Sir, - Today the world stands on the brink of an explosion in factory farming on a scale never seen before. India and China are currently experiencing an unprecedented growth rate and this increased affluence among certain sections of their populations has brought a growing demand for meat and dairy products. This could signify an impending catastrophe, both for animal and human welfare.
More than 1.5 million pigs and over 1.5 million laying hens are reared for food each year in Ireland. It takes 4 kg of grain fed to a pig to produce only 1 kg of pork and hens consume 3 kg of grain for every 1 kg of eggs. Therefore, huge reserves of land, water and energy are necessary to produce Europe's food.
However, it appears that the West is now exporting the problem of producing our meat and dairy products to developing countries. Because of the lack of land in Europe and lack of water in North America, most of the animal feed grown for the world's factory farms is produced in developing countries. This practice is unfortunately influenced by International Monetary Fund and World Bank "structural adjustment programmes".
Thus, while millions were starving in Ethiopia in the mid-1980s, factory farms were buying up Ethiopian crops to feed European farm animals. Many of these animals are subsequently being exported for slaughter to the Middle East and North Africa (grant-aided by European taxpayers) to prevent an over-abundance of meat and to bolster beef prices in Europe. Is this sound business or madhouse logic?
Western capitalists, in their endless strive to cut labour costs (which represent 10-15 per cent of livestock production costs) are shrewdly moving factory farms from costly, developed countries to relatively inexpensive developing nations, thereby doubling profit margins. Farming is rapidly becoming a corporate manufacturing industry.
The earth has sufficient arable land to sustain not only its present population of around 6 billion people on an entirely vegetarian diet, but in total 10 billion vegetarians. As most consumers are unwilling to change their diet to a vegetarian one, perhaps what should be promoted are small-scale production systems with natural rearing and feeding practices. In additional to environmental advantages, such systems would offer much better standards of animal welfare. - Yours, etc.,
Aoife NI Fhearghail
Adelaide Place, St Luke's, Cork.