Coming amidst international worries about the safety of Chinese foods, drugs and other products (and a string of drug-tainted sporting scandals), the organizers of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games have ordered their official pork supplier to rear organically-fed pigs at secret locations throughout the country. They are keen to to ease any worries participants and guests may have about the quality of food served in the Olympic Village.

Explaining that the use of growth hormones in pig-rearing — a standard practice in China — could cause athletes to fail anti-doping tests, Niu Shengnan, a spokesman for the supplier Qianxihe Food Group, said that no steroids would be used in the pigs and that they would be chosen from carefully monitored parents and fed an all-organic diet. Out of concern for terrorism prevention (we're not making this up), the spokesman refused to divulge the location of the "secret" pig farms, stating: "... the pig farms are secret and cannot announce their names, conduct publicity or allow entry by strangers until after the Olympics."

All paranoia and conspiracy theories aside, however, the move by Qianxihe seems to have done little to spur its rival food suppliers to follow suit by also going organic — companies like Synear Food (the exclusive supplier of frozen dumplings) and McDonald's have insisted they need not make any special provisions for the games. It's a shame this probably won't do much to reduce the actual incidence of doping in the games though...

Via ::Financial Times: Dope-free pork on the menu for Beijing Games (newspaper)

See also: ::Two Billion Rats Invade China: From Eco-Disaster To Exotic Delicacy, ::Who Is China Really Trying To Kill?, ::China to Track Vegetables During 2008 Olympics

Image courtesy of Laurel Fan via flickr

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