Animal Voice

Botswana-based scientist points towards an entirely different future for Africa…

by Louise van der Merwe - Director: Humane Education

In the wake of the recent horror exposed on broiler chicken farms in Mpumalanga, South Africa – where the NSPCA was forced to cull more than 350 000 starving and crippled chickens amid a financial collapse at a state-owned poultry operation – a Botswana-based scientist is pointing towards an entirely different future for Africa... one rooted not in industrialised suffering, but in healthy ecosystems, healthy animals, healthy communities – and ultimately, healthy people.

Ironically, says Professor Richard Fynn of the Okavango Research Institute at the University of Botswana, the pathway out of poverty may lie in something as simple – and as revolutionary – as giving chickens back their natural lives.

Professor Fynn, a specialist in grassland science and rangeland management, believes Africa has an unprecedented opportunity to avoid repeating the mistakes of the industrialised West.

Here, he shares his insights with Humane Education...

Humane Education:

Professor Fynn, there is an old saying that “we are what we eat.” Is the chicken produced by modern industrial farming actually nourishing us?

Professor Fynn:

The short answer is: no.

In much of the Western world, virtually all meat products now come from animals raised in confinement systems that never experience natural rangeland. They are fed predominantly grain-based diets – mainly maize – designed for rapid growth and mass production.

Even many so-called “free-range” systems rely heavily on grain feeding.

The modern food system is focused almost entirely on producing large quantities of cheap meat. Very little attention is paid to the biological quality of that meat, or to the long-term consequences for human health.

And that comes at a tremendous cost – both to the animals themselves and to the people consuming them.

Humane Education:

Recently there has been growing public interest in “psychobiotics” and the connection between gut health, inflammation, anxiety and depression. Is there a link between this and the way animals are raised for food?

Professor Fynn:

Absolutely.

One of the greatest problems with industrial farming is the absence of phytochemical diversity in the animals’ diets.

On natural rangeland, herbivores and chickens are exposed to extraordinary plant diversity – grasses, shrubs, legumes and forbs – sometimes 60 to 100 plant species, each with its own unique chemical profile and medicinal properties.

Animals instinctively select what they need. That diversity strengthens immunity and profoundly influences the nutritional quality of the meat.

Research increasingly shows that animals raised in healthy natural systems contain far higher levels of beneficial anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant compounds. Those benefits are then transferred to us through the food we eat.

By contrast, meat from feedlots and intensive confinement systems is associated with inflammatory compounds that contribute over time to chronic illnesses such as heart disease, cancers and metabolic disorders.

You can often see the difference physically. Naturally raised chickens frequently have richer-coloured flesh and yellow fat because of the nutrients and phytochemicals present in their diets.

But far more important are the invisible differences – the biological and health properties within the meat itself.

Humane Education:

You have also spoken about animal suffering itself affecting meat quality.

Professor Fynn:

Yes. Stress and suffering matter enormously.

In industrial systems, animals experience chronic trauma. Calves are torn away from their mothers. Animals are crowded together in unfamiliar environments with little space, little shade, and constant stress. The same applies to chickens in intensive broiler systems.

When animals are subjected to fear and distress, powerful stress hormones and inflammatory responses are triggered throughout the body.

Professor Fynn:

We cannot separate the emotional and physical condition of an animal from the food ultimately placed on our plates.

In depriving animals of the natural grasses, shrubs and forbs that sustain their health, we are also depriving ourselves.

Humane Education:

Massive overcrowding in industrial farming often requires the routine use of antibiotics simply to keep animals alive until slaughter age. In South Africa, a University of the Western Cape study found tetracycline residues in broiler chickens purchased from major supermarkets. There is growing global concern about antibiotic resistance in humans.

Your thoughts?

Professor Fynn:

Antibiotics are routinely administered in both intensive chicken and cattle systems because the animals’ immune systems are compromised by the conditions under which they are kept.

Animals standing continuously in overcrowded, unhygienic conditions become highly vulnerable to disease.

And ultimately, this is the food system we are passing on to our children.

On natural rangeland systems, however, the situation can be entirely different.

Because our chickens are out in the veld all day they are not standing in their own muck like they would be in a chicken house, so they are much less susceptible to disease and we don’t need to use antibiotics on them.

That should tell us something important.

Rangeland farming is not backward farming. In many ways, it represents the future.

Humane Education:

Yet despite these concerns, industrialised poultry production continues to be promoted aggressively in Southern Africa. South Africa’s ‘Poultry Masterplan’ has even celebrated the expansion of intensive broiler and battery cage systems as a “Transformation Milestone.” How do we begin changing public understanding?

