Asia

India’s Beef Boom Threatened as Old Tensions Flare

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 05:42:40 GMT

As a centuries-old dispute over beef intensifies in India, cattle transporter Shafiullah Mohammad Sharif Shah is caught in the middle.

Hindu vigilantes set fire to one of Shah’s trucks in December as it carried six water buffalo to a government-owned slaughterhouse outside Mumbai, he said. They beat up the driver and set the animals free, according to Shah. With such attacks becoming common, business has slowed so much that Shah says his five trucks may be repossessed if he can’t make a monthly loan payment of 150,000 rupees ($2,390).

While India is dominated by 1 billion Hindus, who revere dairy cows as sacred and hold vegetarianism as an ideal, some states still allow them to be slaughtered for meat, and output has surged from buffalo that have little religious significance. Annual beef exports are the world’s second-largest, jumping 11- fold in a decade to $4.35 billion. During the past year, hard- line Hindu groups have stepped up efforts to end cow slaughter and combat a network of small, illegal plants that produce cattle meat for domestic use.

“The atmosphere in the abattoir is very tense,” said Shah, 38. “We’re being harassed everywhere and the attacks are worsening. The industry doesn’t know how to deal with this and everyone from transporters to dealers and farmers is scared.”

Beef Ban

Vigilantes haven’t made any distinction between buffalo and dairy cows, targeting transporters of both. Trucks carrying cattle are often blocked by the activists, who snatch drivers’ phones, beat them up and hand over the cattle to animal welfare centers, according to the All Maharashtra Cattle Merchants Association. Attacks have increased since the May election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose Hindu-backed Bharatiya Janata Party favors tighter restrictions on cow slaughtering, which is legal in five of India’s 29 states.

“Our demand is to ban cow slaughter in India,” Surendra Kumar Jain, joint general secretary of Vishva Hindu Parishad, a religious group affiliated with BJP, said Feb. 25 by phone from Rohtak in northern Haryana state.

Maharashtra, the second-most populous state with 112 million people and home to the nation’s biggest city, Mumbai, on March 2 banned the possession and sale of beef. The meat that previously was legal in restaurants and sidewalk food stalls now carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and threatens to fan tensions between Hindus and minority Christians and Muslims.

Devendra Fadnavis, the chief minister of Maharashtra, did not respond to two calls made on Tuesday to his mobile and office phones, seeking comment on the attacks.

Activists Empowered

Supporters of Modi, including right-wing Hindu groups Bajrang Dal and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, have called for a national beef ban and activists have targeted legal businesses to disrupt production. While the organizations aren’t seeking to halt buffalo slaughter, they are promoting vegetarianism and an end to buffalo-meat exports, arguing the industry uses valuable water and land.

“Since the new government has come to power, incidents of harassment of our trucks have grown,” said Khaliq Qureshi, chairman of the All Maharashtra Cattle Merchants Association in Mumbai. “Political parties and activists feel more confident now because they feel that their own government is in power.”

In the past 10 months, about 600 incidents of harassment were recorded in Maharashtra, the third-largest producer of buffalo beef, compared with 200 to 300 cases annually in the previous five years, Qureshi said in an interview on Feb. 27. The numbers are probably higher, he said, because traders and transporters often don’t report the attacks to the association.

Export Expansion

The growing no-beef agenda threatens to disrupt an industry that expanded under secular governments that promoted agriculture in India, which saw farm exports grow faster than any other nation over the past decade. The country is the world’s largest democracy, which includes an estimated 176 million Muslims, more than any country except Indonesia.

While beef and pork are taboo at many Indian eateries, including McDonald’s Corp. and Burger King outlets, some restaurants serve beef and others offer it off the menu. The meat is cheaper than pork or chicken, so it is a popular source of protein for the poor.

The country ranks sixth in the world among beef consumers, and demand is up 4.2 percent in the past five years. Much of the industry’s growth has been in exports to Vietnam, China and Africa. Shipments will total 1.95 million metric tons this year, more than triple what was exported a decade earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated in an October report. Only Brazil sells more overseas.

