"My father had 100 goats and with them he raised 3 children. Today I have had to go into debt to have more animals, produce more and be able to compete in the market," says
Antonio Rodríguez
, rancher and sheep and goat manager of the Confederación de Farmers and Ranchers (COAG) in Andalusia.
Between Antonio's work and that of his father, almost everything has changed: the food model, the exodus to the city and a greater dependence on exports in the meat sector that has been accompanied by the appearance of intensive livestock farms. Farms with the capacity to concentrate a greater number of animals and whose prolific production makes it difficult to market livestock products with more extensive and traditional models.
Since 2015 the concentration of animals on farms has grown by
9%
, especially in the case of pigs and cows, according to the analysis of data from
the Animal Traceability System (SITRAN)
collected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food ( MAP). In general terms, this means that there are currently at least
3 million more animals
than in 2015 and
11,000 fewer farms
for sheep, goats, pigs and cattle.
This increase in animal concentration indicates the expansion of what environmental organizations and small farmers call "macro-farms" or "industrial livestock" and which the law describes as "intensive livestock".
That is to say, that which, in contrast to the extensive one - in which the animals go out to the field and graze the environment -, is characterized by a high concentration of animals per hectare that remain in stables all their lives and are fed by feed.
A form of exploitation that some farmers insist on not demonizing, but that is worrisome when it reaches large proportions.
This model has successfully expanded to some regions of the center and northeast of the peninsula, specializing in the production
of pork and cow's milk
.
In contrast, communities located in the northwest and southeast tend to have a lower concentration of animals on farms.
Despite this general trend, the specific situation in each community changes according to the idiosyncrasies of the animal and the territory.
From the white pig to the "Celtic pig"
For
Daniel Chacón
, Villalba de la Sierra (Cuenca) is the best town in the world. With 500 inhabitants, surrounded by natural parks and a recently installed fiber optic, "it is the perfect town to telecommute", the former president of the Villalba Business Association and a resident of the place is proud. Years ago, the residents of the town redirected all their economic activity towards rural and adventure tourism, a project that they now see endangered by the installation of an intensive pig farm with a total of
15,591 white pigs
on the town limits.
Since 2015 the pig census has grown by
35%
, while the number of farms has decreased by
9%
. In fact, according to MAPA's 2020 Main Economic Indicators of the Meat Sector report,
the number of smaller farms
- around 1,000 animals or less -
has fallen by 30%
throughout Spain in the last decade, while those of
the largest
- from 1,000 onwards -
have grown by 3%
. Consequently, the concentration of animals per farm has increased -13
%
with respect to 2015-, and with it the concern of neighbors who, like Daniel, fear that the slurry - the remains of urine and manure from the animals - will contaminate the soil and water as already happened in the Osona region (Catalonia) .
From the
National Association of Pig Livestock Producers
(ANPROGAPOR) they say they are aware of this concern, shared in several towns on the peninsula.
"It's something that keeps us busy because, after all, they are neighbors," explains its director,
Miguel Ángel Higuera
.
The employers trust that the measures included in the approval of Royal Decree 306/2020 on the management of intensive pig farms will minimize these problems, and will allow these farms to "be just another neighbor".
Currently, the hottest area for intensive livestock farming in Spain is in
Aragon and Catalonia
-
8.7 and 8 million pigs in 2020
according to the MAPA Livestock Survey. "In Aragon practically everything is industrial" criticizes Pilar Torres, from the Loporzano Platform without Intensive Livestock. A social tension that the Aragonese Government intends to reduce with the draft Law for the Protection and Modernization of Family Farming, through which it says it wants to support small farmers.
Despite the fact that the trend towards the intensification of these farms is generalized, regions such as Galicia maintain a predominance of the extensive model, especially of autochthonous species such as the "Celtic pig".
"It is very common for families that are not even dedicated to the primary sector to keep two or three pigs to feed their own family," explains
María Ferreiro
, a Galician farmer belonging to the executive of the Labrego Galego Union (SLG).
