Hunger: where the livestock are

Oops, should have written this last night. Forgot.

There is a lot of hunger in rural poor livestock keepers. Where? The same places there are a lot of hungry children.

Why? After all, if people have livestock, they have a permanent source of food, right? Not really -- livestock keeping is not a stable career in most places. Drought robs them of fodder, disease robs them of animals and genetics, and poor infrastructure robs them of the ability to market their products.

To tell the truth, livestock keeping isn't a safety against hunger even in the high income countries. Livestock products are a luxury in most of the world, which means that any hit to the economy drives down demand for meat and dairy, driving down prices, forcing many who live on their animals to go hungry or live with food insecurity.

Hunger doesn't always hit those with nothing -- even a herd of animals is no protection.