Thanks Fai—I was just making a small comment, to point out that most rural Ugandans, and probably Sub-saharan Africans eat either little or non factory farmed meat.
To your comment “But I am not sure that they all don’t eat factory farmed animal products.” For sure, plenty of people here eat a LOT of barn/factory farmed meat (mainly chickens see below), those in cities—but not the 70% of people who live in the village and barely ever buy “meat” at all.
I agree its unclear whether free range farm animals live net positive lives—I’m maybe 70% sure they do. There’s no de-beaking in the village here—that starts happening when animal farming is commercial. For sure transport is often nasty, Slaughter is often especially horrible but in my wee opinion that’s not nearly enough to negate the rest of their lives doing what animals do without huge constraint. We can probably agree to disagree on the whole-life positivity vs. negativity thing. Yes chicken lives are short, and many die early to disease (which can but doesn’t always involve a lot of suffering). Most village chickens here though live between 4 and 9 months—it takes 6 months-ish before they reach sexual maturity.
I agree the factory farming revolution has come to Africa—and its horrible, and it shouldn’t be acccepted for development. The church organisation I work with is currently teaching people to intensively farm pigs and chickens which I think is horrible, but haven’t spoken up against yet because I think I would be dismissed out of hand. In towns and even rural centers factory farmed chickens that are bought as meat are becoming the norm which is super sad, a. Even in Northern Uganda here, most roadside chicken is factory/intensive-barn farmed and that’s a new development − 10 years ago fried street chicken was not common and mostly local chickens. Pigs are often farmed in stalls (which are net-negative IMO but aren’t as bad as western pig stalls). I struggle to find Beef and Dairy farming in Uganda which I personally think isn’t probably net positive for the animals—but I have a more rosy view of truly free-range animal’s lives than many.
Yes there’s a huge amount of work to be done to at the very least slow down the factory farming revolution here. Its going to be tough though, when almost no-one I’ve met here cares an Iota about the wellbeing of a chicken. The few times I’ve even tried to raise it get met with bemused looks at best.
Thank you for your detailed reply! I admire your courage to raise this issue in front of your colleagues/the locals there—I am not sure I would find the courage to do so.
I have some hope that there might at least be ways to reduce the % of factory farming there will be in poor countries in the world in the future. Some EAs are working on it and I am trying to see what I can help there too.
Thanks Fai—I was just making a small comment, to point out that most rural Ugandans, and probably Sub-saharan Africans eat either little or non factory farmed meat.
To your comment “But I am not sure that they all don’t eat factory farmed animal products.” For sure, plenty of people here eat a LOT of barn/factory farmed meat (mainly chickens see below), those in cities—but not the 70% of people who live in the village and barely ever buy “meat” at all.
I agree its unclear whether free range farm animals live net positive lives—I’m maybe 70% sure they do. There’s no de-beaking in the village here—that starts happening when animal farming is commercial. For sure transport is often nasty, Slaughter is often especially horrible but in my wee opinion that’s not nearly enough to negate the rest of their lives doing what animals do without huge constraint. We can probably agree to disagree on the whole-life positivity vs. negativity thing. Yes chicken lives are short, and many die early to disease (which can but doesn’t always involve a lot of suffering). Most village chickens here though live between 4 and 9 months—it takes 6 months-ish before they reach sexual maturity.
I agree the factory farming revolution has come to Africa—and its horrible, and it shouldn’t be acccepted for development. The church organisation I work with is currently teaching people to intensively farm pigs and chickens which I think is horrible, but haven’t spoken up against yet because I think I would be dismissed out of hand. In towns and even rural centers factory farmed chickens that are bought as meat are becoming the norm which is super sad, a. Even in Northern Uganda here, most roadside chicken is factory/intensive-barn farmed and that’s a new development − 10 years ago fried street chicken was not common and mostly local chickens. Pigs are often farmed in stalls (which are net-negative IMO but aren’t as bad as western pig stalls). I struggle to find Beef and Dairy farming in Uganda which I personally think isn’t probably net positive for the animals—but I have a more rosy view of truly free-range animal’s lives than many.
Yes there’s a huge amount of work to be done to at the very least slow down the factory farming revolution here. Its going to be tough though, when almost no-one I’ve met here cares an Iota about the wellbeing of a chicken. The few times I’ve even tried to raise it get met with bemused looks at best.
Thank you for your detailed reply! I admire your courage to raise this issue in front of your colleagues/the locals there—I am not sure I would find the courage to do so.
I have some hope that there might at least be ways to reduce the % of factory farming there will be in poor countries in the world in the future. Some EAs are working on it and I am trying to see what I can help there too.