China Is Breeding Giant Pigs the Size of Polar Bears (bloomberg.com) 119
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: In a farm deep in the southern region of China lives a very big pig that's as heavy as a polar bear. The 500 kilogram, or 1,102 pound, animal is part of a herd that's being bred to become giant swine. At slaughter, some of the pigs can sell for more than 10,000 yuan ($1,399), over three times higher than the average monthly disposable income in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province where Pang Cong, the farm's owner, lives. While Pang's pigs may be an extreme example of the lengths farmers are going to fill China's swelling pork shortage problem, the idea that bigger is better has been spreading across the country, home to the world's most voracious consumers of the meat.
High pork prices in the northeastern province of Jilin is prompting farmers to raise pigs to reach an average weight of 175 kilograms to 200 kilograms, higher than the normal weight of 125 kilograms. They want to raise them "as big as possible,"said Zhao Hailin, a hog farmer in the region. The trend isn't limited to small farms either. Major protein producers in China, including Wens Foodstuffs Group Co, the country's top pig breeder, Cofco Meat Holdings Ltd. and Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co. say they are trying to increase the average weight of their pigs. Big farms are focusing on boosting the heft by at least 14%, said Lin Guofa, a senior analyst with consulting firm Bric Agriculture Group. The average weight of pigs at slaughter at some large-scale farms has climbed to as much as 140 kilograms, compared with about 110 kilograms normally, Lin said. That could boost profits by more than 30%, he said.
High pork prices in the northeastern province of Jilin is prompting farmers to raise pigs to reach an average weight of 175 kilograms to 200 kilograms, higher than the normal weight of 125 kilograms. They want to raise them "as big as possible,"said Zhao Hailin, a hog farmer in the region. The trend isn't limited to small farms either. Major protein producers in China, including Wens Foodstuffs Group Co, the country's top pig breeder, Cofco Meat Holdings Ltd. and Beijing Dabeinong Technology Group Co. say they are trying to increase the average weight of their pigs. Big farms are focusing on boosting the heft by at least 14%, said Lin Guofa, a senior analyst with consulting firm Bric Agriculture Group. The average weight of pigs at slaughter at some large-scale farms has climbed to as much as 140 kilograms, compared with about 110 kilograms normally, Lin said. That could boost profits by more than 30%, he said.
Space Truckers (Score:5, Funny)
Next up, square hogs for easier transport.
Re:Space Truckers (Score:5, Funny)
Square Hogs? Sounds like a motor cycle gang where all the riders wear thick rimmed glasses and dress shirts with chest pockets.
Re: Space Truckers (Score:1)
Re: Space Truckers (Score:2)
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China will face a pork shortage of 10 million tons this year
They should contact Washington, there's a massive pork surplus there.
Re:Space Truckers (Score:5, Funny)
Next up, square hogs for easier transport.
No, pigs with wings. I just ordered a whole flock of them from China, there are several individuals who'll find themselves honoring promises they never thought they'd have to keep. Oh, and if you thought birds shitting on your car was bad, just wait till my flock of free range flying cows arrives.
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"And any fool knows a dog needs a home, a shelter from pigs on the wing."
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It is well known that sufficient thrust is a better approach to making pigs fly than the use of inefficient wings . .
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It is well known that sufficient thrust is a better approach to making pigs fly than the use of inefficient wings . .
Yes, but I can't afford to feed the my pigs enough beans for their farts to generate the required levels of thrust.
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this is china--they invented skyrockets . . .
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this is china--they invented skyrockets . . .
That would be cheating, it must be farts all the way into orbit.
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Are they similar to spherical cows?
No, but when pigs this size make it across the Pacfic, you're going to start seeing spherical Americans.
okja anybody? (Score:1)
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Re: okja anybody? (Score:2)
Ob.Meme (Score:5, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our new polar bear sized porcine overlords
Re: Ob.Meme (Score:2)
How does it taste- and is it protein or fat? (Score:5, Interesting)
Two big questions:
1) How does it taste, does size impact flavor... and related:
2) How is protein to fat ratio impacted?
Is it like fruit and berries where flavor is inversely related to size. (smaller the berry the sweeter and more flavorful the fruit)
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Who knows, but babies are very, very delicious [beef and swine].
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Jonathan Swift, ladies and gentlemen!
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3) How come farmers in Nanning are doing so well?
