The farm to which you refer is located at 555 E. El Camp Grande Ave. in North Las Vegas. It's called R.C. Farms after owner Robert Combs, who's been farming his 3,000 or so pigs on the same spot for 44 years. When he first started farming, he says he could safely shoot a rifle in any direction, being as how he was in the middle of the desert with no neighbors. But demand for land in Las Vegas, the second-fastest growing city in the U.S., has led to residential developments pushing up against the farm, which has further led to some problems.
As we all know, realtors are sometimes less than candid when selling a house, and many people who move into R.C. Farm's neighborhood are surprised about the smell, or the birds, or the flies that tend to hover a couple of blocks away. And as the houses move ever closer to the farm, the wildlife that once inhabited the surrounding land and helped keep the vermin down has largely been wiped out (there's now one lone and very territorial hawk who patrols the area), which exacerbates the problem.
Whether the rumored $75 million figure is accurate or not, Mr. Combs isn't saying, but it's no secret that he's been offered big bucks to close up shop. But why should he? He was there first and his farm provides a unique service to the community: A total of 17 hotels, including the Hard Rock, the Horseshoe, Planet Hollywood, Caesars, MGM Grand, Mirage, Harrah's, Orleans, Stratosphere, Tropicana, Venetian, Riviera, Sahara, Fitgeralds, Bellagio, and the Golden Nugget donate all their leftover food to be used as pig feed, without which 33 million pounds of food last year would simply have gone to waste in a landfill somewhere.
Recycling is a cause that Mr. Combs espouses passionately, ever since he was moved by the famous Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of a starving child crawling toward a U.N. food camp during the 1994 Sudanese famine. His farm accounted for a full third of all the solid waste that was recycled in Clark County last year. At about 19%, the county is short of a state and national goal of recycling 25% of all solid waste and without the farm our record would be dismal.
As far as tours are concerned, they do exist, especially for local school kids, but April's slots are already fully booked and after this month it's too hot and bug-infested for tours, which don't resume until September. If you're interested in booking something for later in the year, call the main office after the summer on 702/642-0350. And if you're having a barbecue and would like a whole pig, you can go along and choose one and they'll prepare it for you. Weights range from 25 up to 400 pounds. Those pigs that don't get sold locally get sent off to slaughterhouses around the country.
