At first, I thought it was a joke. Heifer International just sent me a holiday catalog offering me the opportunity to buy a water buffalo for $250 and ship it to Cambodia. I could also buy a share of a buffalo, for just $25. And this is serious.
Heifer International is a private nonprofit agency that sends animals — chickens, pigs, rabbits, even llamas — to impoverished communities around the world. Their mission is to promote sustainable food production and end hunger, and they do this by donating both “edible” creatures (including guinea pigs — a major source of protein in Ecuador) and working animals, such as donkeys, camels and bees.
I don’t know what the ecological cost is to mail a goat to Haiti, or an ox to Uganda, and this was the one question I couldn’t answer by visiting the Heifer site. But everything else this organization is doing seems spot-on.
Heifer International:
Provides farm materials and training in sustainable agriculture methods.
Helps disaster victims rebuild their towns and agrarian communities.
Encourages recipients to “pass on” the offspring their animals produce.
Plus, they have a bunch of shiny, sexy people involved: Susan Sarandon, Ted Danson, and the mother from a television show called Malcolm in the Middle, whose name I didn’t recognize. The organization also has testimonials from Bill Clinton and Jane Goodall, which was far more convincing to me. Enough so I’m now signed up to sponsor a part of a Russian cow.
“If an economically poor country is to conserve its wildlife heritage, this means additional hardships for the peasants, in many cases,” said Dr. Goodall. “Thus it is necessary to build conservation into a package — money for rural development programs, agroforestry, medical help, controlled tourism, etc. Heifer International fits absolutely right in with this overall plan.”
But I’m afraid Heifer is going to have to reach for some new spokespeople if they want to entice the next generation. My 13-year-old daughter (the one who explained to me about Malcolm) paged through the catalog and said, “Wow, this is cool. If they got that guy from Las Vegas, I would TOTALLY buy a whole buffalo.”
If you’d like more information about Heifer International, visit their website or call 1-800-422-0755.
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