1/3rd of $1,400 is $466/month of disposable income, which compares well to many cities in the US where the lost of living is much higher. If they have that much left over after expenses every month they must be living well in China.
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Disposable income is what you have left after the government takes it's cut.
Discretionary income is what you have left after you pay for the necessities (by someones definition).
https://www.thebalance.com/wha... [thebalance.com]
Almost all of the US has an average disposable income of $3k-$5k a month.
https://www.statista.com/stati... [statista.com]
Toxin buildup/concentration? (Score:3)
I also wonder if the larger size allows for a great build up of toxins or other unwanted environmental pollution in the animals.
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Yes, probably, but it won't bother the CCP owned enterprises. The people only exist to support the Party.
Re: How does it taste- and is it protein or fat? (Score:2)
How does it taste...
Just like dog... what else??
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FWIW, I'm not really sure that Bloomberg hasn't totally bought a load of horseshit here. Big pigs are not that hard to come by anywhere. It's simply a matter of letting them keep eating. T
Uh huh. (Score:4, Insightful)
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HAHAHA! You WISH! (Score:1)
You don't get cancer cause someone on the same bus as you ate cancerous pork.
Swine flu on the other hand...
They are feeding them antibiotics. [wikipedia.org]
Which affect their gut flora [wikipedia.org] creating a gut-environment full of vitamin-B12-producing bacteria. [wikipedia.org]
Oh... and also antibiotic-resistant strains of diseases. YAY!
On a positive side, we may finally get rid of Gwyneth Paltrow that way. [youtube.com]
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You don't get cancer cause someone on the same bus as you ate cancerous pork. Swine flu on the other hand...
You seem to be under the belief that said cancerous pork meat won't somehow make it back to the U.S.
Have you ever seen slaughter houses do meat sorting? They have a section for domestic consumption, a section for "industrial uses", and a section for "Export". Care to wager what kind of meat gets selected for the third category? Meat being a fungible commodity, there's no way to discern it once it's in our supply chain.
Or to put it another way, China has been doing to us what we've been doing to the w
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Oh look... Gwyneth Paltrow modded me down. Sucks to be her I guess. 24-karat gold dildos and all...
You don't get cancer cause someone on the same bus as you ate cancerous pork.
Swine flu on the other hand...
They are feeding them antibiotics. [wikipedia.org]
Which affect their gut flora [wikipedia.org] creating a gut-environment full of vitamin-B12-producing bacteria. [wikipedia.org]
Oh... and also antibiotic-resistant strains of diseases. YAY!
On a positive side, we may finally get rid of Gwyneth Paltrow that way. [youtube.com]
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And what carcinogenic chemicals are they feeding these pigs to achieve these impressive weights?
When did Slashdot fall low enough that people's first thought on an article about selective breading is carcinogens. What next, questioning what chemicals the government puts in water to cause rainbows from a garden hose? Here's a video that's right up your alley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
North Korean Technology (Score:4, Funny)
I'm thinking that the Chinese used the same North Korean technology that created Kim Jong-un. That's about his size and weight.
Now it would be creepy if the pigs also had his facial features, as well.
Forget General Tso's chicken . . . welcome Supreme Leader Kim's pork!
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I'm thinking that the Chinese used the same North Korean technology that created Kim Jong-un. That's about his size and weight.
Now it would be creepy if the pigs also had his facial features, as well.
Forget General Tso's chicken . . . welcome Supreme Leader Kim's pork!
I dunno nothing will ever match Tso's chicken! His chicken must have been huge, people have been eating it for years.
Manual Handling (Score:5, Informative)
I've done butchery in my youth and most pork we eat in the west is reared for ~6 months, and reaches a weight of about 250-300lb. Once the carcass has been processed it is a good size for handling in your average butchers shop and has a good fat content for making your typical cuts and sausages.
I can't imagine must bigger would be more efficient as you would need to rear the pigs for much longer. Probably have to be much more careful about disease as the animals get bigger and more prone to injury. Also how the hell do you handle such a massive animal? You would get so much bruising on the meat during slaughter!
If they want to fix the pork shortage maybe implement better animal hygiene as the animal numbers could be recovered quickly afterwards.
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Genetics absolutely affects how fast you can gain muscle and fat. I'm told battery chickens these days grow larger and to maturity faster than chickens from a just few decades ago, so I don't see why they couldn't do the same with pigs.