Professor Fynn:

Africa still has an extraordinary opportunity because many rural communities already raise cattle, goats and sheep on natural veld systems rich in phytochemical diversity.

What we should now be doing is integrating chickens into those systems.

For example, grazing animals disturb insects in the grasslands and chickens naturally follow behind feeding on them. The systems complement one another ecologically.

This is part of what we are exploring at the Research Institute.

If enough small-scale farmers each raised even two seasonal batches of 1 000 chickens under healthy rangeland conditions – and if retailers such as Woolworths or Food Lover’s Market supported and marketed these products – we could create a premium ethical food system that uplifts rural communities while dramatically improving animal welfare and human health.

Such a model has the potential to reduce poverty, disease, and the immense suffering inherent in intensive feedlot production.

Consumers deserve to know how

their food was produced.

Just as cigarette packets carry health warnings, perhaps meat from intensive confinement systems should carry similar warnings about the risks associated with industrial production methods.

In contrast, see the wretchedness and misery in the intensive broiler industry, below...

See FARMER'S WEEKLY 6 May 2026

See ANIMAL VOICE Oct 2009 p4 & 5

A humble indigenous chicken breed may help break the cycle

of hunger and poverty in Africa

There is a distinctive chicken pecking its way across Africa — and with it comes the promise of hope for rural communities where hunger remains a daily reality.

In South Africa alone, millions of children still go to bed hungry. Across the continent, poverty, food insecurity, climate pressures, and fragile rural economies continue to weigh heavily on vulnerable families. Yet one remarkable indigenous chicken breed is quietly helping communities build resilience from the ground up.

The Boschveld Chicken is a carefully developed hybrid of three hardy African breeds:

the Venda, renowned for its egg-laying ability,
the Ovambo, prized for resilience and toughness,
and the Matabele, valued for its meat quality.

The breed was developed over 27 years by Limpopo farmer Mike Bosch, whose vision extended beyond industrialised poultry farming.

“My mission was two-fold,” says Mike. “Firstly, I wanted to make a meaningful dent in the hunger that haunts many communities across Africa. Secondly, I wanted to develop a chicken resilient enough to thrive in the harsh rural conditions found throughout the continent.”

That vision has now spread far beyond South Africa’s borders.

“Earlier this year,” says Mike, “farmers in Malawi and Zambia told me the Boschveld Chicken is the “Best Village Chicken” on the continent. Along with its other attributes, it brings exceptional hybrid vigour and hardiness with it. These birds are survivors.”

To date, he says, more than 12 million Boschveld Chickens have been exported to 20 African countries, helping establish small-scale rural farming initiatives aimed at improving food security and household income.

Mike says the next major development is in Pemba, Mozambique, where the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has bought 24 000 fourteen-week-old Boschveld chickens, together with an additional two million eggs per month intended for workers linked to the offshore gas fields near Pemba.

New transport links are opening other opportunities too. “The recently established direct air route between Johannesburg and Accra has suddenly placed Ghana within our reach,” he explains.

“Previously, the journey was simply too long for the welfare of the chickens because we had to fly via an indirect route. So we sent fertile eggs to West Africa instead. But with a direct route now available, we are preparing to send our first shipment of day old chicks”.

Mike reaffirms that the success of the breed lies precisely in the fact that they are not the fragile broilers (selectively bred for meatiness) or layers (selectively bred for egg production), as used in industrial poultry set-ups.

“Boschveld Chickens are not softies – and they are certainly not birds for cages,” he says.

“To survive and flourish in Africa, chickens need to be tough. These birds need environmental control only during their first 10 days. After that, they move into our lightweight mobile hoks which can easily be relocated onto fresh ground every day.

“The self-erectable mobile hok measures 18 square metres and weighs only 65 kilograms, allowing families to move it with relative ease. The chickens don’t ever have to peck around their own droppings.

“Our system has been designed not only to the benefit of animal welfare, but around practical rural sustainability. If desired, units can include supplementary feed, vegetable seeds, fertiliser, and solar panels capable of generating small additional income through cell phone charging.”

Mike says the hens begin laying at around 19 weeks and can continue producing approximately five eggs per week for up to 30 months.

“They are excellent dual purpose chickens – both for eggs and for meat,” he says. “And remarkably, I have yet to lose even one bird to avian influenza.”

The lightweight Boschveld mobile hok measures 18 square metres and weighs only 65 kilograms.

