A recent report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) discusses China’s shift away from smaller-scale production to industrial pig operations.
China is the biggest pork producer in the world—producing 50 million metric tons in 2010. According to Jim Harkness, the President of IATP, “China’s pig industry has become more and more dependent on multinational agribusiness investment and imports for feed. This development has changed the dynamic of agriculture in China and pushed smaller-scale pig producers out of business. It has also played a role in increasing demand for agricultural land internationally.”
The report’s author, Mindi Schneider, recommends reassessing the impacts of adopting industrial pork production and pig feeding for the population and the environment.
Danielle Nierenberg, an expert on livestock and sustainability, currently serves as Project Director of State of World 2011 for the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based environmental think tank. Her knowledge of factory farming and its global spread and sustainable agriculture has been cited widely in the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, and
other publications.
Danielle worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She is currently traveling across Africa looking at innovations that are working to alleviate hunger and poverty and blogging everyday at Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet. She has a regular column with the Mail & Guardian, the Kansas City Star, and the Huffington Post and her writing was been featured in newspapers across Africa including the Cape Town Argus, the Zambia Daily Mail, Coast Week (Kenya), and other African publications. She holds an M.S. in agriculture, food, and environment from Tufts University and a B.A. in environmental policy from Monmouth College.
