Pig Farming and Pigging

Pig is a sensitive issue for Muslim and Malays... Everytime there is issues on pig, almost every Malay Muslim will find it as a high priority concern...Malay Muslim have a very no..no.. thing with regards to pig... A bad malay muslim sometimes do the haram thing like consuming alcohol or berkhalwat, but to eat a pork meat is a no..no..no...

But for the oil and gas people, pig give a different meaning... In the oil and gas industry, you do the pigging process and use a pig to clean the piping system... The pigging process is a very useful process to clear up unwanted blocking or contamination inside a pipeline...

In the oil and gas industry, you have a wide range and variety of pigs... You have a foam pig, brush pig, magnetic pigs and others... You will have a launcher to launch a pig and a receiver to retrieve the pig. Although the thing is call a pig, it is very much different from the pig that people breed for meat...

Actually I do not have any clear information on the project.. Some say it was pre-approved by BN, some say it was approved by the new PR government and some say it is still pending. But whatever the issue is, maybe we need to look at a more positive perspective. The decision by new Selangor government (is that is really the case) to go along with the pre-approved project during the BN tenure is a very fair move since the deal have been fairly approved and it is not fair if suddenly the new government want to cancel it... Well, for me personally, having experience staying in an area where people do pig farming, the situation is not good... The smell from the farm can be very bad and can destroy your appetite... There are also a lot of environmental problems associated with pig farming...

But with regards to business, I think pig farming is a good business... Compare to breeding the cows or goat that the most give you two offspring, the pig can give birth up to 15 offspring, which is surely a good business... You get a very high return from the farming... Well, as a Muslim, I definitely have to skip this high potential business option...

But then, the negativity surrounding the pig farm is also great, to the extend that it can really-really affected your daily life... Hence... it is very important to ensure that if there is any pig farming industry, it should be carried out with great care... It is easy for us, if the pig farm is far away from our house and we are not affected, but for those who are directly affected, it can really become an everyday problem....

I believe apart from the assurance of the investors to deploy the latest or the ground breaking technology from Germany for the pig farming projects, it is very important that strict regulation and adherence to the EIA, environmental regulations and sensitivity of the community surrounding the area... The pig farmers need to ensure that the people in the surrounding area does not complaint and feel comfortable with the project... Maybe the government need to establish a good guideline as it can have the power to suspend the operation or to reevaluate if there are any issues arising from the farming projects...

Again I am not supporting the pig farming industry... Only if we cannot do without it, at least we need to make sure that any party involved directly or indirectly are not affected by the negativity from the farming industry...

As we can see in the oil and gas industry, it is a very high risk project, but with the high commitment of the industry players, it is considered to be a safe and environmentally sustainable projects. If the pig farming industry really can display a high quality of Health, Safety and Environmental implementation, I do not see why the project cannot be executed...

At the end of the day, I think if the pig farmers are very committed to ensure that all the issue will be addressed correctly and all concerns are dealt with, maybe pig farming can be allowed.. Anyway, I must admit that I would very much prefer that we do not need to have a pig farm.

Pigging the pipeline is OK, but pig farming, well, can we have a better option?