Episode summary
After the 2018 African Swine Fever outbreak led to the culling of over a hundred million pigs, China moved toward larger, more biosecure, high-rise hog farms. Human geographer Ray Chan takes us inside these operations. He argues that biosecurity isn't only about preventing disease. He calls it a form of governance, deciding whose risk gets prioritized and how both people and animals are expected to behave in this system.
Listen Episode 2. Vertical pork
About the guest
Dr Kin Wing (Ray) Chan
Ray Chan is a Agri-Food Lecturer and Wellcome Research Fellow (2022-2026), specialising in industrial livestock production, digital farming and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in both the British and Chinese One Health systems. His research draws on insights from Human Geography, Veterinary Science, and Science and Technologies Studies to examine the interrelationships between precision livestock farming technologies, biopolitics, and farm animal production.
Recommended resources
Article: Understanding the roles of economy and society in the relative risks of zoonosis emergence from livestock (Hinchliffe et al., 2024)
Article: Capturing the complexity of veterinarians’ antibiotic prescribing practices in the livestock sector: a meta-ethnography across contexts: Veterinarians’ antibiotic prescribing in different contexts (Sebastián Moya et al, 2024)
Article: On-farm biosecurity in livestock production: farmer behaviour, cultural identities and practices of care (Damian Maye and Ray Chan, 2020)
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