Gottschalk brings dairy knowledge to Afghanistan
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 02/04/2010 8:41 AM
E-mail article | Print version
ROCHESTER, Minn. — Scott Gottschalk's belief in giving something back has put him in harm's way a time or few.
Gottschalk, a Byron native who now lives in Kimball and works for Land O'Lakes, has been on seven international dairy production and management consulting assignments on behalf of the LOL International Division.
He spoke about his most recent trip, a 16-day mission in war-torn Afghanistan in 2006, at the Jan. 18 annual meeting of the Southeast Minnesota Ag Alliance.
He showed pictures of beautiful snowcapped mountains, green fields of wheat, starving cattle and overworked donkeys.
None of what he had to say would make the farmers in the room better farmers, he said, but it would provide a different view of Afghanistan.
The country of 25 million people is about the size of Texas, he said. It is the second poorest nation in the world with a life expectancy of 40 years old. It is a nation of desert plains, fertile river valleys and the Himalayas.
It is also a nation torn by endless years of invasions and wars.
"Because of the endless years of warring invasions and battling, Afghani people have evolved into some of the most feared and ferocious fighters on the planet," Gottschalk writes in his Afghanistan Journal.
Convincing the farmers of Afghanistan to start a dairy operation is a tough sell, he said, as raising illegal drug crops of poppy and marijuana provide an economic advantage.
He saw thousands of acres of poppies. Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the heroin in the world, but the people of the country can't afford it. Instead, it is bought and used in the United States and other nations and the money supports Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and terrorist networks, he said.
Gottschalk said he was emailed weekly security updates before he left for Afghanistan, and he saw troops as soon as he landed. He was schooled in what to do if he was captured by the Taliban.
"Foreign internationals needed to be very cognizant of the risks that were posed while in the country of Afghanistan," he writes.
Poverty was everywhere in Afghanistan, Gottschalk said. He showed a photo of a woman clothed in a burqa sitting in a wheelchair with a child laying beside her chair. Both her legs had been amputated.
"I was shocked by the sheer number of amputees who were victims of land mine explosions, who were lining the streets," Gottschalk writes.
"There are land mines everywhere over there," he said.
Gottschalk soon realized he would be safer if he dressed as an Afghan. He purchased a pirhan-tumban, which is a pair of oversized baggy pants and a long flowing knee-length shirt. That is worn with a long-cut vest and either a turban or a scarf.
He showed pictures of an open-air market in Kabul, a city of more than 5 million people with no sewer system of any kind. Meat hung in the open air and produce laid on the street.
After one day in Kabul, he was driven to Jalalabad. They left early because of rumors of terrorist activity and arrived an hour before a car-bombing on the very road they had just traveled.
A school was bombed and there was another highway bombing while he stayed in Jalalabad.
His task was to begin establishing a commercial dairy industry in Afghanistan. Families may own a cow for personal needs, but the cows are malnourished and give 500 to 800 pounds of milk per year.
He worked with several government agencies and a private businessman from Jalalabad who wanted to start a 500-cow commercial dairy along with a milk processing plant in his hometown near Jalalabad.
The businessman leased a semi-demolished former government dairy farm built and operated by the Soviet Union during their occupation of Afghanistan. The dairy had 180 head of Soviet black and white cattle when he was there. A mature cow weighed 575 pounds.
He was to assist with redesigning the dairy facilities, balance proposed feed rations and demonstrate proper milking procedures.
The Afghanis were shocked when he weighed how much grain and alfalfa a cow would eat to produce 40 to 50 pounds of milk a day.
The cattle were fed a limited diet of chopped straw and dried sorghum while he was there.
The dairy employed 40 men, including hand milkers, field workers and security guards. Armed guards keep watch over the farm's 325 acres in an attempt to keep the poor from stealing the crops. Employees were paid $2 a day. The average income in Afghanistan was $50 a year in 2006, Gottschalk said.
The dairy did set up a processing facility to make individual-serving size cartons of ultra-pasteurized milk, he said.
While in the country, Gottschalk traveled to the region near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border with a couple of Afghani businessmen who wanted his professional opinion on investing in a commercial dairy.
He was instructed to say nothing on the way at the checkpoints, no matter how many times a gun was put to his face. He was to leave his money, wristwatch and passport --anything that would identify him as an American -- at the United Nations Guest House. He was to walk behind the Afghani people should they step on a land mine.
"I breathed a sigh of relief when this day trip was over as it proved to be without incident and ultimately safe," Gottschalk writes.
Gottschalk showed several pictures of old equipment from the Soviet era some 30 years ago during his presentation. He said he only saw one tractor in Afghanistan and he didn't see it running.
He showed a photo of a farmer plowing with oxen and a primitive plow. Nothing is mechanized, he said.
He has been asked to return to Afghanistan, but has declined the invitation. He is, however, on a waiting list to go to Pakistan.
His goal is to help impoverished people achieve a better nutritional and economic position and by that make the world a little bit better.
Gottschalk went to Poland in 1992, Estonia in 1993, Uganda, Africa, in 1995 and 1997 and Siberia, Russia in 2004 and 2005.
He was one of the first Americans in Poland after the fall of communism. He accompanied his wife, Astrid, to Uganda where women tend the dairy cows. When he began speaking, the women all turned their backs. It was many days into their assignment before Astrid convinced the women to listen to him.
When they returned to the same region of Africa two years later, half their students had died of AIDS.
Paraphrasing the proverb, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime," Gottschalk says "teach a person to fish and they are less likely to bomb us."