Egyptian Pig Producers - Followup

After the pig cull in Egypt, there were stories about people losing income.

With more time passing, as this article makes clear, things have gotten worse:

• more malnutrition and anemia
• more vermin and disease
• more poverty

From the article:

The government's decision would have dire financial implications... "They made their decision without any research," said Syada Greiss, one of the Christian MPs in parliament.

"Who would this affect, how many, what damage would it do to the local economy, what would they do to replace their lost income? There was no real thought for the implications for one of the city's poorest suburbs. And that's why it feels like discrimination."

The government says it has compensated the Zabaleen but those who reared pigs say they received only a fraction of what their animals were worth.

It was also a one-off payment - hardly compensation for a twice-yearly income on which men like Mr Mosaad had depended.

"If you walk around this neighbourhood they are piling up the organic waste in the streets," said Ms Greiss. "There is nowhere to put it. No pigs to eat it. It is miserable here."

Farmers fear regulation because it can easily ruin them. The situation in Egypt provides an example of bureaucrats, with the stroke of a pen, destroying the livelihoods of an entire class of farmers while hurting public sanitation and general health.

I find it very interesting that people who don't eat pigs benefited from the pigs eating stuff that would otherwise feed vermin.