Farmers: Pig & Salmon Farmers (2011)
Welcome to the factory farms. Pig and salmon farming are industrial methods of farming, designed to convert cheap protein, in the form of grain, into more expensive protein, in the form of meat and fish. As recently as 1960, 110,000 Irish farmers kept at least one pig. But that figure has fallen dramatically and today just 325 farms are responsible for 98% of Ireland’s total pig production. Meanwhile, Norwegian-based Marine Harvest is the world’s largest seafood company. They employ more than 250 people in Ireland and over 5,000 people worldwide and they produce just under half a million tons of salmon every year. Both types of farming are not without controversy, but if we are all to live in cities, it is perhaps inevitable that this is the way our food has to be produced.