October 11, 2010

 

Higher demand propels China's intensive livestock farming

With meat consumption in China more than doubled over the last 15 years, the country's livestock industry is increasingly shifting from backyard to intensive farming to keep up with the growing demand.

 

For centuries, small-holders with up to 10 pigs a piece were the main suppliers of the favourite national meat, but many have now sold their stock and are leaving the business of pig-rearing to western-style concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

Kevin Chen, a senior research fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute in Beijing says the Chinese government welcomes mass-scale farms which it believes facilitate the supervision of food safety and quality, and enable the production of enough meat to maintain social stability.
 

Recent years have seen the Chinese government offer millions of dollars in subsidies which have given outsiders such as Germany's Deutsche Bank and US-based Tyson Foods a doorway into China's livestock industry.

 

However, environmental activist Ma Jun said what is good for the economy and social stability is not without side-effects.

 

"Livestock farming has been a large contributor to our water pollution," Ma said, adding that CAFOs could generate a new type of waste not seen on traditional farms.

 

"They feed them with more factory-based feed and the discharge may contain more pathogens and other toxic waste, because some of the feed contains some unfavourable materials."

 

Antibiotics, hormones and heavy metals are common contaminants found in the discharge from intensive livestock farms, and they are a problem Beijing has been trying to solve.

 

The government is encouraging the installation of biogas digesters and is currently trialing Japanese technology that mulches the waste into fertiliser.

 

Although it is a good way for farmers to get value out of the waste, biogas systems are expensive to install, and they don't filter out chemical pollutants.

 

Meanwhile, as with the rise of factory farms in the west, the trend towards bigger facilities in China has also raised concerns about animal welfare.

 

"The overseas idea of animal welfare is a little controversial here," said Geng Ailian from the Beijing Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute. "Many believe China still hasn't satisfied the welfare of its own people in terms of food and clothing."

 

Regulations currently favour the large-scale intensive operations, and it can be expensive for small farms to get the paperwork required to sell in supermarkets, a growing point-of-sale for meat products, said Zhao Hong, who runs a medium sized free-range chicken farm just south of Beijing.