OUT OF FOCUS: The worrisome trend of industrial animal farming in Sub-Saharan Africa
Similar to those in the Global North, animals are seen and treated as commodities in African factory farms. Death on farms, before they are sent to slaughter, is an inevitable part of life. Veterinary care is expensive and therefore prohibitive. If animals can’t fight an infection or injury, they die. That’s it.
JO-ANNE McARTHUR: The industrial farming of animals is on the rise on the African continent, and this is mobilizing animal and environmental advocacy organizations. The photos and videos of this worrisome trend that I created alongside my African colleagues will serve to help campaigners, educators and legislators to address the problem of a trend that could be stopped or reversed before it is entrenched, as it is in the West…
This is no easy feat in countries where eating more meat indicates a rise in upward mobility. More meat is associated with better health and prosperity. “Vegetarianism is laughable here,” said a colleague, in explaining that western campaigners are seeking to impose this solution, while African animal advocates are meeting society where it’s at… Another campaigner countered the sentiment about vegetarianism’s status, saying that plant-based eating is on the rise in cities like Cape Town and Nairobi, and that the work ahead involves making sure that countries such as Chad, Mali, Sierra Leone and Senegal, in which plant-rich eating is the norm, remain that way.
We kept a busy schedule of farm visits, and I returned home with pictures of caged hen facilities, floor-raised hen farms, broiler chicken farms, pig farms both small and large, fish farms and backyard animal projects that included ducks, turkeys, goats and rabbits. We visited farms owned by massive national companies: some had a hundred animals, while others had thousands. In some cases I was not granted permission to shoot, but conversations with farm managers still took place…
It was evident that large farms were following the trends of the Global North. Broiler chicken farming systems and practices, for example, look virtually identical to me in Africa, Australia and North America… Similar to farms I have visited globally, animals are seen and treated as commodities here. Death on farms (before they are sent to slaughter) is an inevitable part of life. Veterinary care is expensive and therefore prohibitive. If animals can’t fight an infection or injury, they die. That’s it. SOURCE…
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