Vegan Economics
In A Vegetarian Sourcebook (1983), Keith Akers observed:
"Here we have a country (Mozambique) which recently liberated itself from
colonialism. Yet Mozambique then proceeded to import beef from abroad to
satisfy the demands of the urban elite for meat. Perhaps even worse, they
are intensifying their productio n of corn--one of the most erosive of all
plant foods--and feeding it to their cattle! This is, of course, a recipe
for disaster; and disaster is now precisely what Mozambique has on its
hands. This is a most depressing pattern throughout many third world
countries. They throw out colonialism, but they keep or even intensify the
colonial system of food production.
"Africa is not the only area of the world directly affected by problems
related to meat production. Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union are also
experiencing serious problems in this regard. In Poland, prior to the
workers' riots in 1979 over rising meat prices, the per capita meat
consumption was nearly as high as it was in the United States. In 1979 the
government allowed the price of meat to rise, and the workers expressed
their intense dissatisfaction. Regardless of what else one can say about the
situation in Poland, there is no question that meat consumption has placed a
severe strain on the Polish economy. No matter what kind of government the
Poles have, they will have to recognize economic realities; and these
realities are, that the Polish economy simply cannot sustain the level of
meat consumption which approaches the 'American' level. They could subsidize
meat production or import meat or feed for meat animals; and this is, of
course, precisely what the government has been doing for some time. At best,
however, this can only shift their economic problems from agriculture to
those sectors of the economy which are subsidizing agriculture.
"The Soviet Union is affected with similar problems of resource availability
due to their wastefulness of their diet. Today, their agricultural system is
a serious burden to their economy, and they are forced to import vast
quantities of what from their chief ideological opponent, the United States,
in order to keep it afloat. But the Soviet Union's well-publicized
agricultural difficulties only arise because it tries to feed its citizens a
Western-type diet high in meat and animal products. The SovietUnion would
not have the slightest difficul ty in feeding itself from its own resources,
but grain has to be imported for their cattle.
"Other countries are hardly doing any better...Latin America provides us
with yet another example of how food problems contribute to social tensions.
Throughout Latin America, land availability is a prominent social issue.
Revolutionaries as well as reform-minded moderates have made land reform a
major issue. Yet in many Latin American countries, forests are being leveled
in order to create pastures for cattle grazing land. In a region where land
availability is a central social issue, existing land is being gobbled up by
livestock agriculture. The resulting social tensions have resulted in civil
wars, repression and violence.
"And, finally, what about the United States? Despite its vast resources,
even this country is not immune from the ecological effects of livestock
agriculture. Theresources which have up to now so generously supported
agriculture are becoming scarcer, harder to get to, and therefore more
expensive. It is becoming increasingly expensive to farm in the United
States. As in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, it is always possible to
subsidize meat production in order to maintain the availability of meat; but
this does not really alter the problem, it merely shifts it somewhere
else--in this case, to the federal budget deficit.
"How quickly do nations abandon their ideals in order to consume meat! The
third world countries copy the methods of their former colonial oppressors;
the socialist countries strive to imitate the foods of the decadent West;
and the United States throws its free enterprise system aside in favor of
government subsidies. We are closer to the Orwellian '1984' than ever, in
which everything becomes its opposite for the sake of meat consumption:
colonial methods become liberation, decadence becomes the progressive
future, and government intervention becomes free enterprise."
Return to: Articles
