According to the Council of Agriculture, 40 kilograms of pork are consumed per person annually in Taiwan, 12 times more than beef and 28 times more than mutton. This is eight kilos more even than the amount of chicken, duck and goose meat eaten, combined.

With Taiwan pork such a prominent player in the meat market, how can it be that these pigs are so rare?

The problem is not, of course, that the Taiwanese ate them into extinction. It's that all of the 7-million-plus hogs raised each year in Taiwan by more than 12,000 hog farmers have their origins abroad. Though the meat of the native pig of Lanyu (the Lanyu miniature pig) is lean and robust in texture, it was long ago weeded out of the meat products market because these pigs don't produce much meat, nor are they efficient breeders.

A Taiwanese adage goes, "If you eat fruit, thank a tree; if you eat pork, thank a pig." But what do the Taiwanese know about the history of Taiwan's pigs?

Tracing porcine roots

Naturalists believe that the earliest porcine ancestor was already living on the Eurasian continent around 40 million years ago, some 33 million years earlier than the first hominids. Thus, in evolutionary history, pigs have been around longer than humans.

The world's pigs can be divided into wild pigs (with 36 chromosomes) and domestic pigs (with 38 chromosomes), the earliest of which were domesticated from wild pigs.

There was once a debate among pig researchers in Taiwan: are any wild pigs indigenous to Taiwan?

Regarding this, Wu Ming-che, chief of the Breeding and Genetics Division at the Livestock Research Institute, notes that the Formosan wild boar and the Lanyu miniature pig both have 38 chromosomes, proving that they aren't true wild pigs. Thus, all of Taiwan's native pigs are domestic in origin, and do not fall under the scope of the Wildlife Conservation Act. Because of this, Taiwan's indigenous Lanyu small-eared pig was registered as a breed of small domestic pig in 1996 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Asia's oldest pig

Paleontologists theorize that the origins of Taiwan's pigs can be traced back 10,000 years to the end of the last ice age during the Pleistocene epoch, when Taiwan started separating from the Chinese mainland.

Animal Technology Institute Taiwan researcher Yang Tien-shuh notes that fossilized pig bones have been discovered in Bali Township, Taipei County, dating back 6,600 years to the Neolithic Dabenkeng culture.

The evolution of the native Lanyu miniature pig took place over a long time. In 2007, Ju Yu-ten, associate professor of animal science and technology at National Taiwan University, identified two strains of Lanyu miniature pig (called Type I and Type II) based on matrilineal mitochondrial DNA. Upon comparing them with 43 European and Asian pig breeds, he found that the mitochondrial DNA of the Type I pig was not just different from the other European and Asian pigs, but its evolution could be traced back to 29,000 years before the present, breaking the previous record for Asian pigs held by the Ryukyu wild boar (12,000 years before the present).

Nevertheless, this study also carries a warning: perhaps it is because of loss of genetic diversity from so many years of inbreeding within this small group that only two types of Lanyu miniature pig remain. The Taitung Animal Propagation Station is currently raising these two protected types together, increasing their chances of interbreeding, to prevent continued genetic decline.

Foreign vs. local pigs

The meat of the Formosan wild boar and the Lanyu miniature pig is somewhat coarse and low in fat content, not fatty or refined enough to be favored in the meat market. So, where does the pork eaten by the people of Taiwan come from?

According to Animal Technology Institute Taiwan researcher Yang Tien-shuh, the Hakka brought the Canton black pig to Taiwan in 1877, and raised it in Zhongli. The next year, the same breed was introduced to Meinong for breeding. Thereafter, these two introduced populations became the well known Taoyuan and Meinong pigs. Together with the Dingshuangxi pig raised by immigrants from Zhangzhou, they formed the "black triangle" of domestic pigs in 19th-century Taiwan.

"But Taiwan's native pigs were interbred with foreign breeds during the Japanese occupation," says Yang, noting that in 1896, the year after the Japanese military took Taiwan, they introduced the Berkshire pig. In 1900, they brought in Yorkshire pigs from the United Kingdom, and then in 1926 the Japanese governor-general offered Taiwan residents incentives to import superior breeds. "At that time, a hybrid of Berkshire and Taoyuan pigs attained a market share as high as 95%."

Foreign breeds such as the Duroc and certain foreign landraces have been in Taiwan for five or six decades, and Taiwan's farm hogs have gradually changed from black to white. According to a 2005 survey by the Council of Agriculture, black pigs account for just 12% of those raised. It can be said that black pigs have nearly vanished from the meat products market.

"It takes seven months to raise a 100-kg black pig, but just five to raise a foreign breed," says Fang Ching-chuan, who heads the National Animal Industry Foundation's Livestock Department, pointing out the differences in breeding efficiency between black and white pigs. While black pigs require four kilograms of feed to produce one kilogram of meat, foreign pigs need only consume three kilograms. Small wonder Taiwan's commercial hog farming industry, operating under the guiding principle of maximal output with minmial input, needed an overhaul. Even the TLRI black No. 1, developed by the Council of Agriculture, is a hybrid of a local (Taoyuan) and foreign (Duroc) pig.

The next time you dine on roasted, smoked or braised pork at the dinner table, think of how the pigs of Taiwan became Westernized and globalized a whole century before we did. Isn't that something to smile about? The foolish follow the wise, so next time you see a pig, don't call it stupid!

Understanding Taiwan's Pigs

The black-haired Taoyuan pig, once a common sight in the Hakka villages of old Taiwan, was the prime choice as a sacrificial pig for temple festivals. But they fell out of favor in the market due to their slow growth and low lean meat content. In 1987, the Taoyuan pig, along with the Lanyu miniature pig, was named a protected Taiwanese breed.