TONY GERRANS | Daybreak farms crisis: a wake-up call for South Africa’s food future

The unfolding crisis at Daybreak Foods farms is more than just a state of mismanagement — it is a national wake-up call. Operators abandoned chickens being raised for meat to starve as the farm was no longer able to feed them. Some chickens were forced into cannibalism, and others were culled en masse. The human cost is also high, with vulnerable small-scale suppliers and an unpaid workforce left to pick up the pieces.

While headlines focus on financial missteps and governance failures, a deeper, more disturbing truth is being overlooked: the systemic cruelty and unsustainability of industrial animal agriculture in South Africa.

Humane World for Animals South Africa (formerly known as Humane Society International South Africa) believes the real tragedy lies in how we treat animals as disposable commodities in a system that prioritises profits over sustainability, the environment and animal welfare.

The Daybreak scandal is not an isolated incident — it is the latest in a long history of incidents that expose deep flaws in our food system. From mass killing due to disease outbreaks to the abandonment of animals on farms when cash flow dries up, animals are too often left to suffer and die.

In 2023 alone, up to 9.5-million birds kept for meat and egg production were culled due to avian influenza. In the Tsitsikamma region, dairy calves were killed and buried on farms during a foot-and-mouth outbreak. These are not anomalies — they are symptoms of a broken system. Industrial animal farming, with its overcrowded, unsanitary and stressful conditions, is a breeding ground for disease and disaster, that not only affects the animals and public health but also livelihoods.

We must launch a national dialogue about reducing our dependency on intensive animal agriculture.

The economic fallout is severe. The 2023 bird flu outbreak led to a regional ban on South African poultry exports, costing the country millions. Yet government support continues to prop up this failing model — one that, in South Africa, further entrenches inequality, endangers public health and undermines our resilience in the face of climate and economic shocks and food insecurity. 

This crisis is not only a reflection of corporate failures. Daybreak farms is owned by the Public Investment Corporation, which manages funds on behalf of the Government Employees Pension Fund — one of Africa’s largest pension funds. In other words, the cruelty, collapse and mismanagement at issue are being financed by the public — by teachers, nurses and other civil servants whose pensions were meant to secure their future, not bankroll ecological destruction and animal abuse.

This is not just an animal welfare issue, it is a challenge with deep economic, environmental and moral implications. South Africa can no longer afford to ignore the substantial and intertwined negative impacts of intensive animal agriculture. We must take urgent steps to transition our precarious food system into one that is just, more humane and sustainable. We must launch a national dialogue about reducing our dependency on intensive animal agriculture. Finally, we must look to a model that supports livelihoods, food security and our country’s unique needs.

A more plant-based, agroecological model, with strong animal welfare dimensions, offers one way forward. It would reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve water resources, strengthen biodiversity and create enormous potential to improve public health. It would lead directly to increased opportunities for transformation and new livelihoods by promoting small-scale farmers and entrepreneurs and enabling local communities to thrive in a more equitable food economy.

This kind of transformation is well within the reach of South Africa, its government, its institutions and its capital. With our rich agriculture heritage, innovative spirit and deep-rooted values of ubuntu, we can build a food system that nourishes both people and the planet — without cruelty and with tremendous advantages for each and every citizen.

The crisis at Daybreak farms must not be in vain. Let it be the moment we chose a better path.

• Tony Gerrans is the executive director at Humane World for Animals South Africa

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