Hindu Opposition

The beef expansion has upset some Hindus, who revere cows regarded as an earthly embodiment of the goddess Kamadhenu. The animals often roam freely and are fed outside temples. In rural areas, home owners cover floors and walls with cow dung to prevent pollution, and some spray cow urine indoors as a purifier.

During his election campaign, Modi said the previous government spawned a “pink revolution” by promoting meat exports and cow killing with subsidies to slaughterhouses, according to the Hindu newspaper.

Cow slaughter in India began with the arrival of Muslim invaders in the early 1,000s and continued with the arrival of British rulers used to eating beef. The Sepoy Mutiny by India soldiers under British rule, one of the biggest uprisings, started in 1857 as a protest against cartridges allegedly wrapped in paper coated in a grease made of pig and cow lard.

Losing Resources

The campaign to halt all cow slaughter and limit buffalo- meat exports is for the good of the country and isn’t targeting Muslims or Christians, said Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Jain, adding that many of the main beef export businesses are owned by Hindus.

“Exporting the meat is a loss, not a gain for the country,” Jain said. “We are wasting 7,000 liters of water to get 100 kilograms of meat. As India has a drinking water shortage, a ban on cow slaughter will also save water.”

Beef has become big business for India, which sells meat at a discount to other suppliers in the region. Exports fetched $4.4 billion in 2013-2014, compared with $395 million a decade earlier, according to the state-owned Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. By comparison, the U.S. exported $6 billion of beef in the recent fiscal year.

Cheaper Meat

Indian beef sells for $100 to $200 less per ton than meat from its main competitor, Australia, said Ashik Hussain, a supplier of beef to exporters in Maharashtra.

Live cattle futures for April delivery fell 0.4 percent to close at $1.54 a pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on March 9 after climbing to a seven-week high of $1.555. Prices, which reached a record $1.7275 a pound in November, are down 5.8 percent this year.

With fewer buffaloes sent to slaughterhouses, the cost for exporters will increase, shrinking profit, said Mohammad Ali Qureshi, president of the Bombay Suburban Beef Dealers Association.

“A propaganda is being created that it is a sin to be a non-vegetarian in this country,” said Qureshi, a third- generation beef trader at the Deonar abattoir in Mumbai. “Cows are seen as godmothers in India. When did the buffalo become the godfather? There is no religious connection. The groups want to crush the beef industry mentally and financially.”

Mumbai Beef Ban Sat for Decades Until Vegetarian Modi Acted

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 05:42:40 GMT

Residents of India’s financial capital could be forgiven for wondering how they suddenly face five years in prison for eating beef.

The bill, first passed in 1996, collected dust through five prime ministers. It only became law when Narendra Modi’s government, dominated by Hindu conservatives, asked the president to sign it in February -- four months after his party took power in Maharashtra, the state encompassing Mumbai.

The beef ban was among about 80 bills passed by India’s state governments that are awaiting presidential endorsement. Others include moves to ban camel slaughter in Rajasthan, upgrade a Hindu temple in Haryana and exempt bullfighting from a measure to prevent animal cruelty in Goa.

The long road to criminalize beef shows how India’s system of federalism has restrained the country’s 29 states from implementing laws that inflame religious tensions. With Modi, a professed vegetarian, holding a majority in the lower house of the national parliament for the first time and gaining control of more state governments, more initiatives may be coming.

“It’s a test for how far India can be pushed toward a conservative Hindu agenda,” Nikita Sud, an associate professor of development studies at the University of Oxford, said in an e-mail. “Changes in education, what we eat, what sort of films we watch -- that core agenda is emanating from the same organization and being tested and implemented at various central and state levels.”

Murder Charges

Other proposals are now under consideration in states controlled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party. Haryana, which borders the country’s capital, may introduce a bill to ban beef and cow slaughter, India Today Magazine reported on its website. Under the rule, offenders would face murder charges, it said, citing Haryana’s Education Minister Rambilas Sharma.

