By 1994 it was all gone. The Lebanese and Syrian governments decided after the war that if they could get off one American blacklist, it was the drug production list. But frustration set in quickly, because none of the promised crop replacements proved viable. The inspiration was twofold. Two, given the farmers' increasing poverty, the cows might at least help feed their families.
Problems are manifold.
Feed, for example, is largely imported and expensive, so farmers give the cows hay. That lowers milk production, and the farmers blame the cows. This year has been particularly bad for milk prices - the consumption of meat and dairy products has fallen 30 percent because of the worldwide scares over various bovine diseases. Now he drives a school bus in the morning and spends the rest of the time with his cows. Burglaries have picked up, and someone killed a gas station attendant a few weeks ago in an armed robbery, the first in memory.