The pig of the future: 4 scenarios

A recent series of articles by the Volkskrant takes a close look at the pig sector. In the latest article, 4 future scenarios are outlined for the pig. These scenarios can already be seen at pig farmers in Limburg.

1: The cheese pudding pig

The cheesesteak pig is created in a totally closed system in which all emissions are captured, the air filtered and diseases kept outside. Such a barn can even be completely climate neutral.

Ons Boerenerf
A good example of a pig farm that has already gone a long way with the 'cheese curd' concept is Aad van Leeuwen's Ons Boerenerf pig farm: a farm with 10,000 pigs, with advanced air filtering in the stalls. The feed consists largely of residual flows in a composition that minimizes CO2 and particulate matter emissions. With solar panels and modern techniques the production is energy-neutral.
Read Aad van Leeuwen's story here >

Blue Plasma
And more technical innovations are coming that can improve the 'cheese stall'. Blue Plasma Agro Solutions, a startup for making and controlling Cold Atmospheric Plasma (KAP), is developing applications that will make air scrubbers in pig farms work even more effectively. With "blue plasma" in the process, the cell walls of bacteria and viruses are broken down. What remains are simple structures, such as water and oxygen. With such applications, the problem of odor and pathogens can be solved with very little energy and without water.
Read more about Blue Plasma Agro Solutions >

2: The closed-loop pig

According to Nevedi, the Dutch Association for the Animal Feed Industry, 65 percent of the raw materials for pig feed already come from the food industry: potato peels, beer yeast, soybean meal. That could be even more if the use of food scraps (swill) and animal meal were allowed again. After the outbreak of animal diseases (foot-and-mouth disease, mad cow disease, swine fever), this is prohibited.

Houbensteyn and Pigster
Also here, large scale is needed for optimal use of residual streams. Like Ons Boerenerf, Houbensteyn in Ysselsteyn has invested heavily in storage basins for residual flows and its own feed kitchen. Houbensteyn keeps about 40,000 fattening pigs, 60 percent of which are fed with residual products.

3. The happy free-range pig

This includes pork that meets higher welfare requirements than one star (two stars, organic). That market is now 1 percent of total sales, but growing. The predictions are different: either the extremes grow further apart, or supermarkets will work with farmers to market pork under their own label: a Plus pig, a Lidl pig, competing on welfare requirements.
Kuusj
An interesting Limburg concept in this context is Kuusj de Varkenshoederij, where the farmer markets the meat through regional catering and his own online sales of meat packages, but also offers a Kuusj 'experience' with a Hoeders lunch and a tour of the fields.

4. Not a pig

The Rabobank expects that, due to new laws and regulations and the cessation scheme for pig farmers, the number of businesses will shrink considerably: from 3,500 now to 1,000 in 2030.
If nitrogen rights become tradable, there is also a good chance that the industry will buy rights from pig farmers, given the relatively low price.
But even if the number of farms shrinks, consumer demand for pork will remain, they expect. Production will then be absorbed only shifting abroad, something that does little to benefit the pig.

Would you like to read more about the future outlook for the meat sector? Please read the Kiempunt background article on this >

Source: Volkskrant