High-rise pig farming: China’s attempt to gain independence from the West

From the ears to the feet to the snout of a pig – what we consider slaughterhouse waste ends up on the plate in China: as a delicacy.

In China, pork is by no means a staple food, but a symbol of prosperity and a sign of the positive development of food policy in recent decades.

Today, China is not only the largest pork producer, but also the largest importer. However, the Middle Kingdom increasingly wants to say goodbye to this dependence. And with a radical solution: a new, ethically questionable bio-industry, which could fuel swine fever in the future.

the backgrounds:

In order to better illuminate the conditions of livestock farming in the style of vertical farming, a historical nightcap is needed.

Even today, the problem of hunger is firmly entrenched in the collective consciousness of the Chinese people. The fear of undersupply mainly goes back to the Great Chinese Famine of 1959-1961. The magnitude of these “three bitter years” has been hushed up to this day – but Xi Jinping can’t just allay the fears of the populace. It is estimated that between 30 and 45 million people died of starvation at the time, partly due to economic mismanagement.

In relation to the population, the arable land in China is small. Topographical and climatic conditions also make it difficult to grow food. About 60 percent of China’s total area is over 1,000 meters, which severely limits the cultivation of many plants. Added to this is the geographically unfavorable water distribution in the country.

But despite these obstacles, China made the leap into industrial agriculture in the 1970s. The life of the population suddenly improved. But China’s agricultural revolution is a double-edged sword: the production of agricultural products in China implies intensive farming, which threatens food security.

With the modernization of agriculture, pork has also become a staple food. Symbolically, however, it is considered an achievement – as a sign of prosperity.

No other country produces (and consumes) as much pork as China. However, the Middle Kingdom itself cannot (yet) produce as much as it consumes.

With more than 400 million pigs, China holds more than half of the world’s pig population of about 780 million. China’s per capita consumption is 38 kilograms of pork per year. By way of comparison, an average of 21 kilos of pork is consumed annually in Switzerland.

But there are worlds between our consumption and Chinese consumption: what we hardly eat is considered a delicacy in China, such as pig’s trotters, ears or paws. China imports such offal with a kiss on the hand.

But not alone. To ensure the supply of its multibillion-dollar population, China also imports meat from abroad, mainly from the EU. Spain is by far the most important supplier. But imports are falling every year. This development can be attributed to increasing self-reliance.

The pursuit of food autonomy is no coincidence, but is strongly related to the corona pandemic. Dochbes gives another reason: “A country must strengthen its agriculture before it can develop into a great power,” Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, emphasized in a recent speech.

The pig farms in particular are close to Xi’s heart and he provides a lot of financial support. In 2019, for example, he approved the project for a multi-storey pig farm in which the animals are bred in a very small space and then slaughtered. Cost point: about 540 million euros.

The idea came from former cement worker and pig farmer Zhuge Wenda. For him, China is years behind in pig farming, so it needs a revolution.

A turning point – at the expense of the animals.

In a pigsty of 26 floors, each with 400,000 square meters, about 108,000 tons of meat must be produced with 1.2 million pigs. The furnishings are not quite finished yet. But: the pandemic has shown how quickly buildings can be built from the ground up in China. So it shouldn’t take too long to complete. Part of the 4,000 pigsty was taken into use at the end of last year.

Factory farming is located in central China, in Hubei province, which is known for its pristine nature.

The pigs will never see them. They are monitored 24 hours a day by a team in the stable. The feed supply is controlled automatically: the animals receive their feed through huge pipes, which have to be adjusted to each animal based on their weight.

But there can be problems with the food.

Because: the pigs need more feed than the land can produce. China is one of the world’s largest importers of soybeans: in 2021, the People’s Republic imported about 100 million tons of soybeans from abroad – equivalent to about 60 percent of the global trade volume. In comparison, the import volume of the second largest importing country, Argentina, was about 5 million tons.

Most of the huge quantities of soybeans are not intended for the population, but are used as feed for the animals. China imports soybeans mainly from Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Canada and Russia.

This project also cannot guarantee agriculture that is independent from abroad.

Political tensions or price fluctuations not only cause prices to rise, in the worst case the pigs can die. In any case, the new dimension of bio-industry does not bode well. Hardly anything is known about keeping the animals. There are no animal welfare laws in China. Critics fear that the animals are crammed together on hard concrete floors.

In addition to ethical concerns, opponents warn of possible epidemics. Because: Intensive agriculture offers the ideal breeding ground for infectious diseases. “The higher the density of animals, the greater the risk of spreading and amplifying infectious pathogens, as well as the potential for mutations,” Dirk Pfeiffer, a professor of infectious diseases, told The Guardian.

The company has at least one argument for this criticism: the air is filtered using the latest technologies and the health of the animals is constantly monitored to minimize the risk of epidemics. In addition, employees are only allowed to enter the building if they have done a test for swine fever the day before and have gone through a laborious disinfection process.