2021 Photo Contest, Environment, 3rd Prize

Inside the Spanish Pork Industry: The Pig Factory of Europe

Photographer

Aitor Garmendia

28 February, 2020

Investigators film a fattening enclosure at a pig farm in Castilla-La Mancha. In February 2020, when they first gained access, investigators found decomposing carcasses. Months later, during a second visit, it appeared that the bodies had not been removed.

Spain is one of the four largest global exporters of pork, alongside Germany, the US, and Denmark. The European Union as a whole consumes around 20 million tons of pork annually, and exports some 13 percent of its total production, mostly to East Asia, in particular to China. An EU-funded campaign, Let’s Talk About Pork, has been launched in Spain, France, and Portugal, giving its objective as a drive to counter fake claims surrounding meat production and the consumption of pork in Europe, and to demonstrate that the sector meets the highest standards of sustainability, biosecurity, and food safety in the world. Such standards include guarantees that animals do not suffer pain, and that they have enough space to move freely. Animal rights groups, on the other hand, argue that such practices as routine tail-docking and narrow gestation crates for sows constitute animal abuse, and that animal pain and suffering is widespread. Animal rights investigators say that the industry makes access to farms difficult, and that they are compelled to gain access to such facilities covertly, often at night, in order to document what happens inside. These photographs were taken on a number of such incursions, on different dates, at various facilities across Spain.

About the photographer

Aitor Garmendia

Aitor Garmendia is a photographer focused on documenting the lives of exploited and liberated non-human animals.  Through reports and graphic investigations that portray ...

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/60
Focal length
24mm
F-Stop
f/1.8
ISO
4000
Camera
Nikon D850

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