Page 46 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 19

Food Health

in the country in 2009 by culling all raise 2.1 million pigs a year in 21 measures have been tried, from
pigs on small farms in a 5 to 25 km six-story barns, with funding from Eastern Europe to Asia. In Russia,
radius of factory farm outbreaks, the World Bank. for example, where authorities have
carrying out pre-emptive culls of ruthlessly curtailed small scale pig
pigs on small farms, and instituting a The Thai meat giant, Charoen Pokh- farming and set up compartments
system of compartmentalisation to pand (CP), has also taken advantage for the large operators, 560,000 pigs
allow companies to keep exporting of the ASF pandemic to expand died from ASF outbreaks in just
meat from ASF infected areas. Small its pig farms and pork operations three months, from November 2020
farms have been devastated by these in China, Russia and Vietnam.[31] to January 2021.
measures, even though the vast ma- In the Philippines, where CP has
jority of pigs affected by ASF have been operating factory pig farms for The international response to ASF
been in large factory farms. Russia’s more than a decade, it has part- is not stopping its global spread
small farms produced around 70 per nered with the government and the either. By privileging corporate
cent of Russia’s pork before ASF Development Bank of the Philip- control over pig production and
hit the country, but now they only pines in a programme to rebuild exports, these measures amplify the
produce about 10 per cent. And, the national herd, which has been risks for transmission across bor-
even as ASF outbreaks continue to devastated since ASF hit the country ders. This is not only true for ASF
kill hundreds of thousands of pigs in 2019. The programme, known and other animal diseases but also
across the country every year, Rus- as the Swine R3 Credit Program, for human diseases. Factory farms
sia’s become one of the world’s top will provide badly needed financing and industrial feed plantations are
exporters of pork. to small pig farmers, but only if increasingly recognised as sites for
they enter into contract production the emergence of new diseases that
In country after country where the with CP and adopt CP’s biosecurity can infect humans, while corporate
ASF Georgia variant has spread, the measures. Financing will also be meat processing plants, as we have
measures pursued by governments provided to local authorities to con- seen with the Covid-19 pandemic,
against it have destroyed small pig solidate “backyard” pig farms into are major vectors in the transmis-
farms and cleared a path for cor- large barns to supply CP.[32] This sion and amplification of disease,
porate meat companies and factory programme could convert much with especially deadly consequences
farms to thrive. In China, for in- of the Philippines pig sector into a for workers and their families.
stance, despite government attempts supply chain for CP, which sees the
to industrialise the sector, small, country as an important new base A vaccine against ASF could help,
backyard farms were still producing for imports of its animal feeds and and there are signs that one could
half of the country’s pork in 2010. exports of its processed pork. soon be available. It would give
But now, after three years of ASF, small farmers confidence to restock
40% of the country’s pork comes “Our agriculture department’s their herds after ASF outbreaks and
from industrial farms with less than notion of ‘recovering’ our hog to keep swill feeding and free-rang-
1,000 pigs and 40% from new, large- industry is restructuring the current ing their animals. But it is far from
scale factory operations with more dominance of small and local raisers clear that a vaccine, if it is devel-
than 1,000 sows. towards that of wider and deeper oped, will be made widely available
foreign and corporate control,’ says to small farmers. ASF was long
Last year, the number of sows Lester Gueta of the Peasant Move- ignored when it was confined to
held by the world’s ten largest pig ment of the Philippines (KMP). Africa. Now that it is threatening the
farming companies increased by industrial pig farming sector, there
53% from the year before, from 7.2 What should be done? is more interest. But licensing deals
million to 11.0 million, and nearly all are already being cut with pharma-
of that increase took place in China, The current control measures that ceutical companies by the public
where pig farming companies like governments and international labs developing ASF vaccines, and
Muyuan and New Hope are getting agencies are pursuing against ASF this could easily push prices out of
funding from multilateral banks to are not working. Not only are they reach for small farmers.[35] There is,
build multi-story mega barns.[29] having a disastrous impact on small at present, no global programme for
Muyuan, China’s largest pig farming farmers, but they are not stop- the development and deployment
corporation, is building a “pig hotel” ping ASF, which remains a serious of vaccines with a plan for how
complex in Henan province that will problem in countries where these to make the vaccines accessible to

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