MLBA 10: August / September 2009

 

 

 

 

The way Asian livestock is raised can be essentially cat­egorised into three eras, one of which is past, another present, with a third one emerging. The mid 20th cen­tury saw traditional livestock rearing give way to an era of synthetically produced vitamins, supplements, trace minerals, antibiotics and antibiotic-based growth promoters (AGPs).

 

All of these profoundly boosted animal productivity, low­ered feed conversion ratios (FCRs) and safeguarded animal health. Yet, they also led to a multitude of issues. Perhaps the most immediate one is the temptation to over economise. Both in Asia and the west, this latter abuse of traditional sup­plements led to disastrous outcomes for both human and ani­mal welfare.

 

For example, antibiotic growth promoting and disease abatement properties are largely based on one singularly val­uable trait: their power to kill bacteria en masse at a very low cost. While AGPs were initially developed to optimize live­stock growth, they soon were leveraged for cost economies.

 

By using overdoses of antibiotics, livestock could be raised more cheaply by overcrowding animal pens. Antibi­otics held at bay diseases that inevitably accompany over­crowding, making it possible to produce more meat without making additional investments in land.

 

Nor was that the only abuse arising from the supposed benefits of antibiotics. When rising labour costs make it ex­pensive to clean animal pens on a regular basis, antibiotics made it possible to keep animals alive in filthy environments without incurring the infections such unsanitary conditions breed.

 

Consequently, rather than raising livestock productiv­ity, antibiotics were used for a far more sinister, allopathic purpose. Traditional farmers had to keep minimal sanitation standards; otherwise, their animals would die. Now, with the help of anitibiotics, hog, cattle and chicken pens were delib­erately overcrowded. Fish were deliberately raised in water that bordered on sewage.

 

The higher rate of malnutrition and bacterial infections this should have caused to was avoided by heavily overusing antibiotics and supplements with environmentally dangerous side effects. Asia, with scarcer land resources than either Eu­rope or America's, had a greater economic incentive to abuse these substances than any other part of the world. Of course, meat quality was affected and that eventually led to bans on everything from Vietnamese fish to Chinese pork.

 

On the supplement side, some farmers, rather than using AGPs to economise on feed, went even further and opted to economise on feed quality. Inferior livestock farms aside, animal immunity was also weakened by inadequate nutri­tion. From clenobuterol to melamine, dangerous chemicals were used to cover up the reality of inadequate, unhealthy livestock feed.

 

In addition, antibiotics overused in such unsanitary con­ditions induced the development of new, highly dangerous strains of E. Coli, staphylococcus and MRSA that pose new, never before seen threats to human health. Many of these have ventured far beyond the feed lot and now linger every­where from vegetable farmers' fields to hospital drain pipes, waiting for human victims. When animals were given de­ficient feed, the high mineral supplement levels eventually reached waste water pipes, where they polluted waterways with heavy metals.

 

Intuitively, everyone of us knows that all this is unsus­tainable and that nature eventually wins. Yet, for over half a century, profit margins were supported on the backs of suffer­ing animals, adulterated meat, polluted new pathogens and an increasingly poisoned environment. Eventually, everywhere from the EU to South Korea, these concerns led to bans on everything from antibiotics as AGPs to toxic metal concen­trations in waste water.