Argentinians protested in Buenos Aires on Wednesday against the pork deal with Beijing, which would mean creating more industrial pig farms in the country to export more pork to China.
Protestors, who gathered outside China’s Embassy, said that more industrial pig farms is not only cruel to animals but will also contaminate their water. They also fear possible viruses picked up from pigs.
“There is the tremendous environmental toll because pigs pollute. They pollute underground water supplies, they pollute the environment, they bring about new viruses that could be a pandemic,” protestor Alejandro Bodart said, adding that industrial pig farms are also a “tremendous mistreatment of animals”.
Last year, the Argentinian government wanted to sign the agreement, which aims to double the country’s pork output in four years, but delayed the deal because of environmental concerns.
“There’s the air pollution, the quantity of grain that is needed for all of this. Also, we believe that we’re a year and a half into the pandemic, and this brings a mega pandemic factory to our country,” protestor Pilar Barbas said.
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