Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
1
The food animals
All the above animals, including fish, are converters,
that is, they utilise green vegetable material with varying
efficiency to produce protein. Even micro-organisms
can be classified as converters in that they use carbo-
hydrates from plants to make protein from simple
nitrogenous compounds. Especially when an animal
eats something which is inedible for man or could not
easily be made into food for man, it is considered valua-
ble as a source of food; so when pigs and poultry, and
even other animal species, are used as scavengers to eat
scraps, by-products, etc., they are very useful indeed.
However, when food which could be utilised by human
beings is fed to livestock, the question of efficiency
becomes more problematic. Nevertheless, other factors,
such as the production of manure for fertiliser usage,
variety in the human diet, etc., have to be borne in mind.
Not only did the Creator command the earth to 'bring
forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree
yielding fruit after his kind' (Genesis 1:11). He also
'made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth
after his kind' (Genesis 1:25). For both plant and beast,
'God saw that it was good' (Genesis 1:12 & 25). They
were both to be used as food for man.
In more recent times, efforts have been made to
domesticate certain
wild animals
, although many of
these have been used as food since ancient times. In
Africa and Russia, elands are being domesticated, as well
as antelope in the latter country. Kangaroos are being
kept for meat in Australia, and in South America, the
large rodent capybara, which is a semi-aquatic vegetar-
ian, is being used as a source of meat, although it is not
especially palatable. There are probably many other wild
species which could be utilised in meat production
and would have some advantages over the domesticated
HEALTH is a state of complete physical, mental and social
well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity.
World Health Organisation chronicle (1978)
Meat is normally regarded as the edible parts (muscle
and offal) of the food animals which consume mainly
grass and other arable crops, namely, cattle, sheep, goats,
pigs, horses, deer, reindeer, buffalo, musk oxen, moose,
caribou, yak, camel, alpaca, llama, guanaco, vicuna, etc. In
addition, poultry have become a major meat-producing
species, while rabbits, guinea pigs, capybara and various
game animals and birds provide a substantial amount of
protein, particularly in localised areas. Fish and other
seafood have also been an important part of man's diet
since earliest times.
Although, theoretically, hundreds of animals could
supply meat for human consumption, in practice, only a
relatively small number of species are used today. This is
all the more remarkable since it represents in general the
instruction of the Levitical law of the Old Testament,
most of which is in accord with modern sanitary science.
The animals suitable for the food of man had to part the
hoof and chew the cud. Only those fish with fins and
scales were wholesome. It is true that today we eat pig,
rabbit and hare, but it is recognised that they are subject
to parasitic infestation. There appears to be little doubt
that the dangers of trichinosis and of Cysticercus cel-
lulosae were recognised 1400 years before the birth of
Christ. In many parts of the world, horseflesh forms
an important article of human diet. The Danes reintro-
duced the consumption of horseflesh into Europe during
the siege of Copenhagen in 1807; slaughter of horses for
human consumption is now well established in Denmark,
Belgium, Holland and Germany.