In 2009, The Humane Education Trust presented Mike Bosch with a Certificate of Excellence recognising his contribution to more humane chicken farming practices, including systems where there are:

no battery cages,
no debeaking or beak “trimming,”
no detoeing,
no disposal of male chicks,
no cruel culling outlets for “spent” hens,
no confinement in accumulated faeces as commonly occurs in industrial broiler systems,
no ammonia burns on feet,
and no painful leg disorders associated with selectively bred overweight broiler chickens.

Instead, says Mike, the emphasis is simple:

“Allow chickens the freedom to be chickens.”

In a recent edition of Farm Talk with Tinus Havinga, the veteran agricultural broadcaster described Mike Bosch as “the King of Chicken Farming” and joked that he should feel free to “let out a crow.”

With an estimated 203 million small-scale rural farmers spread across Africa, the potential reach of sustainable village farming remains enormous.

And somewhere among them, the Boschveld Chicken continues to peck its way toward a different future.

Mobile cage-free unit, see here:

https://boschveld.co.za/wp-content/uploads/Mobile-Cage.pdf

International

Respect for Chickens Day

4th May 2026

hitching a ride

Prof Richard and Theresa Fynn’s chickens have built a bond with their friends, the sheep. They don’t think twice about hitching a ride when it suits them.

Professor Fynn adds: “One key insight these photos show is that because the broiler chickens walk around in the veld all day, they are fit and strong enough to manage to flap up onto a sheep’s backs. You can be sure that if they had been raised in a crowded chicken house environment they would not have managed to do so because of leg and general weakness! We’re talking here about the difference between couch-potato-chicken-house-raised chickens and fit-athletic-veld-raised chickens!

Theresa Fynn’s good care of the chicks meant they lost only one of the chicks. She says: “They need a lot of extra care and are too vulnerable to go out on range with the sheep until they are old enough to withstand the mongoose and other predators. Before they are old enough we put them out on the range in mobile 2 x 2m cages which we move every hour to fresh grass. But making friends with the sheep has been part of a heart-warming journey."

She adds: “Our beautiful animals come out of the barn at 6am and forage on range all day long until they are called for a bed-time meal at 6pm. The chickens sometimes flap up and hitch a ride. The sheep don’t mind at all. In fact, they have come to fully expect their ‘passengers’ to come aboard. The chickens frequently take a rest on their backs during the day as well.”

A lot of my energy is focused on transforming the beef industry from feedlot production to range-fed production, which is much better for human health, the environment and animal welfare.

— Professor Richard Fynn

Tragically, the unlucky billions spend their lives like this…

Animal Voice June 2015

It must be said that these broiler chickens are lucky to be on the Fynn’s five-hectare farm north of Maun in Botswana because virtually all of the 70 billion broiler chickens (the ones that have become the staple food of humans internationally) spend their lives in abject misery, packed like sardines on a chicken house floor that becomes saturated with ammonia from their droppings.

Selectively-bred for fast growth and meatiness, the skeletons of broiler chickens have not kept pace, resulting in a significant portion of them living in chronic pain. Scientists estimate that up to 90% of the broiler flock experience leg weakness and pain.

However, today, we are talking about the lucky few.

Theresa explains: “We went to the feed store and heard a lot of cheeping coming from boxes on the floor. I asked if the chicks were for sale and the shop-keeper said that they had not been collected, so we decided to buy a box of 50 chicks with two extra included for free.”

As a leading member of the Okavango Research Institute at the University of Botswana, Professor Fynn is a researcher in Rangeland Ecology and Grassland Science. He believes local farmers should get back to farming animals that are indigenous to an area, and where foraging is on a wide diversity of rangeland grasses, forbs and shrubs that offer optimal nutrition and medicinal resources, thus obviating the need for expensive feed, mineral licks and veterinary interventions.

Tswana chickens, for example, he says, are incredibly resilient and that can’t be said for these broiler chickens who’ve bonded with the sheep.

“However, because they eat a wide diversity of plants and insects, they have gained a natural protection from disease, further assisted by being outside all day and, therefore, not standing in their own muck 24/7.”

Theresa Fynn with a happy, healthy, veld-raised chicken

The saying goes that

‘you are what you eat!’

If you agree, would you rather eat a

couch-potato-house-raised chicken

or a

fit-athletic-veld-raised chicken?

Which will you choose

The power for change is in the hands of consumers and the choices they make!

Make a pledge this International Respect for Chickens Day to choose only free-range chicken.

read our latest issue of animal voice

Greetings to our valued readership

In this issue: countries around the world are already changing their laws to accommodate the inclusion of animal welfare in the Child Rights domain; South Africa’s finest minds explain why they add their unwavering support; a university survey reveals a 100% vote in favour of animal sentience being taught in high school.

READ HERE