Hometown Hawkeye: Paul Willis

Name: Paul Willis
Degree: B.A. (Psychology) ’66
Occupation: Pig farmer and founder of Niman Ranch Pork Company
Residence: Thornton, Iowa

Fourth-generation pig farmer Paul Willis hadn’t planned to return to his family’s farm in north central Iowa after completing a psychology degree at the University of Iowa and joining the Peace Corps. But when his stepfather asked if he could help with the harvest in 1974, he obliged—and never left.

Thornton is in Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, which includes:

1,021 UI alumni
108 UI-educated teachers and school administrators
84 UI-educated physicians
27 UI-educated dentists
30 UI-educated pharmacists

Discover how the UI impacts the lives ofIowansborder to border, river to river, at outreach.uiowa.edu.

Now, Willis not only operates the Willis Free Range Pig Farm, he also is the founder and manager of the Niman Ranch Pork Company, a network of 500 farmers who specialize in raising pigs without antibiotics, growth hormones, or gestation crates.

“To me, being able to raise pigs in an environment where they can exhibit their natural behaviors seemed like the right thing to do,” says Willis. “I believe my educational experiences allowed me to embrace something that was not mainstream.”

Pork distributed under the Niman Ranch label is available nationwide through outlets including Whole Foods and Chipotle, and locally at the New Pioneer Co-op in Iowa City and Coralville. The meat’s flavor and tenderness has been lauded by Martha Stewart, Alice Waters, and other top chefs.

Willis says the company’s cooperative model has helped keep many family farms afloat.

“It wouldn’t work if the meat didn’t sell itself,” he says, adding that half the company’s farmers reside in Iowa. “What we do is truly economic development—our farmers live in their communities, and the money they are paid is spent in those communities.”

Did you know? Psychology is one of the most popular majors at Iowa. The top 10 undergraduate majors are prebusiness, psychology, English, communication studies, biology, business (accelerated admission), health and human physiology, finance, art and art history, and interdepartmental studies.