He emptied himself with the invasion of Spain. macro farms of pigs and the false promises of economic recovery that often go hand in hand, Guardian. The British newspaper cites the special case of one town in Albacete (Balsa de Ves), where one of these industries operates, an example of what is happening in many other towns on the Peninsula.
under the title ‘We have been invaded by pigs’the report shows that the town school closed forty years ago and the hotel in 2008. The town is losing population, but “there has been some sort of overpopulation in the last 15 years.” pigs flooding large industrial warehouses built in the municipality.
The buildings house 3,900 pigs, which produce about 100,000 piglets per year. “We have more than 800 pigs per capita”says mayor Natividad Pérez García, referring to the town’s sparse 130 population.
This is an example of the transformation taking place in rural Spain, where around half of the pork industry is located in municipalities with a population of less than 5,000. In 2021, Spain (population 47 million) slaughtered 58 million pigs, 40% more than in the previous decade. The country that exports the most pork in all of Europe.
“But the promises that pork production would revitalize Spain’s rural communities were not kept at Balsa de Ves,” the journalist notes.
unkept promises
Pérez García remembers the early days of 2006 when an industry representative came to a town hall meeting. “He said we would be the envy of the surrounding towns,” he says. “Everyone would want to come and live here. That the town school would reopen and we would have green spaces.
Convincing all legislators except Pérez García, this speech offered a glimmer of hope amid a series of alarming statistics. In the last decade, 90% of Spanish cities with a population of less than 1,000 have declined in population. Balsa de Ves opted for intensive pig farming, as towns across the country sold the proposed plots to prevent the land from being lost.
But nothing went as promised. “It was the beginning of the nightmare in my town,” says Pérez García. “It smells bad 365 days a year in one of the hamlets about three kilometers from the farm. A constant stream of heavy trucks comes and goes, ruining our roads,” he explains.
Tests conducted by Greenpeace in May showed that: One of the town’s five water sources, though not connected to a drinking water source, had nitrate levels of 120 milligrams per liter, more than double that limit. EU directive 50 mg/l. Pérez García had to stop the residents’ habit of pouring water from this spring into jugs.
The presence of nitrates has been linked to fertilizer production by the farm, a link identified throughout Spain. In Aragon, which is home to about seven pigs per capita, a recent study found that nearly 50 municipalities recorded dangerously high nitrate levels in their drinking water at some point between 2016 and 2020.
Few people work at the Balsa de Ves farm, but the most worrying thing for Pérez García is The town’s population has decreased by 40% since its implementation.
“It makes sense,” says Pérez García. “What do people prefer? The smell of pine and rosemary or the smell of shit?” she wonders.
Reference article: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/06/pigs-spain-pork-revolution-backlash
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