>> Hi, this is Keeve Nachman again. Welcome back. This is the final segment of
today's lecture. >> I wanted to talk a little bit about
how our food animal production model may or may not be expanding internationally.
>> I was actually asked to talk about food animal production overseas for a
class. >> And it wasn't something that I had
spent a lot of time on in my own research because most of what I do focuses on our
domestic practices. >> But, I thought it would be
interesting to go to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the WHO
>> and look at their animal production data by country.
>> And what I found was fairly surprising.
>> So, I wanted to show you some figures that show changes in production
volumes by country over time from 1961 to about 2009.
>> And so, this first figure is the production of chickens.
>> And you'll see that we are, are the number two contender right now.
>> But the country of China is producing far more chickens than any
other country in the world. >> This next figure is cattle
production. And you'll find that the US is number three in cattle production, but
Brazil and India are far out >> producing us in terms of cattle.
>> Some of the other, same countries that are leaders in poultry are also
producing quite a bit of cattle, China being one in particular.
>> This is swine production and what's painfully obvious from this figure is
that China is outproducing the rest of the world in swine.
>> The rest of the world, save the US, is pretty much in the noise here.
>> And I have another version of this same figure with China taken out.
>> And you can see the US is producing a fair share of the world's production of
swine, >> followed by a number of other
countries as well. >> So anyways, we are not the only ones
producing in the volumes that we discussed before.
>> One thought I wanted to share with you is that American companies that are
producing food animals have begun to expand internationally to buy up
operations in other places. >> So, one way to assess this is to
acquire annual reports from some of the integrator companies
>> that are well known here in the states to look to see whether or not they
discuss some of their international operations.
>> And sure enough, because they're trying to convince stake holders of their
profitability, they are very quick to brag about their international
expansions. >> Over the course of the lecture, I've
highlighted a couple of problems that we've noted through our research with the
way the US government regulates food >> animal production companies.
>> Now that some of the same companies are setting up shop in foreign countries,
there are concerns that in some of the lower and middle income countries that
are now hosting these operations, some of the same regulatory protections may not
exist. >> Among these are workforce
protections. >> I mention that
>> US food animal production sites are not under OSHA oversight.
>> But, conditions may be even worse in some of these operations overseas.
>> The environmental regulations that may control some of the releases from
food animal production sites here in the states
>> may be considerably stronger than what's available in other countries that
may, either have very weak, unenforced, or non existent environmental
regulations. >> I've criticized FDA for its
oversight of antibiotics and arsenic based drugs.
>> Some of those same policies may not exist in some of the newer countries that
are hosting some of the domestic food animal producers.
>> Another important consideration is that, in some cases when these integrator
companies are setting up shop in foreign countries, the meat that's produced at
those sites may not be intended for >> the citizens of the host countries.
But instead, may be exported to other countries, where they might be able to
get more money for the meat that's produced.
>> And that introduces a number of ethical considerations where, despite
being the countries that host production, they may not be the ones benefiting from
inexpensive meats, or the revenue from producing meat.
>> But instead, they're the ones burdened with the environmental
degradation and public health concerns associated with the location of those
facilities. >> So, there certainly are some justice
issues associated with domestic companies setting up shop overseas.
>> Let's take a step back. >> We've covered quite a bit and I'm
hopeful that at this point, you're not too terribly depressed.
But, let's think about some of the most important messages from today's lecture.
>> The first thing is that we've really radically changed the way we produce
animals for food. And we'd argue that many of the changes
that have been put into place over the past 50 years really pose serious risks
to people and environmental quality. >> And I think one of the most
important messages I'd like to communicate to you is that there are
certain populations that are really bearing the brunt of these risks.
>> And these are the people who work in these operations, or the people who live
around these operations and have to face this stuff day to day.
They're the ones who really pay the price just to give us inexpensive animal
protein. >> And what it looks like thus far is
that American producers think the model works so well here that they've decided
to take the show on the road. >> And what we're seeing is
>> these types of operations popping up all through different countries around
the world. >> So, we've set a really terrible
precedent for the production of food animal.
Keeve Nachman, PhD, MHSAssistant Professor, Environmental Health Sciences
Robert S. Lawrence, MDProfessor, Department of Environmental Health Sciences
Pamela Rhubart BergFood Systems Education Program Manager
