A commentary from the Beijing News translated by CDT:
From January 1, 2009 onward, pig farming will be banned in all of Dongguan City, a leading manufacturing base in Guangdong Province. A Dongguan official made this announcement at a working conference about cleaning up pollution from the poultry industry.
Many counter the government decision, saying it’s irrational for a local government to prohibit a legal trade. But the reality is, like many other Pearl Delta cities, thirty years of rapid economic development has made land resources so scarce in Dongguan that pig farming pales in comparison with other industries in terms of unit-land output. Thus, “there’s no space for a pig in Pearl Delta.”
The trick is, the city official said banning pig farming was based on environmental concerns, which is really a lame excuse. Poultry doesn’t necessarily mean pollution and there are steps to take to make sure that pig farming doesn’t pollute. And why is it that other heavily polluting industries can hang on in Dongguan, while less polluting pig farming cannot. The Dongguan government can just tell the truth that scarcity of land is the reason pigs should go, and the public will understand. [Full Text in Chinese]
