Spanish pig farmers call for investing in pork to save rural economy



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Life on the farm was on a smaller scale when Alberto Pascual was young: just him, his father, a mercenary and about fifty pigs. Today, the 44-year-old Spanish agricultural engineer owns five farms with more than 40,000 pigs between them.

For Mr. Pascual and others like him, the development of pig farming in Spain, a country associated with pig products such as chorizo and Iberian ham – goes beyond the story of the expansion and success of his own business.

It has an answer to two big questions facing the country: how to reverse the depopulation of rural areas and where to spend part of the 140 billion euros in coronavirus crisis funds that Spain expects to receive from there. ‘EU over the next six years. This answer is pork.

“What we are doing is creating jobs, so that people have the option of staying in the village – or coming to the village – rather than going to Madrid,” said Mr Pascual, who employs around 50 people. of people in the province of Avila in Castile. -Leon.

He argued that investing in pig farming in depopulated areas like his is so beneficial – for jobs, the environment and the fight against the demographic decline in the heart of Spain – that European funds should be invested in the sector. “All of these priorities fit perfectly with the pork sector,†he said.

Chorizo ​​sausages at the Sierra de las Villuercas processing plant in Deleitosa, province of Extremadura. The pork industry provides work for 21,000 people in these depopulated areas, according to Interporc © Denis Doyle / Getty Images

The problem of shrinking rural communities is enormous for Spain. The vast majority of the population lives in just 10 percent of the land. In contrast, there are on average less than 13 people per square kilometer in about half of the country’s land mass.

More than 75 percent of Spanish municipalities are seeing their populations decline as locals head to cities for work and education, leaving the elderly behind. In the village of Muñogalindo de M. Pascual, the number of inhabitants has increased from 600 when he was a child to around 250 today.

Alberto Herranz, managing director of Interporc, an industrial group for pork products, said the sector had an interdependent relationship with what people called “empty Spain”. He said more than 40 percent of pig farms were in rural municipalities with a low population density and less than 5,000 residents, often providing one of the few local sources of economic activity.

In total, he added, the pork industry provides work for 21,000 people in such depopulated areas, a third of the jobs in the sector as a whole and an increase of around 11% from the level of employment. ‘ten years ago. “If growth is sustained, it will generate more jobs,” Herranz added.

But the pigification of Spain’s rural economy is controversial. The industry today is a huge industry which often bears little resemblance to the traditional image of pata negra pigs roaming the oak forests or producing top-of-the-range vintage hams of 10 years of age. Almost 53 million pigs were slaughtered in Spain in 2019, an increase of 43% from the total 15 years earlier.

Exports to one particular market are booming; In the nine months to September, Spanish farmers sold more than 900,000 tonnes of pork to China, more than double the amount for the same period a year earlier, which represents 2 billion euros.

Critics say expanding the industry on such a scale is not sustainable – in terms of carbon emissions, waste and diet. “We cannot continue on this path,†said Luís Ferreirim, who heads the agricultural campaigns of Greenpeace Spain.

According to Mr Ferreirim’s calculations, two-thirds of Spain’s cultivated land is used for the production of animal feed. He added that the country’s livestock industry produces more than 80 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year, with pig farms being the main contributor.

Pigs at the Sierra de las Villuercas plant. Greenpeace says the country’s livestock industry produces more than 80 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year © Denis Doyle / Getty Images

But in Avila, Mr Pascual said the larger farms – often operated on an “integrated†basis in which feed producers owned the pigs – offered career development opportunities, a less unrelenting pace of work and better economic opportunities.

He has set up training centers for 16 and 17 year olds to learn to work on the farm in two-year courses that end in employment. He’s also working on proposals – for optimizing manure as fertilizer, reducing carbon emissions and using biogas, among others – which he hopes to qualify for EU aid.

Activists like Greenpeace are not convinced – to say the least – that the pork industry will come to the aid of Spain’s underpopulated hinterland. Instead, they are asking for a moratorium on the growth of the sector.

“Spain is depopulating, even though the meat industry has been expanding for decades,” said Ferreirim. “So that’s not the answer.”

Yet Mr Pascual maintains that it is the pork industry that makes villages like his sustainable – due to the influx of jobs and economic activity.

“What is not sustainable are the towns with no connection to the countryside. Livestock is the most sustainable thing there is, â€he said. “Everyone has to eat.

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