There are side-effects with chickens. There is spaghettin meat problem, there is woody breast... These are not isolated problems, but industry-wide issues. Locally we had an issue about a year ago where all cheap chicken was affected and about 10-20% of chicken breasts you buy would result in disgusting meals. There are now better screening methods, but the industry had to catch up each time.
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99% of pork is factory butchered and handled primarily by robots and human guided robotics, so this is not a concern.
That said, the only reason we grow them to ~300 lbs is because that is a convenient size, 30+ years ago no one would all the potential meat by killing them that small. They don't seem to slow down their growth until at least double that. Presumably what they mean are pigs that grow faster.
Re: Manual Handling (Score:3)
My grandpa had a nearly 2000 pound hog. It was barely mobile and kept confined so it wouldn't squash it's piglets, but it wasn't for meat, it was his state fair winning pig (and well off the 2500+ pound world record). The meat pigs had a fairly large free range but would rarely get to over 300 pounds.
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I have been wondering the same thing. Maybe this is essentially a PR-stunt of the "We have the biggest pigs!" variant. If the target audience does not realize this may just be nonsense, it would work.
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I for one (Score:2)
I, for one, welcome our new porcine overlords.
Not good (Score:2)
Have these idiots ever heard of Princess Mononoke and her problems with giant swine?
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Re: Not good (Score:2)
Swine flu? (Score:2)
As heavy as a bull but even more unpredictable (Score:2)
I can't see it ending well for the farmers who have to look after them. Even a normal sized pig can be a handful never mind these, unless they're also been bred for docility.
What do they look like? (Score:2)
Can the pigs even stand up at that weight?
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They look look ugly as fuck.
Re: What do they look like? (Score:2)
Four legs good, two legs bad! (Score:1)
Holy sensationalist title batman. (Score:2)
They could have said, china is growing pigs as big as cows, but they had to go for some kind of exotic animal.
There was an awful movie made about this concept (Score:2)
There was an awful movie made about this concept, Okja [wikipedia.org]
Re: There was an awful movie made about this conce (Score:2)
Feral pigs in US southern states (Score:2)
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That picture is horseshit because of the forced perspective though.
Yeah, it was a big pig, but NOT as big as it looks.
You can tell the pig is up front in the foreground because it's all blurry and the people are sitting a ways back to make the pig look bigger because they're all in focus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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I thought they were just interbreeding with the tuskers.
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I'm not saying the pig didn't exist - but none of that means the picturse don't use forced perspective - it does, that's a fact.
It was undoubtably a BIG pig, but NOT as big as it looks in those pics.
Re: Feral pigs in US southern states (Score:2)
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Feral pigs have a super-swiny taste though. I can only compare it to eating a durian -- wonderful and horrible at the same time.
Re: Feral pigs in US southern states (Score:2)
Have you ever seen the size of some of the feral pigs wandering around the US south?
I've shopped at the Muskogee, OK Walmart a few more times than I care to admit so yeah; I'm something of an expert.
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''I've shopped at the Muskogee, OK Walmart a few more times than I care to admit so yeah; I'm something of an expert.''
You've misidentified the species. Mooseasaurous americanus is the most commonly observed species waddling the isles of Walmart.
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The problem is how long you raise them. The older the animal at slaughter the tougher and gamey the meat. There is a reason we slaughter at 6 months in the west, you get the best balance between size and meat quality.
The same applies to cows, we could keep them around a year or two, longer than the normal 6 months and they would put on quite a bit more meat but the meat will be tough and won't taste good. The older the animal the worse the quality of the meat.
There are also other issues, if you keep them lo
Sligs (Score:2)
The pork must flow.
tastes like chicken (Score:2)
How about... (Score:2)
... tiny polar bears instead? Like can they breed polar bears the size of dogs? I'd pay money for that!
I, for one, welcome our new Polar Pig overlords. (Score:1)
A long game (Score:2)
They want to win the Texas BBQ Championship.
Life imitates art (Score:2)
Specifically, the movie Okja [youtube.com].
How is this news? (Score:2)
Didn't they already have a bear-sized pig for years?
