Livestock in El Salvador

The cattle industry in El Salvador is a small one. It is composed of thousands of small farmers, many of whom raise cattle for their own family’s consumption, or perhaps to sell to their neighbors. The breed of cattle commonly raised are called “criollo” locally, but is actually a variation of Brahman cattle, which is…

Cattle Rustlers Rounded Up in San Miguel

Theft of cattle near San Miguel had been on the rise since the beginning of the year. By June, the number of cattle thefts was double the number of the previous year. Ranchers were becoming frustrated and disillusioned with the local police, whom they felt were not trying to solve the cases, and thus the…

A Quarter Pounder with Cheese, and a Side of Toxins

Copper, arsenic, dioxin, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, lindane, penicillin, Flunixin, Sulfadimethoxine, Florfenicol, Sulfamethazine, Ivermectin…some of these may sound familiar, some may sounds vaguely like something you learned about in biology class some years back. But nothing sounds like something you’d expect to find on your dinner plate. And yet they’re there. They snuck in, as uninvited guests….

Modern Slaughterhouse Construction Halted

Two modern slaughterhouses are in the works in the zona oriental of El Salvador – in San Miguel and Pasaquina. The idea is that these two slaughterhouses would serve the entire eastern zone of the country, thereby abolishing all of the small slaughterhouses scattered throughout the countryside. As I outlined in a previous blog post…

Salvadoran ranchers need their annual livestock fair

This year, the annual livestock fair in San Miguel will not be happening for the first time in 30 years. During those years, ranchers have come to rely on this annual fair to make or finalize transactions, and agricultural businesses have come to market their latest equipment and products. So if the ranchers are missing…