And the fact is that, despite the fact that
Galicia
has a brief pig herd, it
is the autonomous community with the most pig farms in all of Spain
- close to 30,000.
Beef: intensive in milk, extensive in meat
The bovine herd has not stopped growing in Spain since 2015. On the other hand, there are currently
7,500
less active
farms
. What happened? "Although beef cattle is practically extensive, dairy cattle has intensified in recent years" explains
Elisa Otero,
postdoctoral researcher at the Agroecology and Food Systems Chair at the Central University of Catalonia.
The regions to the east of Spain, specifically
Murcia and Catalonia
, have a higher concentration of animals per farm. However, the "most conflictive" cases of intensive dairy farming are found in the
Caparroso
area
in La Rioja and in Soria
, according to
Daniel González
from Ecologistas en Acción. In the Castilian province there is a project to build a "macrofarm" of 20,000 cows that worries small farmers in the area. + Statement
On the other hand, the Cantabrian coast is the area that, in general terms, has the highest number of cattle farms -
40,430 in Galicia, followed by Castilla León and Asturias
- and a low concentration of animals in them. According to María Ferreiro, this does not mean that intensive livestock farming does not exist in these regions, but rather that "they are smaller" and therefore their impact on the environment is not "necessarily negative".
The concentration of farms in the northwest of the peninsula, also "has to do with climatic factors, which promote an abundance of pastures," says
Pedro María Herrera
, from the Entretantos Foundation. Added to this is the fragmentation of the land in small properties -minifundios-, which favor small farms and make it difficult to "build a farm with 500 hectares" and which "encourages more ranchers," Herrera continues.
A "respectful" model for the environment, but which, as María Ferreiro denounces, "does not have a generational change".
María fears that depopulation will mean a loss of extensive livestock in the region and create a perfect breeding ground for fire.
"In Galicia, many of the areas that burn are also the most unpopulated."
The goat (and the sheep) continues to pull the mountain
Antonio Rodríguez
goes out with his goats to the field every day.
Inma
does the same in Cuenca. It also occurs in Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha.
Sheep and goat grazing is still alive in many regions of Spain, especially Andalusia
. But only in some regions, such as the two Castiles, is the production of intensive dairy sheep increasing "coinciding with a greater production of Manchego cheese" explains Daniel González from Ecologistas en Acción.
This survival of the more traditional livestock model is in decline in most of Spain -except Extremadura, Andalusia and Madrid- with
6%
fewer sheep and 9% fewer goats
. For
Pablo Manzano,
a postdoctoral researcher at the Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, this phenomenon runs parallel to the
decrease in meat consumption of these animals
, which, according to the INE's Family Budget Survey, has been
45%
since 2006.
For this reason, many ranchers consider it "dangerous" to say that "you have to reduce meat consumption like this, roughly" reflects
Pedro María Herrera
. Instead, it considers that it is necessary "to speak of the small cattle ranchers, of the forms of exploitation and of the environmental impact". The recipe of many farmers and ecologists is, on the contrary, to consume "meat of better quality, sustainable, from extensive farms and support the little one", since "by consuming better meat, consumption falls by its own weight".
This problem has as a backdrop the confusion between intensive and extensive livestock farming
, which is built on a legal definition that does not satisfy small farmers. "The minister did not distinguish it, but neither do some producer associations," says Manzano. And is that for many farmers, the legal definition of both types of livestock "does not cover the peculiarities that exist in each autonomous community" nor does it make it clear "if the animals are locked up" critic Pedro María Herrera, from Entretantos.
Added to this is a certain distrust of the central and autonomous government and questions the demand itself.
"The Government says it does not want
macro farms
, but continues to give them licenses.
I would like to survive with 200 animals but, is the consumer going to pay me what that costs or am I starving? Will the Administration support me?
It seems that what everyone wants is a kilo of chicken for two euros, "says Antonio Rodríguez.
"In the end, it is the small farmers who lose in this sea of confusion."
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