Farming
| Global pig stocks in 2007 |
|
| (million) | |
| People's Republic of China | 425.6 |
| United States | 61.7 |
| Brazil | 35.9 |
| World Total | 918.3 |
| Source: UN Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) |
|
In some developing and developed nations, the domestic pig is a native species occasionally raised outdoors in yards or fields. In some areas, pigs are allowed to forage in woods where they may be taken care of by swineherds. In industrialized nations, domestic pig farming has shifted away from the traditional pig farm to large-scale intensive pig farms. This has resulted in lower production costs, but significant animal welfare concerns.
Pigs are particularly valued in China and on certain oceanic islands their self-sufficiency allows them to be turned loose, although the practice is not without its drawbacks. With managed rotational grazing techniques, pigs can be raised on pasture in an environmentally sustainable manner much like grazing sheep, goats and cows without high grain inputs.
Read more about this topic: Domestic Pigs
Famous quotes containing the word farming:
“... farming conservatism, which consisted in holding that whatever is, is bad, and any change is likely to be worse.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“The measure discriminates definitely against products which make up what has been universally considered a program of safe farming. The bill upholds as ideals of American farming the men who grow cotton, corn, rice, swine, tobacco, or wheat and nothing else. These are to be given special favors at the expense of the farmer who has toiled for years to build up a constructive farming enterprise to include a variety of crops and livestock.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“With the farming of a verse
Make a vineyard of the curse,”
—W.H. (Wystan Hugh)