Monday, May 31, 2010

FOOD SECURITY

Much have been said and discussed about the danger of food shortage with global warming phenomena and the population explosion.

Food scientist have issued warnings that food production is not in tandem with population growth.

Global warming is also causing harm to the world food production.

I agree that we should be wary of the food securit issue, but I guess we have overlooked on the food demand side.

I am no food security expert, but little has been said about our wasteful way consuming food. We waste too much good food, in receptions and even in our own house!

Have you ever wondered how many tons of good food is rubbished after each dinner function? A lot. Just visit any joint after a big dinner or luncheon. You will see so much good food being wasted.

These rubbished food can feed an entire orphanage!

11 comments:

Wan Sharif said...

Will Malaysia's beef import be secured should we have another war in Middle east / Afghanistan and/or Pakistan?.
I believed that Malaysia more or less barter our oil palm with cheap Indian beef ..we are so comfortable with this arrangement that those in Power or in favour of Felda did not do much to really improve Malaysian beef production.
Hopefully we do not have to scrambled ourself should the meat price increase to more than RM25 per kg.. It might be a tad too late then

azahar said...

That was history, I mean the thing about Indians buying our oil palm and us buying their beef.

Now even Indian beef are going somewhere else and they are no longer that very cheap!

We have the stock, albeit insufficient. All we have to do is improve our beef cattle management, especially breeding, nutrition and total ban on female slaughter.

At the moment we slaughter too many female animals!

Wan Sharif said...

Slaughtering too many female animals?.. it is because we lack the male counterparts? A Ban would introduce other side effects!

Nutrition.. agree that this part need improvement. Grazing would require too much land... Under the palm grazing will not improve the situation. feedlot and PKC+ palm frond are expensive at +RM 0.3 per kg.An experiment to grow grass via hydrophonics does not seems to bear any fruits.
Our friend proposal at 14 malaysian cent per kilo was met with resistances if not ridicule. More papers + more complete papers was needed (under the guise of convincing peoples who should already understand it if the have been a little more proactive since it it their tasks anyway) for umpteen presentations.
After all necessary information have been duly delivered.. come the decision.. some body get the tasks..
Today our good friend called to tell that me that Labuan people came over to ask him to re-submit/re-explain the earlier proposals.. after Marditechs was awarded and sit on the project..

Wow life was sure interesting..haha

azahar said...

They slaughter still-productive cattle because they are cheaper than males...Farmers keep males either for breeeding or for Qurban..they can get far better price for these purposes!

If ban them, they will resort to dirty tactics such as breaking the leg of the animal and we just have to allow slaughter of that animal on compassionate ground...

RY said...

Is there really NO problem?

Forget about West Asia our more pressing threat is the prospect that Indonesia will lift its ban on importing Thai cattle... processed or otherwise..

As for Heifers: How would our masters feel if Thailand and our other Indo-Chinese neighbors were to put a total ban on the export of female stock...

This we believe is about to happen, possibly sooner than later...

Noting that at a recent auction Committed Thai Breeders recently paid up to A$ 11,000 per head for 'just off the ship' import quality unbred Brahman heifers...

Simply put a Bull or heifer from the North East sold to Malaysian importers at 54 Thai bath per kg is cheap... No wonder they don't really give a S#^@ about quality or disease..

azahar said...

RY,

That's what in store for you cattle breeders and fatteners in Malaysia.

Change we must in order to compete, that also if we can compete!

RY said...

Food Security : Food Safety

A few weeks ago one brave man, with the support of his States Public Health Officer fired what I hope was the first salvo in an all out attack on the cattle thieves who plague our industry.

His fully supported remark which outlined the dangers of immobilizing and tranquilizing drugs currently used by the perps were much appreciated and I just loved the way he put it...

To the effect: For the consumers of such suspect meat “Diarrhea” is the least of their problems, consuming the meat could be fetal for those with chronic heart conditions or on hypertension medication and or diabetics... This warning was supported by his public health department who added that this meat would be processed and in most cases consumed within fifteen hours from the thieves administering the drug thus increasing the risk...

What they failed to point out is that these thieves in their haste, more than often use an excessive dosage, enough to place other non high risk groups in jeopardy.

