I use about 2 lbs of lard a month for myself. If buying it, it's one of the least expensive forms of fat that you can buy.
We rendered lard in culinary school as a demo project.
/johnny
I used to be a field service guy for a scale company. One of the best customers we had was asmall business that sold slabs of fat back. One day I asked about just who the heck is buying all that fatback? I was told just about every fine restaraunt, cruise line, and hotel. They cook everything with it to enhance the flavor. Stuff like vegetables, anything sautee'd, roasted potatoes, roasted or blackened meats, etc......
They sold hundreds of thousands of pounds a week.