Pig farmer wants to feed pigs via live webcast

Black hair, countryside, organic, green, pollution-free... On the market, more and more novel terms are being attached to the names of pork products. Yesterday at the China (Shanghai) International Meat Industry Exhibition, which opened in Shanghai, numerous meat vendors played the concept cards of health and deliciousness. To prove that their own free-range black-haired native pigs were genuine, one pig farm owner even said he had already planned to launch "online pig feeding" -- white-collar workers could sit at home and, every day, watch via video what the piglet they bought "eats and drinks," thereby ensuring they can eat pork they feel safe about.

"Our company's pigs come from Jiaxing black pigs. We absolutely do not use lean meat powder, and we feed them coarse grains, so the meat is more fragrant, more nutritious and chewier." At the exhibition, the person in charge of a Zhejiang breeding enterprise told reporters that the specialty of the company's pig breed is the "native grass pig," because ordinary commercial pigs are fully grown in 5-6 months, while this kind of "grass pig" takes nearly 9 months, so the meat price is more expensive than ordinary pork. For example, a pork knuckle that generally costs 13 yuan per jin on the market costs 17 yuan per jin for their "grass pig." However, when it came to how to identify this kind of grass pig meat, this person in charge also found it somewhat difficult: "If it is cut into slices and strips, to be honest, it is very hard to tell from the appearance what difference there is from ordinary pork."

Another "pig keeper" playing the "native pig card" -- the owner of a breeding farm -- directly brought out a basin of fragrant pork soup and handed it out free for visitors to taste. In less than 5 minutes, 20 jin of clear-stewed native pork was snatched up. "Real native pork needs no praise; one taste and you know!" the owner told reporters proudly. He said his pig breed was Wannan black pig, fed entirely on vegetables and corn grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers. After growing to 100 jin and having enough resistance, they are released to graze in mountain forests and grasslands, and they need 12-16 months to fully grow. "Large restaurants in Shanghai have already brought in my pork, 1 jin for 138 yuan, and it often sells out."

The owner also admitted that whether today's native pigs are "truly native" or "falsely native" is always doubted by people. "You can grow vegetables online, right? I plan to raise pigs online!" He plans to install enough cameras in his own pigsty and free-range area and put identification marks on each pig's ear, so that urban white-collar workers can adopt their own native pig starting from a piglet. "You can watch via online video at any time what it is eating, drinking and doing. Pigs raised this way should at least give you peace of mind when eating them!"