Feed starving children not rich, greedy meat-eaters
The Norwegian government will help Uganda to develop its meat export industry by assisting them to construct two meat processing plants. As Uganda struggles to combat climate change and overcome poverty; a meat export market can only spell further disaster.
Ugandan livestock farmers, concentrated along ‘the cattle corridor’ which runs southwest to northeast across Uganda, are already in conflict due to water scarcity and this will be exacerbated by increased demand and climate change. Oxfam’s recent report ‘Climate Change and Poverty in Uganda’ reveals that:-
“People in Uganda, whose contribution to global warming has been minuscule, are feeling the impacts of climate change first and worst. On the one hand there is more erratic rainfall in the March to June rainy season, bringing drought and reductions in crop yields and plant varieties; on the other hand, the rainfall, especially in the later rains towards the end of the year, is reported as coming in downpours that are more intense and destructive, bringing floods, landslides, and soil erosion”.
Livestock farmers are already being forced to move their animals great distances to find pasture and water, increasing the conflict between them as they encroach on to each others territories.
Renowned British environmentalist Norman Myers coined the phrase ‘the hamburger connection’ in the 1980s to describe how the rapid growth in beef exports in Central America to fast food chains is the US was driving deforestation. Since then we have seen massive destruction of the Amazon for cattle ranching and now the largest meat producer in the world, Tyson, has ambitious plans to enter countries such as Brazil, China and India to introduce and profit from the industrialistion of meat production in those countries.
There is no question that Uganda needs to overcome poverty, but developing a meat export market is not the answer. We have already seen the result of meat exportation in Brazil and other developing countries which has only resulted in further environmental destruction, conflict, poverty and hunger. Forty per cent of children’s deaths in Uganda are caused by malnutrition; they need the resources to feed their own people, not to fulfil the desire for meat in rich nations. If Norway really wanted to make a difference to people in Uganda, and didn’t actually have an alterior motive, that’s what they’d help them to do.
