Taipei Taiwan has been experimenting to decrease the problems of pollution, especially with the smell and the excessive water use in pig farms. Taiwan has a solution, potty training PIGS! The government wants all of the island's pig farms to adopt this practice. Potting training pigs not only means more cash to farmers but it also means less watery manure, which then can be sold for a higher price. Stephen Shen, Taiwan’s environment minister thinks that potty training pigs with cut down in CO2 emissions. This so called pig "toilet" is made up of iron bars installed in the corner of the pen. The pigs step between the bars to potty, and all the waste is in one easy to clean spot. If all the six million pigs in Taiwan used these toilets, the government estimates that the 180 million liters of water used per day for cleaning, would cut in half. Chang Chung-Tou general manager of Long Kow Foods Enterprise, potty trains his pigs, he says that he receives more money for his manure and his porkers live longer!
At first, I thought this sounded like a joke! But the more I read about it, it made a lot of sense. To potty-train animals used for agricultural purposes is actually a great idea! There seems to be only positive outcomes for potty-trained pigs. They make more money, it's a lot more sanity, the waste can be sold at a higher price, and the pigs don't have to live in their own bathroom area. It sounds great, but I wonder how difficult it is to train the pigs to use the bathroom in a specific corner or place. If they can train the pigs, then I think that we should start training all agricultural animals to use the bathroom in a specific place!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a great idea for the environment but I want to know how they are going to actually make a pig go to a potty to use the restroom. It seems like someone would have to be standing over the pigs at all times to make sure the pigs go to the potty. It sounds great environmentally but I don't know if it will really be possible.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is a good idea but how are your really going to get them potty trained. I know where you put there food and water at will normally affect where they use the bathroom. My thing is you can try but are the truly knowing what they are doing when they use the bathroom there.
ReplyDeleteI am a little confused about how you're supposed to approach potty training pigs. Is it possible to potty train a pig? The outcome of this could do a lot of good, but I don't think that you could actually reach that outcome.
ReplyDeleteI commend Taipei Taiwan for searching to find new ways to improve the quality of our environment. While I think it is a good idea to look into, I believe it is somewhat unrealistic. When you consider the different parts of the world, different areas have different specialties when it comes to farming or other items produced. Potty training a pig I’m sure is a much different process that trying to potty train a cow. While I’m sure it can be done, a lot of time and effort would have to go into the process. Nonetheless, if this strategy can work for people in Taipei, I hope it can continue and revolutionize the water system in that area.
ReplyDeleteThis idea is actually, in some ways, brilliant. Not only are these pigs keeping the air more clean, they're probably cutting down on costs when it comes to clean up since there won't be so much to clean. However, trying to apply this method onto other animals in other places or countries might prove difficult, depending on the farm and animal. Overall, the idea is a good one, yet the next step would be to test how far they could teach other animals the same method. This would help lower problems that come with farming, which helps both the farmers, producers and consumers.
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