The owner Lee Beom-ho of Korea's 'first animal welfare pig farm' left a deep impression with a business philosophy that puts the animals' freedom and happiness before profit.
On the 3rd, EBS's Seo Jang-hoon's Neighbor Millionaire (abbreviated 'Millionaire') aired, featuring Lee Beom-ho, a first-generation figure who opened the 'era of refrigerated meat' in Korea in the 1990s and who created the national commemorative day 'samgyeopsal day'.
Lee Beom-ho won the 'Five million dollar export tower' with pigs and is called a living legend in Korea's hog industry. He currently operates three corporations in total: a pig farm of 8,700 pyeong, a feed mill producing antibiotic-free feed, and a pork distribution company. The three companies' combined annual sales reach about 180 billion won. In particular, it was revealed with surprise that he passed the meat processing plant not to his children but to the 'employee No. 1' who had worked with him for more than 20 years. Regarding this radical move, Lee Beom-ho gave the reason, saying,
In the past, after accidentally watching the film 'Big Country', which is set on a ranch, while he was a high school student, he defied the opposition around him and entered S University's department of animal science. Right after his 1984 marriage, he gathered debts here and there and acquired a 4,700-pyeong pig farm, formally entering the hog business. Starting with 10 sows, the farm flourished, but in 1990 a large fire occurred, bringing crisis. Even in despair, with the help of villagers he overcame the crisis and deeply engraved the meaning of 'living together' in his heart. In 1997, the IMF foreign exchange crisis struck again and brought trials to Lee Beom-ho. While expanding the factory with foreign currency loans, the exchange rate tripled and his debt also tripled, putting him on the brink. But he ultimately completed the meat processing plant and miraculously rose again by exporting $9.5 million worth of refrigerated meat to Japan.
The foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2010 once again created a major turning point in Lee Beom-ho's life. Within just a few months, millions of livestock nationwide were culled, and 7,000 to 8,000 pigs at his farm were buried. The outbreak made him reconsider pigs' lives, and this became the starting point for the animal welfare farm. In ordinary pigsties, pigs must spend their lives in enclosures of about 0.3 pyeong, but in animal welfare farms pigs enjoy a 'life true to their nature' where they can freely eat, run and roam. Lee Beom-ho conveyed his warm philosophy, saying,
But reality is not easy. Currently, animal welfare certified farms account for only 0.2 to 0.3% of domestic hog farms. Because the limit on the number of animals per pyeong raises production costs and thus consumer prices, securing sales outlets is not easy. Lee Beom-ho calmly said,
Next week will air the episode on 'the farmer who became a 100 billion-won rich man with a single tomato,' Kim Ho-Youn. Seo Jang-hoon's Neighbor Millionaire airs every Wednesday at 9:55 p.m.
[Photo] Provided by EBS.
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