality produce

Rohan and Fiona Morris, who sell free-range pork direct from their farm to consumers in south-east Queensland. Photograph: Aston Brown/The Guardian

Between bisset bluegrass fields and belts of bushland that stretch to steep peaks on the foothills of Queensland’s Scenic Rim, farmer Rohan Morris checks on his free-range pigs.

Few pigs are allowed in paddocks. Like wild boars, they can quickly turn lush pasture to scars of hardened soil. But if managed carefully, Morris says, the landscape can tolerate and even benefit from their hard hooves. The pigs have a better quality of life than in a piggery, and the pork is more nutritious and tastes better too.