ETHIOPIA:ATTITUDES TOWARDS MEAT:DIARY PRODUCTS DURING EASTER.

The faithful believers in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church or the Tewahedo have been fasting for about 50 days and nights in which they do not eat any animal or dairy products.

In the last five days of this intense period of fasting that ends next Sunday, the faithful Christians are passing most of their time presenting themselves as holy and living sacrifices in prayer before God.

This week is the time of preparation for the breaking of this long fasting period. It is also a period in which the Christian community would become so busy in purchasing live sheep, goats, chicken, and cattle to celebrate and enjoy the Easter to be celebrated on the coming Sunday.

On Easter Eve, Ethiopian Christians participate in hours-long church service that ends around 3 A.M., after which they break their fast and celebrate the resurrection of Christ. It is common to prepare special traditional foods and share with neighbors and the poor. In this regard, religious leaders and fellow citizens often support the needy, while observing the Holiday.

In both urban and rural areas, the Christian community uses a great deal of meat and meat products. As the nation's economy is improving, the importance of locally sourced food is becoming more demanding. In many states, meat consumption is a sign of prosperity and wealth. Since the incomes have improved across the nation, industrial meat production as well as consumption has largely been increasing.

Large-scale industrialized livestock production coupled with the global food system should bring an opportunity to make the meat less expensive. But, currently, most of the people do not show interest to consume manufactured meat during holidays due to the moral and ethical choices.

Despite, the shift from traditional diets to those manufactured meat and dairy consumption takes long time to adapt, it throws negative effect on the development of the industry. Moreover, it has also fundamental social effects ranging from personal health to food security of households, and communities. It is important to take the need for more locally sourced food products, and protect the community from unsafe nature of food consumption.

While livestock sector is considered as a source of food, income and wealth accumulation, it contributes 15 percent of GDP and about 18 percent of foreign earnings.

Evidently, Ethiopia is leading in livestock resources in Africa with a total population of 55 million heads of cattle, 2.5 million camels, 26 million sheep, 25 million goats, and 50 million poultry. In this case, about 94 million dollar revenue was obtained from meat exports with a volume of 19 million tonnes of meat during the previous fiscal years. In the year 2015, the meat exports showed a 29 and 24 percent increase in volume and revenue respectively. This increasing export revenue appears to drive the livestock sector towards the market-led industrial development. BY ZELALEM GIRMA.