Let us assume that in a reasonably sized 'district' there are over 30,000 head of cattle free ranging under palm and if we are to accept the numbers given by some quarters that up to 10% of our national herd is stolen every year; this would mean that 3,000 'possibly contaminated' carcasses would hit the market in just one district over twelve months with the three peaks for school holidays and the two Eid's…...... at say 125 kg per dressed carcass and servings of 250 grams that's 1.5 million servings.... a lot of high risk contaminated meat..... at a given instance of 1/50,000 servings (not necessary fetal but contributing to). That would equate to 30 instances; fatalities 50/50 so on a very conservative basis one could assume that these perps can kill in excess of 15 people every year in a single district... at a national level with over 30 districts with high density stocking this could very well cap out at 450 deaths per year (or should I say MURDERS)

Now assuming that only 15% of these carcasses are from abused / overdosed animals that would put 13,500 carcasses of 'extreme' high risk in the market. Ops, was that your Atok that just kicked the bucket... even on the wildest assumption there is a very distinct possibility that these contaminated carcasses could kill off, yes kill off more than three hundred unsuspecting Malay, Muslim consumers each year...

But then again it's such a wonderful time to die with all the family around and such a peaceful way as well... just nod off to sleep after a good feed of beef sate and Aunties famous beef rendang...

It's time we put these perps away... It's time for the Enforcers to put on their uniforms and do their job... In the meantime my advice to all you beef eaters out there is simple make sure your meat is JPV certified, check the source and check the stamps.... It could be your Atok next...



Ever wondered why HRH's personal staff won't let him eat game or meat at kenduri?

RY said...

Food Security : Food Safety

A few weeks ago one brave man, with the support of his States Public Health Officer fired what I hope was the first salvo in an all out attack on the cattle thieves who plague our industry.

His fully supported remark which outlined the dangers of immobilizing and tranquilizing drugs currently used by the perps were much appreciated and I just loved the way he put it...

To the effect: For the consumers of such suspect meat “Diarrhea” is the least of their problems, consuming the meat could be fetal for those with chronic heart conditions or on hypertension medication and or diabetics... This warning was supported by his public health department who added that this meat would be processed and in most cases consumed within fifteen hours from the thieves administering the drug thus increasing the risk...

What they failed to point out is that these thieves in their haste, more than often use an excessive dosage, enough to place other non high risk groups in jeopardy.

Let us assume that in a reasonably sized 'district' there are over 30,000 head of cattle free ranging under palm and if we are to accept the numbers given by some quarters that up to 10% of our national herd is stolen every year; this would mean that 3,000 'possibly contaminated' carcasses would hit the market in just one district over twelve months with the three peaks for school holidays and the two Eid's…...... at say 125 kg per dressed carcass and servings of 250 grams that's 1.5 million servings.... a lot of high risk contaminated meat..... at a given instance of 1/50,000 servings (not necessary fetal but contributing to). That would equate to 30 instances; fatalities 50/50 so on a very conservative basis one could assume that these perps can kill in excess of 15 people every year in a single district... at a national level with over 30 districts with high density stocking this could very well cap out at 450 deaths per year (or should I say MURDERS)

Now assuming that only 15% of these carcasses are from abused / overdosed animals that would put 13,500 carcasses of 'extreme' high risk in the market. Ops, was that your Atok that just kicked the bucket... even on the wildest assumption there is a very distinct possibility that these contaminated carcasses could kill off, yes kill off more than three hundred unsuspecting Malay, Muslim consumers each year...

But then again it's such a wonderful time to die with all the family around and such a peaceful way as well... just nod off to sleep after a good feed of beef sate and Aunties famous beef rendang...

It's time we put these perps away... It's time for the Enforcers to put on their uniforms and do their job... In the meantime my advice to all you beef eaters out there is simple make sure your meat is JPV certified, check the source and check the stamps.... It could be your Atok next...



Ever wondered why HRH's personal staff won't let him eat game or meat at kenduri?

azahar said...

RY,

When we first introduced and later encouraged cattle-oil-palm integration projects we never gave a serious thought about cattle safety. Now we are paying the price. Cattle in oil palm plantations are too vulnerable to cattle thieves and the fact that chemical tranquilizers are very easy to buy undercounter, this problem should be handled fast to prevent this project from failing.

I remember seeing a bunch of buffalo owners in ex-tin mining areas in Perak digging miles of trenches just to prevent thievse bringing in trailers to transport the stolen animals!

RY said...

Food Safety...

My Vet and I have been going over some very interesting research into the use of synthetic hormones in the Dairy industry supposedly to increase milk letdown...

It appears that these very same synthetic hormones (banned in the USA EU and India) in our milk and meat 'from culled dairy animals' might also be responsible for letting a lot of middle aged milk consumers and others down as well... early puberty, erectile dysfunction, hormonal imbalance, weak eyesight, and cancer to accompany the depressing loss of libido...

Like all these under the table drugs .... where are the educators...

azahar said...

RY,

The way we cook or is it overcook our beef, I don't think residues that you mention are still present in the prepared beef that is on our plates.

IN the West where beef is not cooked as thorough as ours, residues may cause harm...