Lactose Intollerance
http://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/lactose.html
"All human races' babies can tolerate lactose. In fact human milk has a very high concentration of lactose compared to cows' milk and that of other mammals." - "Some races, such as Asian, African, Australian Aboriginal and Hispanic populations have a greater tendency to adult lactose intolerance."

The project http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.3955647/
http://www.nextbillion.net/newsroom/2008/01/28/gates-and-heifer-to-raise-profitability-of-dairy-farmers

An interesting point from one of the write ups "To improve cow breeds and production, the project will rely on artificial insemination using high quality bull semen to impregnate local cows"

Is there really live shipping involved?

An alternate view of the project http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_13556.cfm by Martha Rosenberg which seems to be widely distributed.

Some other stuff on Gates foundation work on agricultural development http://appablog.wordpress.com/2008/01/25/gates-africa-306-million-commitment-to-agricultural-development/

A comment on another article
"Farmers with incomes of a few hundred dollars a year can hardly afford to buy cows or goats, but Heifer's projects provide the cows or goats and then ask the farmers to pay for them by "Passing on the Gift" of offspring of the livestock to others. That multiplies and spreads the benefits, and it makes it possible for farmers, with training in integrated agriculture, to begin developing environmentally sound farms that can double or triple their previous output. Since Heifer started in 1944, this approach has helped more than 48 million people become more self-reliant." http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=8158

R0bert

Dear Nicky,

I suggest that you look up this website:

http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.3955647/

entitled: "Help & Hope for 1 million people in East Africa."

It gives a totally different slant to the one your
giving us. And I quote:

"The $42.8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
to Heifer International, which includes $2.5 million
matching grant. Combined the grant and Heifer-raised matching
donations will secure a total of $45.3 million for the
East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) project, which will help
farmers in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda achieve better livelihoods
through dairy farming - significantly increasing household
income through profits generated from the production and
marketing of high-quality milk."

In eastern Africa as the article points out its almost impossible for
subsistence-level farmers with few cows to participate in the
dairy industry or make real economic progress because even if the
family's cows could produce more milk than needed for household
consumption, they would have to sell it immediately because of lack
of refrigeration for storage. So more than 90% of milk in Africa was
sold at that farm gate or to peddlers.

The article tells us:

"Heifer's EADD project solves this problem by placing refrigerated
chilling plants located where farmers can bring their milk for
storage and pick up by commercial trucks. Then even a very poor
farmer with a single cow can take part in the dairy industry."

But there's more... the farmer's will recieve training in Heifer's
small community groups.

I won't go into all the details here - you can read them for yourself
on the website.

However, as the article says: "it was Heifer's proposal to generate higher quality milk
from improved cows and a collection system that accommodates poor
farmers that struck the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a
succefful way to help people in East Africa improve their
income and nutrition, which will lead to better education,
housing, health care and quality of life."

Providing help and hope for 1 million people in East Africa
is a worthwhile venture not only for Bill Gates, but for
anyone.

I'm sure you'll agree.

I listed some info I located on this project last night but ddn't make much in the way of comment.

The lactose intollerance issue may impact on the economic viability of the proposal but on the other hand it's improving an important food source usable by almost all children if I understand the material from the breastfeeding site correctly.

The chillers are distributed but still are common collection points. It's not a matter of farmers getting a cow, a chiller and a generator, rather it seems that communities will get the chillers and necessary supplies.

Likewise it seems from my reading that the AI process will be managed so that storage of the genetic material is not an on farm issue.

If local cows are used along with AI to improve the breed then it seems unlikely that much live shipping of livestock will be required. None of the material I saw about the proposal gave me the impression that this project involved live transport of animals.

Almost all the criticism of the project that I could find seemed to be based on Martha Rosenburg's piece. I did find a small amount of other material criticising Heifer and it appeared to be vegan in origin. Martha's piece is written in the sarcastic, distorted style which raises alarm bells with me.
106 of Martha's pieces are listed at
http://www.opednews.com/author/author1353.html

R0bert

I suspect, Nicky, that if your agenda is to turn the population of the entire African continent into Vegans, there may be some substance to your concerns.

However, as desirable a goal as you may feel this to be, I don't see anyone producing any concrete plans to achieve the Veganization of Africa. And it would definitely take a great deal more than the $42.8 million that Bill and Melinda Gates have put on the table.

Do you, in fact, have any notion of how much money you would need in order to transform the eating habits of the entire continent? Or how long it would take? Or how many millions would die along the way?

I suspect not.

On the other hand, rather than sit on their hands and wail at the moon, the B&MG Foundation has put in place a plan to alleviate some immediate suffering.

I find the fact that you place the lives of cattle - most of whom will survive and be well cared for - ahead of humans, a touch distateful.

They may be African, and a long way away from your cosy PC and your cup-a-soup, but they are also people.

Hi all

Please read the following links, and then tell me that you think sending more animals to this region is the answer:

http://desertification.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/kenya-pastoralists-face-looming-drought-google-ea-standard/

http://www.aswa.org.uk/Articles/therealityofsend.html

Those are just two.

Pericles, it is not a matter of overlooking human suffering; I just think that aid dollars would be far better spent on population control and sustainable agriculture, which, in these regions in particular, does not include "livestock". This is just far too simplistic.

Cheers
Nicky

Nicky, the thing thats difficult without a genuinely independant coverage with article like that is to tell how straight they are being. Are they evenb talking about the Heifer program? Is the area described the same type of area that Heifer is doing the work in?

The impression I got from the other articles on the work to be done with Bill and Melinda's donation was that it was improvingt the strain of livestock used by AI rather than shipping in livestock and it was providing infrastructure to make that work.

I've not seen anything by way of critism of this project yet that looks the least bit objective. It all seems to have the tone and style that suggests a deep philosophical dislike for the nature of the aid rather than an objective analysis of the practicalities of whats being done. I'd be much more likely to be convinced by an article that looked more even handed.

R0bert