{"id":86891,"date":"2019-04-01T16:11:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T23:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=86891"},"modified":"2019-04-02T15:18:11","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T22:18:11","slug":"do-we-need-a-diary-or-beef-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/01\/do-we-need-a-diary-or-beef-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Do we need a diary or beef industry?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chandre Dharmawardana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Every one has by now heard of how a large\nnumber of cows have been imported in recent years, and how they had died\ncausing severe problems to the dairy farmer. A recent report entitled\nImporting exotic cows which performed poorly under local conditions\u201d by Ananda\nWickremasinghe appeared in the Last Sunday Times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1970s, when I was a Director of the\nLeather Products corporation (DI became “Lanka Sam”) there was\ndiscussion that “Lanka Sam” should have its own livestock and dairy\nfarm to ensure its autonomous supply of cattle skin. This quest was then linked\nwith the more wider national program and the minster at the time, Mr. T. B.\nSubasinghe, requested me to contribute my views on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, at the time I wrote a brief report, and\nmy views were that of the odd man out, as I recommended that NO state sponsored\ndairy farming or cattle farming for beef should be initiated in Sri Lanka,\nwhere as if a householder or a farm were to have a few cows, such small-scale\nventures should be fine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, my submission was rejected as\neveryone else supported developing an indigenous dairy and cattle industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My objections at that time have now proved\nto be 100% accurate. The objections are based on the following reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(I) There is now (and there was then) a glut\nof milk production in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand  and other countries with large areas of\npasture land and low-density human populations. Sri Lanka is a densely\npopulated country and further encroachment of the natural habitat for\nraising  cows  is something we CANNOT afford to do, as we\ncan hardly accommodate the need for housing and food production for the\nincreasing population. The urban encroachment has now completely transformed\nthe country into asphalt and concrete. Even the Wilpattu has been razed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(ii) Our cost of production per litre of\nmilk or a kg of beef is actually much more than for the US or NZ farmer. It is\nmuch cheaper to import their product and save our land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(iii)Pasture maintenance requires large\nfertilizer and water inputs, as well as antibiotics for the animals. One of our\nSri Lankan scientists who emigrated to Australia is an authority on pasture\nlands (Dr. Pari Loganathan) and fertilizer usage. He has studied the gradual\ndegradation of the lands there.  I was\nproud to hear that he  was briefly one of\nmy chemistry students in the late 1960s!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(iv) Production of meat and animal milk\ncosts a lot of resources compared to producing vegetables, lentils and such\nlegumes. Meat production requires a much higher amount of water than\nvegetables. IME states (see attached table) that to produce 1kg of meat\nrequires between 5,000 and 20,000 litres of water whereas to produce 1kg of\nwheat requires between 500 and 4,000 litres of water. One may think that to\nproduce one litre of milk, you only need one litre of water. But that is\nincorrect, as the cow has to drink much more water to survive to produce one\nlitre. Also, you need to count the water used to grow the grass or fodder. That\nis why one needs some 1000 liters of water to produce one litre of milk. That\nis factor of 1000. In the case of beef, it is a factor 15,000 or more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, cows and other grazing animals\nneed a lot of land to graze or grow the fodder. A rough rule of thumb is that\nyou can keep two cows per acre of land, but dairy needs more land than beef\ncattle, often kept corralled in for intensive farming. Grazed dairy cattle tend\nto need less antibiotics simply because they produce less milk. Having a high\nenergy feed results in high milk output; however, increased milk output also\nincreases the animal’s physiological stress, leading to a higher incidence of\nhealth problems and infectious diseases. Their effluent poisons the ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why ecological reasons strongly\nfavour the vegetarian diet and lifestyle. Even if one is not a strict\nvegetarian, it is better to adopt a diet which is high in vegetables and\nlegumes (lentils, peas, “kadala”, mung etc). Milk is a nutritious\nfood, but many civilizations did not use it. The famous China-food study<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
The China Study<\/a><\/blockquote>