A new kind of pig pile

Pig farmers in the Netherlands soon may be taking an elevator to work. In an effort to ease the urban-vs.-rural land struggle in this European nation, a Dutch architecture firm has devised a way to stack pig farms on top of one another in a "sty rise."

Pig farming is no small business in the Netherlands, which despite its meager land mass (it would cover only 5% of Texas) annually produces approximately 1.7 million tons of pork–almost a quarter of the U.S.’s annual production.

To accommodate all those pigs without using more land, 40 pig farms would share a 1,650-foot tower. Each farm would include pens, balconies with apple and oak trees, and a ground-floor slaughterhouse.

Photo © 2001 PhotoDisc.

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