The BJP set up rapid action groups of 50 men each to stop trucks carrying cattle from West Bengal state to be slaughtered in neighboring Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country, Hindustan Times reported on Thursday.

Most in Mumbai only found out about the beef ban when Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s chief minister, thanked President Pranab Mukherjee for signing the bill in a Twitter post. Residents could previously buy beef from restaurants and sidewalk food stalls.

Several protests have emerged since it came into force. Beef traders demonstrated in Mumbai on Tuesday, while protesters in the southern state of Kerala -- where consumption is not prohibited -- cooked beef out in public and called on Maharashtra to lift the ban, NDTV reported.

Federal vs States

India’s constitution allows states to circumvent federal law on about 50 issues if they get permission from the president, a mechanism intended to unite a nation with 1.2 billion people who speak as many as 780 languages. The list includes policies related to food trade, education, bankruptcy and marriage.

When a state passes a law that may conflict with federal government policy, its governor -- who has no real power -- passes it to the Home Ministry. After consultations, the ministry can then pass it on for endorsement by the president, whose powers are also nominal.

“It’s not uncommon for state governors to defer signing of state legislation to the president of India, sometimes because of constitutional reasons, sometimes political,” said M.R. Madhavan, president and co-founder of New Delhi-based PRS Legislative Research, which tracks Indian legislation. “This is a strategy imposed by the central government if there’s legislation they don’t want states to impose.”

‘Cold Storage’

The beef ban passed the Maharashtra assembly in 1996, and the governor sent it to the Home Ministry two weeks later. It lay dormant through a previous national government controlled by Modi’s party, and wasn’t repealed when the secular Congress party ran Maharashtra from 1999 until October.

“The move was in cold storage and nobody was pushing for it,” Sanjay Jha, Congress Party spokesman, said when asked why the party didn’t withdraw the beef ban while in power. “It’s motivated and based on their political motive to create polarization.”

Fadnavis didn’t respond to several calls placed to office on Thursday. In his March 2 Twitter post, he said: “Our dream of ban on cow slaughter becomes a reality now.”

Among India’s roughly 1 billion Hindus, dairy cows are revered as sacred and vegetarianism is an ideal. Modi started his political career in the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP, which has pushed to ban cow slaughter, rewrite history books and remove Shariah-based laws governing marriage and inheritance for Muslims.

Beef Sales

While Modi has focused so far on overhauling the economy and vowed strong action against groups that incite religious hatred, his links with Hindu nationalists who backed his rise to power threaten to derail his reform push. The opposition- controlled upper house has blocked key bills to allow more foreign investment and implement a national sales tax.

Beef has become big business for India, which sells meat at a discount to other suppliers in the region. Exports fetched $4.4 billion in 2013-2014, compared with $395 million a decade earlier, according to the state-owned Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. By comparison, the U.S. exported $6 billion of beef in the recent fiscal year.

Other states have implemented moves to protect cows under BJP administrations. The western state of Rajasthan, known for its camels and centuries-old royal families, created a department of cow welfare after the party won a 2014 election.

“In the last nine months since the BJP has come to power, the fringe elements have become the real voice,” said Maidul Islam, who teaches political science at Presidency University in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata. “This is what happens when the center and state is ruled by parties or party with same ideology.”

More Beef From Down Under Set for U.S. Tables as Herd Drops

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 05:41:37 GMT

U.S. diners are set to tuck into more beef and veal from Australia.

Exports to the U.S. from the third-largest shipper will jump 35 percent to 360,000 metric tons in 2014-2015, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences said in a report. That’s the highest since 2004-2005.

The U.S. cattle herd started the year at the smallest since 1951 after years of drought forced producers to cull herds, and cattle futures reached a record last month. Prices may rise the most among agricultural commodities next year amid tight supply and strong demand, according to Rabobank International.

“Following prolonged drought conditions, U.S. cattle numbers are the lowest since the early 1950s,” the Canberra- based bureau said in the quarterly report today. “U.S. cow slaughter is not expected to increase in the short term, so cow beef production will remain low and demand for manufacturing beef imports strong.”

