Bush Meat and Survival ------------------------------- Africans have for centuries been taking game from the forest. This has been a good source of protein for us since time immemorial. Nowadays conservation has become a global trend. The powers that be want to protect wildlife for posterity. This is an honorable idea. The only problem is that the African farmer is heavily disadvantaged by the rules of The World Trade Organization (WTO). Western farmers are heavily subsidized by their governments. The European Union even pays its farmers not to produce food because they have huge butter mountains and excess corn in the granaries. What this means is that the market price for food commodities are artificial, making the produce of the African farmer too expensive. Without the government subsidies, the European farmers will not be able to compete with the African farmer. Close to 80% of the population of sub Saharan Africa are subsistence farmers and live under extremely corrupt governments. These people dont know where their next meal is going to come from and the members of the WTO dont want them to take game from forest. I am not talking about poachers here. I am talking about ordinary folks who depend on the land to feed their families. Some African governments who do not know how the subsistence farmer manages to make ends meet are brutally incarcerating them for taking game from the forest. Europe can lift the subsidies it pays its farmers or distribute the excess food it produces to African farmers. Until the playing field is made even, nobody, I mean nobody has the right to mandate how the African peasant feeds his family. The recent outbreak of Ebola in Guinea Conakry has been attributed to someone eating a fruit bat. This sounds to me like propaganda by the conservation lobby. Anything that can scare Africans from eating bush meat is OK. The pygmies in the equatorial rain forest will continue to take game from the forest because that is their main source of protein and no HYPOCRITE should try to stop them.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:50:37 +0000
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