Tiskane izdaje
CREIL, the Netherlands - Modest farms, 36 hectares or less, dot the region here, most of them raising grains and vegetables.
In the midst of this idyllic scene a few years back there appeared what residents now call "the pink invasion," three huge hog barns each with 10,000 or more pigs.
"Some people don't like the idea," said a resident, Dick van Leeuwen, 65.
The Netherlands, a country of almost 17 million people, is home to a pig population of 14 million. Despite its status as one of the smaller countries in the European Union, it has long been Europe's leading exporter of pork and pork products.
And Dutch farmers are fighting rising costs by resorting to ever bigger herds and barns, a trend that is reinforced by the petite size of the Netherlands. In recent years, an architectural firm in Rotterdam even proposed skyscrapers for pigs, high-rise barns capable of taking in thousands of animals in very small space. They would even come with balconies so that the hogs could occasionally enjoy fresh air.
But as the big barns become more common, the government has begun to respond to public complaints about industrial farming and cruelty to animals. Officials are now discussing ways to curb the size of barns like those in tiny Creil, with its 1,600 people, much to the chagrin of the new generation of farmers who see industrial-scale husbandry as their only means to compete.
Critics argue that enormous pig barns damage the environment because of the immense amounts of manure they produce, threaten people's heath because of the antibiotics used on the animals and disregard the welfare of the animals.
"Most of the time people think I'm crazy," says Cor Vowinkel, 47, who manages one of the barns on the edge of Creil, with about 10,000 meat hogs. "The neighborhood is negative."
To counter these attitudes, he has begun opening the barn to visitors, and has produced a video for YouTube to explain the work of a modern pig farmer. Schoolchildren occasionally visit to learn about modern methods of raising pigs.
Pig farmers like Mr. Vowinkel insist that they can compete only if they keep costs and the price of their pork down. "Some disappear, others get bigger, to lower production prices," he said. A fellow farmer, Sietse van der Meer, agreed. "You grow bigger, or you stop," he said.
Politicians feel the pressure of the environmentalists and animal rights groups. In December, Parliament began discussing a possible restriction on the size of farms and a ban on antibiotics.
Wyno Zwanenburg, president of the Dutch Pig Farmers Union, says farmers have no choice but to expand. Since 1990, the number of Dutch pig farmers has steadily declined from about 28,000 and is expected to reach about 2,000 in the next few years.
"We're facing a global challenge," he said. "The consumer is not willing to pay more."
