“Feces aren’t fertilizer, but a polluting agent,” Mary told POLITICO, calling for the number of pigs to be slashed by half to comply with the nitrate requirements.
But the worst drought in recent history — which has coincided with a proliferation of dry spells and devastating floods elsewhere in Europe — is exposing how Catalonia’s ambition to satisfy the world’s growing hunger for pork is pushing the region beyond the limits of what its environment can support.
Such multinationals require farmers to meet certain productivity targets — amount of feed; animal mortality; or the number of piglets per sow — in exchange for a stable income at the end of the month.
Marti Costal, from the Catalan organization of young farmers (JARC) owns apple trees, cereal crops and runs a farm with 1,100 pigs.
Batallé, one of the largest companies in the sector, referred a request for comment to Miguel Àngel Higuera, director of the Spanish Association of Pig Producers (Anprogapor).
“The few family businesses that have their own local market will survive, but the rest will go to the hands of big corporations — or will come from elsewhere,” said Costal, who was approaching retirement age despite being a member of the young farmers’ association.
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