U.S. imports of Australian beef and veal accounted for 35 percent of shipments in first four months of 2014-2015 compared with 19 percent a year earlier, according to Abares. The full- year projection makes the U.S. the largest buyer, up from second in 2013-2014, according to the report.

Total exports will reach 1.18 million tons in the year started July 1, little changed from a year earlier, Abares said. Shipments to Japan may drop to 270,000 tons from 280,000 tons, while exports to China may contract 19 percent to 130,000 tons as the higher demand from other markets curbs supplies available for shipment to the second-largest economy, it said.

Live cattle futures for February delivery fell 1.8 percent to $1.61875 per pound on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange yesterday. Prices reached a record $1.7275 on Nov. 19 and have surged 20 percent this year. Australia’s Eastern Young Cattle Indicator, which measures prices at saleyards in the country’s east, was at A$3.572 ($2.94) per kilogram yesterday, the highest since Oct. 17.

France Seeks to Wean Cows Off Soybeans as China Dominates Demand

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 02:05:01 GMT

France will pay farmers to grow faba beans and other crops that can add protein to livestock rations as Europe’s largest beef producer seeks to cut its dependence on imported soybeans, where China’s rising demand threatens supply.

The government will allocate 49 million euros ($61 million) a year to pay a premium for sowing protein sources such as peas or sweet lupine, Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll said at a news conference in Paris today.

“We need to develop a plant-protein strategy for France,” Le Foll said. “The flow of protein feed to Asia is becoming greater and greater. For Europe, security of supply is not guaranteed in the long term.”

France grows about 60 percent of the protein crops eaten by its cows, pigs and poultry, importing the rest, while Europe is about 35 percent self-sufficient, according to the agriculture ministry. China gobbles up about 60 percent of global soybean exports, driving up prices, the ministry said.

The European Union will import 12.75 million metric tons of soybeans and 19.8 million tons of soybean meal in the year through September 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts. China may take 74 million tons of soybeans, or 66 percent of global imports, and 50,000 tons of meal, the data show.

“In time, the import flows originating from the Americas that now benefit Europe could be diverted to the advantage of Asia,” the ministry wrote.

Faba Beans
The government will pay growers 100 to 200 euros a hectare ($51-102/acre) for sowing protein crops such as beans and 100 to 150 euros for alfalfa, according to Le Foll’s presentation. The annual budget includes 35 million euros for peas, lupine and faba beans, 6 million euros for soybeans and 8 million euros for alfalfa, clover and similar crops.

The aid could boost the protein-crop area to 750,000 hectares (1.85 million acres) from about 278,000 hectares, according to the ministry. The plan runs until 2020, with the first payment available for crops planted by May 15, 2015.

Planting of faba beans, peas and lupine doubled to about 400,000 hectares in 2010 from a year earlier when a temporary aid measure was in place, according to Antoine Gautier, a feed analyst at Offre & Demande Agricole in Bourges, France.

“The area will probably increase,” Gautier said. “Also because the prices of grains and oilseeds are relatively low, particularly for rapeseed.”

The government plan will lower the cost of protein in feed for French livestock breeders, according to Gautier. Still, soybean growers in France have a hard time competing with U.S. farmers because they’re limited to non-biotech soybeans that produce lower yields, he said.

Protein Content
Soybeans have higher protein content than peas or faba beans, meaning France’s poultry and pig producers will continue to rely on imports to augment their feed rations, he said.

Using protein plants as cover crops can also increase productivity per hectare, for example as an additional crop in corn mono-culture, according to Le Foll. France is the EU’s biggest corn grower.

“We have a large potential in France because we have long seasons,” the minister said. “I don’t know if we’ll reach self-sufficiency, what I know is that we have to increase our autonomy.”

Le Foll announced a 10-year research program to boost protein-crop yields and select varieties. An additional 98 million euros is available to boost production of pulses for fodder by livestock breeders, mainly for cattle, according to the ministry.