This gigantic 26-story building isn't the latest human beehive in a commuter town, but a vertical pigsty designed for optimal pig farming. These animals will live like humans, fed by automated systems, constantly cleaned, and monitored by high-definition cameras by staff clad in uniforms that look like they came from the factory where NASA built the James Webb Telescope.
As the New York Times reports in a fascinating new article , this concrete farm is located in Ezhou, a city on the south bank of the Yangtze River. According to the newspaper, it is the world's largest pig farm. They say it will soon have a twin building right next to it. In total, the farm will raise 1.2 million pigs every year.
How it works
China is the world's largest pork producer, with an output of approximately 47.5 million tons according to 2021 data. The European Union is in second place, with 23.7 million tons. Spain is the leading European producer, with almost four million tons of pork produced mainly in Catalonia, Aragon, and Castile and León.
Half of Europe's pork exports go to China—some five million tons—but the Asian nation wants to become completely independent. Since its agricultural land is limited, Beijing has decided to promote the construction of vertical farms to feed a population that consumes more pork than any other on the planet. In fact, they eat 50% of the world's total pork production, from snout to tail.
The farm, built by the Hubei Zhongxin Kaiwei Modern Animal Husbandry company, is shocking at first glance but incredibly efficient. Beyond the ethical debate surrounding raising pigs in this type of environment—they argue it's far superior to other intensive farms worldwide—the building resembles a PS5 or iPhone factory more than a pigsty, both in its cleanliness and technological equipment. Each floor operates independently and plays a specific role in the animal's rearing process, from the sows' pregnancy to the final stage of fattening before slaughter.
Reviews
The problems with this model are not very different from those of today's intensive livestock farming. As the New York Times points out, one of the potential dangers is the possibility of rapid disease transmission. “Raising so many pigs together in a single facility makes it harder to prevent contamination,” says Brett Stuart, founder of Global AgriTrends, an agricultural market research company. “U.S. pig farmers look at pictures of those farms in China, and they just scratch their heads and say, ‘We would never dare to do that.’ It’s too risky.”.
The Chinese government doesn't seem to care. According to the New York newspaper, Beijing is actively supporting the construction of these buildings as another step toward achieving independence from global markets, a key part of its plans to become a self-sufficient global superpower, unafraid of Western retaliation for its expansionist ambitions in the Far East, its internal repression, and its ethnic cleansing activities against Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other ethnic groups.
