Japanese Government pursuing perfect pork chop

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At a Japanese Government laboratory in Tokyo, designer

pigs are cosseted away from dirty humans.

 

20.11.2002

By TIM LARGE in Ome

At a Japanese Government laboratory in Tokyo, designer

pigs are cosseted away from dirty humans.

 

Visitors to the livestock experiment station scrub

with soap and wriggle into sterilised suits to ensure

that Japan's most pampered porkers are cocooned from

nasty germs.

 

Only then can they enter the spotless sties of " Tokyo

X " , hybrid hogs developed by the Tokyo Government in a

bid to create the perfect pork chop.

 

When these piggies go to market, their richly marbled

meat fetches 50 per cent more than ordinary pork - a

sow-sized premium given Japan's long stagnant economy.

 

 

But in a country reeling from a spate of health scares

and scandals that have eroded confidence in food

safety, many shoppers are happy to pay more for

quality meat.

 

" Ever since mad cow disease broke out last year,

consumers have been extra safety-conscious, " said

Hisayuki Goda, director of stock-breeding at the Tokyo

Metropolitan Livestock Experimentation Station

(TMLES).

 

" It's our mission to meet their needs. "

 

These hogs may oink and squeal like ordinary pigs, but

the similarities stop there.

 

Crossbred from three bloodlines - the American Duroc,

British Berkshire and Beijing black pig - they sport

dashing coats, some jet black, others orange-brown

with black spots.

 

Sensitive souls, they need plenty of living space to

thrive. And they are finicky eaters, dining twice a

day on barley-rich feed that is free of animal

proteins and genetically modified organisms.

 

" What we don't do is give them beer or let them listen

to music, " said former TMLES president Isao Hyodo, who

did much of the grunt work in developing Tokyo X.

 

Possibly the only Japanese livestock with a more

luxurious life are cows that produce the famously

expensive Kobe beef. Their farmers are known for

treating them with beer and relaxing music in a bid to

make the meat more tender.

 

Producing more than 70kg of meat, the pigs' flesh is

high in intramuscular fat, making it tender and

succulent - a major selling point in Japan, where

texture is rated as highly as taste.

 

The 120 million ($2 million) project to breed an elite

pig was aimed initially at helping local hog-raisers

weather a flood of cheap imports from China.

 

Farmers who agree to abide by TMLES' strict standards

can buy a few of the pigs from the experiment station

and start breeding Tokyo X themselves.

 

" If the region's small-scale pig farmers were going to

survive, we had to create pork that could be sold at a

high price, " Goda said.

 

" We knew there was demand for meat that was both

super-tasty and safe, so we decided to develop a

brand-name pig. "

 

That strategy makes sense in a country where high-end

goods such as designer handbags still fly off the

shelves despite a plunge in private spending that is

choking the economy.

 

Many vegetable farmers have taken a similar tack,

adopting less efficient organic methods so they can

charge double for their chemical-free produce.

 

Sales of non-conventional farm goods have boomed since

the outbreak of mad cow disease in September last year

and a string of mislabelling scandals that have

undermined faith in the country's big food companies.

 

Five cases of mad cow disease have come to light,

battering earnings of restaurants and meat packers.

The scourge has been linked to variant

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which has killed about 125

people worldwide but none in Japan. In a poll by the

Yomiuri Shimbun daily, 87 per cent of respondents said

they worried about food safety, and half said they did

not trust food labels.

 

" After mad cow, a lot of people are talking about the

traceability of beef, for example, " Tokyo Government

official Ken Suzuki said. " With Tokyo X pork,

traceability is guaranteed. "

 

Farmer Yasuto Sawai turned to Tokyo X as a way of

preserving a way of life that stretches back 12

generations.

 

Sawai's ancestors have been growing rice and

vegetables in Takatsuki, near Tokyo, for about 400

years. But fierce competition at home and abroad had

put that legacy at risk.

 

" See the paddies on all sides? " said Sawai, 42. " Where

else around Tokyo can you see scenes like this? But

paddies don't bring in money. So I decided to do

something creative: value-added agriculture. "

 

In summer, Sawai releases dozens of ducks into the

flooded fields that surround his graceful farmhouse.

 

The birds eat weeds and insects and provide manure,

allowing him to forsake chemicals and sell his crops

as organic.

 

But the real money is in the sties. Sawai has 150

Tokyo X hogs, housed in roomy enclosures alongside 100

or so ordinary white pigs in more claustrophobic

quarters.

 

While conditions may not match the hermetic hygiene of

TMLES, the multicoloured hogs are free to wallow in

relative comfort.

 

He calls them his " living diamonds " because of the

cash they bring in. Sales from the pork - about 20

million a year - are double those of all his other

farm products combined.

 

" They're not easy to breed, " Sawai said. " In the

beginning there were lots of problems - some pigs

died. They're very delicate. "

 

About 20 farms in Tokyo and other areas at present

raise the pigs, producing 5000 a year.

 

TMLES expects that number to double by 2005 as more

supermarkets and restaurants start stocking the brand.

Almost 200 stores sell Tokyo X.

 

Simple economics may lead the charge. Only 3 per cent

of farmers in the Tokyo region raise livestock, but

their products account for a whopping 16 per cent of

all farm output in money terms.

 

" That gives you an idea of the industry's importance, "

said Goda. " Twelve million people in metropolitan

Tokyo need to be fed. "

 

- REUTERS

 

 

 

 

 

 

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