recently i returned from a trip to muyuan foodstuff, which currently operates the largest pig farm in the world (they sent more than 61 million pigs to slaughter in 2022).
a company driver (小高) drove me the 40 minutes from the 南阳 train station to the company grounds, which towered over the surrounding countryside like a minimalist versailles made of dark marble. we curved past a large pyramid (it looked like the louvre but with gold-tinted windows) and i walked into the hotel lobby. yc, with whom i had been coordinating my visit, greeted me at the front desk, told me to meet her back in the lobby in a couple hours for dinner. she lived just around the corner. like many of muyuan’s young employees, she bought a small apartment in the company-provided housing to save time on transit. “after all, time is priceless,” she said with a bright smile.
from my window on the fifteenth floor, i watched people hoe a patch of ground surrounded by wide roads where cars and trucks sped by. a couple children sat on the dirt mounds watching, and occasionally attempted to dig at the ground themselves, but the tools were so large and unwieldy in their inexperienced hands it often threw them to the ground instead. a man across the four-lane street watched his four lambs graze on a small grassy margin next to the road.
at the hotel’s buffet dinner, we peeled and ate crayfish, thirteen-spiced, sichuan peppercorn spiced, on top of, of course, plates of muyuan pork, from trotters to ribs to spiced skewers. they watched in awe as i downed a can of cold (!!) beer. i watched in amazement as they put away plate after plate of crayfish. all three of the young women at the table were in their early thirties, married with children, two of them to company men. yc helped me with my second can — i poured it into her soup bowl and she drank it with relish, saying mm yes, 这才喝的香. after dinner, dy, a spanish-chinese translator i had met at the leman china swine conference earlier in march, took me on a brief tour of the company grounds. she was the only woman at the table who wasn’t from henan. she was from the south, where people were colder, she said.
company men played basketball on the courts, children played on the grass next to the tracks which circled the louvre-like building–a conference building, i learned. there was a pool, a cafeteria, a machine that made fresh noodles. across the road was a school where many companymen sent their kids. many of them had brought their parents over to live on the company grounds too. further away was the villa where the CEO and his wife lived, separated from the rest of the grounds by a modest (at most two-hole) golf course. it used to be larger but they built on top of it when they realized they needed more housing. it was a warm summer night. the air was full of mosquitos but they didn’t bite.
the next morning, i was taken on a tour whose itinerary had been carefully planned in 20 minute segments and scheduled with four different departments of the company. first, we looked at some model pens in one-story enclosure that resembled the ones the company once used. then, we went to the company office headquarters. first we saw the sales room. a television screen marked the sales and prices in every province by county. carved onto the far wall was an essay written by the company CEO 秦英林 (qin yinling) titled “拜猪文” (pig prayer). it read as follows:
猪的一生，是平凡的一生。他平凡地来到这个世界上，又悄无声息地离开。当人们看不见他的时候，他已经奉献出了自己的一切。猪的一生，实则是伟大的一生！猪的精神就是牧原人精神的写照。
A pig’s life is a mundane life. He comes to this world in a common fashion and noiselessly leaves it. While people can’t see him, he gives his all. The life of a pig is actually a great life! The spirit of the pig is the model for the spirit of Muyuan people.
猪的一生，是奉献的一生。猪，献出了自己的生命，人们才能够拥有幸福美好的生活。今天，猪让我们明白，是生命在延续着生命；唯有用生命才能换得更高品质的生命。牧原人肩负着为大众生产猪肉食品，为人们创造高品质生活的崇高使命，我们也愿意像猪一样，坦然的奉献出我们的一切，让人们的生活因我们的存在而更加美好。
A pig’s life is a devoted life. Pigs give their lives so that people can have a happy and blessed life. On this day, pigs teach us that life continues life; only life can be exchanged for a higher quality of life. Muyuan people shoulder the lofty mission of producing pork for the public and creating a high-quality life for people. We, like the pigs, are also willing to dedicate everything we have to make people’s lives better with our existence.
猪的一生，是快乐的一生。猪，面对付出珍贵的生命，没有苛求生命的长度，没有计较自己吃了多少，依然是乐呵呵，快快地长。今天，猪让我们明白，生命的价值不在于长度而在于质量。我们也要像猪一样，用生命的长度换取生命的质量，无怨无悔。
A pig’s life is a happy life. Pigs, facing the sacrifice of their precious lives, do not demand their lives be long, do not haggle over how much they eat, and still they are cheerful and grow quickly. Every day, pigs show us that the value of life lies not in quantity but in quality. We also want to be like pigs, exchanging length of life for quality of life, without complaint or regret.
猪的一生，是充满哲理的一生。当人们还在对生命的意义冥思苦索，对名利难以取舍的时候，猪却简简单单明明白白，用生命做出了答案。那就是：生命的真谛不在于你索取多少，而在于你能给予社会和你的人类同胞多少。今天，我们不再犹豫，不再把珍贵的时光耗费在对人生价值的讨论上，而是坚定信念，像猪一样，少算计，多奉献，创造价值。
The life of a pig is full of philosophy. As people ponder the meaning of life and wrestle between fame and fortune, Pig simply and clearly gives the answer with its life. That is: the true meaning of life is not how much you can ask for, but how much you can give to society and your fellow beings. On this day, we no longer hesitate, no longer waste precious time discussing the value of human life, but rather firmly believe, like pigs, calculating less, contributing more, and creating value.
我们感恩。我们的事业是养猪，实则是猪养活着我们。尊重猪就是尊重自己，崇拜猪就是崇拜自己。让我们和猪一起，傻乎乎，乐呵呵，奉献自己，成就高品质的人生！
We are grateful. Our business is raising pigs, but actually pigs provide for us. To respect pigs is to respect oneself, and to worship pigs is to worship oneself. Let us, with the pigs, foolishly and cheerfully devote ourselves to achieving high quality human life!
hog maw 