Voices for Animals – A series of interviews with those who speak out loud and clear for all who are born nonhuman
A global icon for justice takes the lead, and speaks out against humanity’s treatment of animals
In an urgent call to action, retired Justice Edwin Cameron, former Chancellor of the University of Stellenbosch, and former Justice of the Constitutional Court, pointed a finger at industrialised agriculture for its role in the plight of starving children in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province.
As keynote speaker at the 5th International Social Justice Conference held in Cape Town on 17 October 2024, Justice Cameron was one of a number of South Africa’s respected leaders, brought together in a unified bid to reach the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030.
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“What is hunger?” he asked. “It is not just ‘feeling hungry’ which is a desire for food that expects and anticipates fulfilment. Hunger is different. Hunger is a gnawing, debilitating, preoccupying daily presence. It haunts the daily lives of millions of people, and menaces their very being."
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Yet, he said, according to a 2016 Demographic and Health Survey, 27% of South Africa’s children under the age of 5 are stunted from undernutrition; 3% are wasted and 6% are underweight. ​​
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In the Eastern Cape Province, the number of children suffering from severe and acute malnutrition had more than doubled over the last 18 months.
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Additionally, he added, 9 million of the 13 million school children in South Africa, “are dependent on school feeding schemes for their one and only meal of the day.”
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"How can this be?" he asked. “Despite the fact that we are a middle income country, we have a wretchedly high rate of hunger in South Africa. Why is it that we produce enough food to export, and yet our people go hungry?”
Justice Cameron referred to a report by UN Special Rapporteur, Ms Hilal Elver, on the Right to Food. It stated: “The current industrial agricultural model has serious disadvantages. It generates food loss and waste, mistreats animals, emits greenhouse gases, pollutes ecosystems, displace and abuses agricultural fishery workers, and disrupts traditional farming communities.”
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The financialisation of the food system, said Justice Cameron, was also a contributory factor. Instead of alleviating the wretchedness of people in the grip of hunger, South Africa exported more than half of its maize harvest – 53% – for animal feed. In a global context, a third of the world’s grain, and two thirds of soya, maize and barley were used for animal feed.
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“And it is worrying and perplexing that our government seems to have a master plan to increase the amount of meat for export, rather than to feed the children just a few hundred kilometres away in the Eastern Cape.​"
“Though animals are capable of experiencing immense suffering, and though humans are capable of inflicting immense cruelty on them, the animals have no voice of their own. Like slaves under Roman law, they are the objects of the law, without being its subjects.”
“One of the simplest ways to eliminate hunger is to eat less animal flesh.” – Justice Edwin Cameron
