Intensive Meat And Poultry Production

By Author: sadas
Total Articles: 105
Comment this article

Not content with its doubtful claim to produce cheep food for our own population, the factory farming industry also argues that "hungry nations are benefiting from advances made by the poultry industry". In fact, rather than helping the fight against malnutrition in ''hungry nations", the spread of factory farming has inevitably aggravated the problem
.
Large-scale intensive meat and poultry production is a waste of food resources. This is because more protein has to be fed to animals in the form of vegetable matter than can ever be recovered in the form of meat. Much of the value is lost in the animal's process of digestion and cell replacement. Neither, in the case of chicken, can one eat feathers, blood, feet or head. In all, only about 44 % of the live animal fits to be eaten as meat.

This means one has to feed approximately 9~ 10 times as much food value to the animal than one can consume from the carcass. As a system for feeding the hungry, the effects can prove disastrous. At times of crisis, grain is the food life.

Nevertheless, the huge increase in poultry production is seen throughout Asia ...
... and Africa continues. Normally British or US firms are involved. For instance, an American based multinational company has this year announced its involvement in projects in several African countries. Britain's largest chicken supplier, Ross Breeders, is also involved in projects all over the world.

Because such trade is good for exports, Western governments encourage it. In 1979, a firm in Bangladesh called Phoenix Poultry received a grant to set up a unit of 6 000 chickens and 18 000 laying hens. This almost doubled the number of poultry kept in the country all at once.

But Bangladesh lacks capital, energy and food and has a large number of people unemployed. Such chicken-raising demands capital for building and machinery, extensive use of energy resources for automation, and involves feeding chickens with potential famine-relief protein food. At present, one of Bangladesh's main imports is food grains, because the country is unable to grow enough food to feed its population. On what then can they possibly feed the chicken?