Pig farms in Europe have decided to trot into Web3 and become the world’s first pig farms to use crypto to raise money.
Three pig farm organisations in Croatia have launched an initiative called My Digital Pig. According to Croatian media, pig companies Agroporc, Beyondi and Blok Be came together and developed the Web3 platform GoAgro, which will facilitate the My Digital Pig initiative.
The goal, according to the piggery owners, is to let investors “become” farmers themselves without having to actually roll up their sleeves and get down in a pigsty – so, this sounds like a good opporcine-ity for Croatians to support local farmers.
Pork belly, ribs and tenderloin NFTs
So, how does it work? The piggeries will release a total of 240,000 NFTs on GoAgro. Each NFT represents roughly half or a whole pig.
According to media reports each whole pig costs €250 (AU$420) – but then again, that single NFT guarantees you up to 107.5 kilograms of pork. That’s a big pig we’re talking about. Think about the endless supply of bacon and ham you’re about to have! Looks like meat’s back on the menu.
It takes about 900 days for one piglet to mature into bacon, sorry, an adult pig. After the 900 days, customers would be able to use the NFT as a token to redeem actual pig cuts of up to 107.5 kilograms. Honestly, I didn’t know Peppa Pig could grow so big …
If a customer doesn’t want the pork meat, they have the option to keep the NFT as an ongoing investment, or trade it with other meat lovers.
Crypto and agriculture
“We wanted to directly connect farmers and consumers knowing that significant changes are taking place in the world, in Europe and in Croatia,” explained Krešimir Kuterovac, a director at Agroporc.
In other words, it’s a whole ‘collaboaration’ between farmers and consumers for the greater good of the European economy.
This ‘crypto pig farm’ project may sound novel, but it’s actually not the first marriage between crypto and agriculture. Since crypto’s entrance into the mainstream in 2020, there have been cases of farmers trying to leverage the technology as an additional revenue stream.
In the US, a coffee farmer is using NFTs as a way to distribute revenue to everyone involved in a coffee production’s supply chain.
Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia have been fighting an African swine fever outbreak that forced farmers to cull thousands of pigs, resulting in significant losses. So, the “My Digital Pig” initiative arrived at a challenging time in the Croatian economy as it would be able to raise funds for pig farmers.
As a spicy pork bulgogi lover, I approve of this initiative. Sow good.
