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

By Ariell Ahearn, Dawn Chatty, University of Oxford

The camel may be the next cow.

An animal that once grazed and browsed over huge distances is increasingly being enclosed in vast Middle Eastern dairy farms, where thousands of camels are milked by machine. This is the model of sedentary farming that produced modern cows, sheep and pigs. Camels have so far resisted it – yet in certain ways, they are ideal livestock for the next climate reality.

Camels evolved to cope with very hot days and freezing cold desert nights. They can go for days with little water or vegetation, and produce less methane than cows, sheep and other ruminants.

These traits make camels uniquely resilient to climate change, and mean they can play a key role in adapting food production as the climate changes, especially in deserts and other drylands.

But the same traits that make camels well-adapted to climate change also make them increasingly attractive targets for intensive farming. With big business interests hungry for ways to combine climate fixes and capitalist growth opportunities, an industrial camel industry is growing.

We have spent many years working with mobile camel herders in rural Arabia and Central Asia. We fear that a switch to industrialised camel farming will not only be bad for the environment, but will also mean crucial traditional knowledge and intangible cultural heritage is lost. It would be a shame if these “ships of the desert” end up as livestock stuck in a small paddock.

Growing demand for camel milk

The trend is driven by burgeoning demand for camel milk as an alternative to cow, sheep and goat milk. Camel milk is high in vitamin C when fresh, and also low in fat.

In the Gobi Desert of Mongolia and the deserts of Oman where we work, camel milk is consumed fresh and in milky tea. It is also produced as a fermented drink, or turned into a dried hardened curd for longer storage life.

https://theconversation.com/turning-camels-into-cows-megafarms-are-being-set-up-to-produce