Issue 5: Investment from international agencies, development institutions, and foreign governments flowing into developing countries' animal agriculture: An elephant in advocates' room?

Financing and investing in developing countries’ animal agriculture by foreign governments, international agencies, and development institutions such as the World Bank is a topic rarely heard in discussions among advocates. Sustained campaigns led by advocacy organizations targeting this issue are as scarce as hen’s teeth.

But the centrality of such funds and investment – together with numerous attendant forms of support, from providing technical know-how to expanding access to reliable electricity – in facilitating the production of terrestrial and aquatic food animals in low- and middle-income countries is hard to dispute, as evidenced in various academic papers and webpages from the World Bank.

Is it time for advocates to acknowledge this elephant in the room and come up with some long-range, coherent plans to address it?