The feed conversion rate must be terrible. (Score:1)
Bigger animals are generally less efficient-- they grow slower, and "waste" a bunch of energy growing the huge skeletons, organs, and lots of connective tissue to suport that weight-- parts which are much less profitable than the meat.
tldr: Giant pigs are a stunt. If you want to efficiently increase me
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It is terrible, in addition they are having to use various medicines to increase the sizes of them. The reason they are doing it is that the prices of piglets and breed-able sows has increase so much that getting the extra weight on an existing pig is cheaper than slaughtering them at a lower weight.
Do you want Man Bear Pig? (Score:2)
because this is how you get man bear pig. The Chinese are predisposed to human genetic tinkering as well..
Visit your state fair (Score:2)
Okja? (Score:2)
Anybody remember the Netflix movie?
In the fictional movie, I think the giant pig was made in Korea. Still fairly close.
Okja Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjCebKn4iic
Re:Please (Score:4, Interesting)
When wild animals die it's a slow and painful death due to starvation or a quick one being ripped apart alive.
Would you enjoy seeing your family members being eaten? I wouldn't
Factory animals don't have to work, are dry, safe and well fed.
Usually their deaths are painless and without drama, although problems do exist.
If you're against factory farming, are you against all life?
If your argument is that it's not natural for animals to live in factories, do you live in a cave?
Stone houses and hot food aren't 'natural' either, but they do allow humans to have an higher average life span than 25.
So to me something being natural or unnatural means nothing.
Re: Please (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: Please (Score:1)
Re: Please (Score:4, Insightful)
That is not apples to apples for someone who has reliable access to entertainment, food, and basic security. What your average wild chipmunk faces every day is more akin to the worst Syrian refugee camps. No reliable access to water, much less food. The possibility of being killed at any time, coupled with the certainty that your killer will never be punished. Never having known a truly safe night of sleep. Make the offer to someone who's been living day to day in such conditions since before they could talk; you might find some takers.
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Do you stand firmly opposed to actual jail cells, given the high rates of false imprisonment?
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"I'll accept your rebuttal when you are willing to give up pet's, zoo's,"
Are you willing to give up apostrophe plurals? Jesus on a crutch, pet's? zoo's? Really?
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I'll accept this argument when you volunteer to live in a jail cell until you're put to death.
Don’t forget there’d also be a dozen or so other people in the cell - you wouldn’t really be able to move around much.
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Except the people going to jail already know what it's like to live in normal houses, communities.. The animals that are bred in those farms don't know any better.. All I want is the animals being treated with respect and kept healthy, I don't condone torturing these animals. SO yes, the farms that mistreat their animals should be closed down, but there are enough farms out there who really treat their animals in a good way.. Ofcourse the anti-groups will only show you the worst cases or even pick a exclusi
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Treating an animal with respect is one of the silliest ideas I've ever heard. Are you calling the animal "sir" or "madam"? Are you asking it for an opinion on politics or fashion? Are you bowing to it?
Treat them kindly. Keep them clean, warm, and healthy. Don't subject them to needless pain.
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If you're against factory farming, are you against all life?
Animals created specifically to live in a factory and be turned into food cannot be compared to those in the wild, because their birth was a deliberate choice by humans. We therefore have a more direct moral duty to look after them during their lifetimes.
I always buy free range meat for that reason. Yes, it's not perfect, but it's still better than encouraging factory farming. Of course, I am privileged to earn enough that I can afford more expensive free range food.
Re: Please (Score:2)
Go fucking figure...
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I don't know why this would surprise you, not only have I stated my position on animals for food before but it's consistent with all my other views expressed here.
I'm not trying to have a go at you or anything, I really just want to understand what people think I think because they often seem to make erroneous assumptions and I'm wondering if I can do something to stop it happening.
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As what I believe to be an impartial observer, I can only tell you my impressions of you from casual observation.
For the longest time, whenever I saw your name it would be attached to some post that I can only recall as "angry". I don't know if you were going through something at the time, or you were letting trolls get to you, or what, but that's what I used to expect from you. I also accept the possibility that my longterm memory's faulty and I misconstrued some stuff and that label's way off-base.
I don
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Thanks, that's interesting. I see most of my posts these days as pretty laid back, although my memory of older stuff is terrible so I won't comment on that.
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Re: Please (Score:1)
Please, this is China you're talking about. They'll figure out a way to make pig shashimi whereby the giant pig is kept alive whilst it's butchered. Because the pain hormones make your dick bigger or something.