Turning camels into cows: megafarms are being set up to produce camel milk on industrial scales

The camel will be the subsequent cow.

An animal that when grazed and browsed over large distances is more and more being enclosed in huge Center Jap dairy farms, the place 1000’s of camels are milked by machine. That is the mannequin of sedentary farming that produced fashionable cows, sheep and pigs. Camels have thus far resisted it – but in sure methods, they’re best livestock for the following local weather actuality.

Camels developed to deal with extremely popular days and freezing chilly desert nights. They’ll go for days with little water or vegetation, and produce much less methane than cows, sheep and different ruminants.

These traits make camels uniquely resilient to local weather change, and imply they’ll play a key position in adapting meals manufacturing because the local weather modifications, particularly in deserts and different drylands.

However the identical traits that make camels well-adapted to local weather change additionally make them more and more enticing targets for intensive farming. With massive enterprise pursuits hungry for tactics to mix local weather fixes and capitalist development alternatives, an industrial camel business is rising.

We’ve got spent a few years working with cellular camel herders in rural Arabia and Central Asia. We worry {that a} change to industrialised camel farming won’t solely be unhealthy for the atmosphere, however may even imply essential conventional information and intangible cultural heritage is misplaced. It might be a disgrace if these “ships of the desert” find yourself as livestock caught in a small paddock.

Rising demand for camel milk

The pattern is pushed by burgeoning demand for camel milk as a substitute for cow, sheep and goat milk. Camel milk is excessive in vitamin C when contemporary, and likewise low in fats.

Within the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and the deserts of Oman the place we work, camel milk is consumed contemporary and in milky tea. Additionally it is produced as a fermented drink, or became a dried hardened curd for longer storage life. And we are able to attest to the sudden power of the distilled camel milk we tried in Mongolia!

Contemporary milk produced by camel herders has a light flavour which is usually barely sweeter particularly seasons, relying on the vegetation that the camels are grazing on. Whereas herders in arid areas have at all times consumed camel milk, its new marketability rests on its gentle flavour, decrease ranges of lactose and nutrient profile.

The growing demand for each contemporary and powdered camel milk is exemplified by the rise in small dairies within the least anticipated locations, corresponding to an Amish-Saudi collaboration within the US. All that is driving some capitalist entrepreneurs in direction of growing camel breeds that give larger yields of milk – very like domesticated dairy cows can produce way more milk than their wild ancestors.

Enormous camel dairy farms

Within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, camel dairy farms have been arrange with 1000’s of camels – the most important, within the UAE, has greater than 10,000 – together with fattening items for male camels to be offered off for meat. Extra are being constructed, and in early 2024, the Saudi sovereign wealth fund introduced additional funding.

There are some challenges with elevating camels on an industrial scale. Males are inclined to turn into very aggressive and even harmful to people throughout rutting season, whereas females have an extended gestation interval than cows.

Nonetheless, the business is predicted to develop quickly, with estimates for the long run worth of the worldwide camel milk market starting from US$2 billion to $13 billion (£10 billion) by the top of the last decade.

In Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Oman, camels have turn into symbols of cultural heritage. Races and “magnificence contests” can herald astronomical prizes as excessive as £2 million. With such extraordinary rewards, it isn’t shocking that cloning and different superior reproductive strategies have turn into extra widespread within the drive to breed a profitable camel.

Conventional camel herders are involved

We’ve labored with nomadic camel herders in rural Mongolia and within the deserts of Arabia, the place camels stay with out fencing restrictions and are milked by hand. Herders there are involved in regards to the shift in direction of mega-dairies, the place milk is produced on an industrial scale.

Worldwide camel herder contributors who gathered at one latest workshop in Rajasthan, India, launched an announcement saying they reject the “extractive mannequin of animal manufacturing that was first superimposed on many camelid nations in colonial instances”. They’re cautious of adopting a mannequin for industrialised camel conserving that’s “depending on fossil fuels, chemical inputs and imported feed”.

People have labored with camels all through historical past. Camels enabled long-distance commerce, served in armies, carried navy gear, sustained household livelihoods, and contributed to early industrialisation. At present they’re the face of many vacationer brochures.

The rising pattern of industrialised camel farming, primarily based on maximising milk manufacturing by way of enclosure and management of mobility, ought to trigger us to pause and mirror. We’re cautious of what all this implies for nomadic camel herders who produce effective wool fibre, milk, various dairy merchandise and meat, utilizing centuries-old animal husbandry information and customs.