How Animal Rights Activists Harm People

Slaughtering Indonesia's cattle trust

David Leyonhjelm

Published 1:50 PM, 16 Aug 2011 Last update 1:50 PM, 16 Aug 2011

The government’s decision to halt live cattle exports to Indonesia, without prior warning, deeply disturbed Indonesia. Australian beef accounts for 25 per cent of the country’s meat and is a vital source of protein for millions of Indonesians. There are also thousands employed in feedlots, abattoirs and downstream processing, and Indonesia had considered Australia to be close enough to form part of its own food security.

In addition, the Australian government has long had a policy of supporting neighbouring countries that are members of global animal health organisation OIE as they progressively implement its standards of animal handling and welfare. Indonesia is such a member.

The export ban undermined all that. Many in Indonesia now regard Australia as an unreliable supplier, and there are strong indications the country will seek to diversify its sources by importing cattle and beef from other countries while renewing efforts to become self-sufficient in beef by 2014.

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This is a great example of what kind of damage animal rights activists can cause.  I don’t want to see livestock being mistreated but I really don’t want to see people suffering from hunger either.  These extreme activists weren’t concerned about fixing the problems that occurred, they saw this as an opportunity to do damage to the family farmers and ranchers that raised livestock.  Along the way they damaged the families in Indonesia that rely on the beef they raise to feed their families.  Livestock play an important role in feeding hungry people.  It’s just unfortunate that many animal rights activists fail to realize this.  

Another Reminder of How Great our Agriculture Is

Food insecurity, a growing problem for Pakistan

Internews/Islamabad

In spite of the significant progress Pakistan has made in food production over the last 60 years, the majority of the population still faces uncertainty in food security on a daily basis.

Over one third of the population suffers from chronic hunger; a significant proportion of the undernourished population has reached a peak of 36%, with 95,000 just children. About 48% of Pakistan’s 165mn people are deemed to be “food insecure”, the figure being much higher in the conflict-ridden Fata (67.7%) and Balochistan (61.2%) - placing Pakistan at NO-11 on the index of food stressed countries, which indicates, “extreme risk”.

The problem of availability of food in Pakistan is mainly due to difficulties in production and productivity of its agriculture industry.    Read More

We are so incredibly blessed with the abundance of food in this country.  Most places in the world don’t have anything close to what we do.  One of the main reasons is because of the technological advancements we have made.  Better genetics in our seeds coupled with better fertilizer and farming techniques gives us a near record grain crop year after year.  In livestock production its been the same story.  We are producing more red meat with fewer inputs than ever before.     The best part is that we continue improving every day too.  So no matter what kind of food you like, it’s available in this country and that’s something to celebrate!