Protecting livestock biodiversity

This week, the Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is meeting to discuss something most of us never think about: the world’s livestock genetic resources. Participants from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, NGOs, and representatives for pastoralists and livestock farmers are meeting in preparation for the First International Technical Conference on Animal Genetic Resources this September in Interlaken, Switzerland. At that time, the FAO will release its third edition of The State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and, it says, “adopt a Global Plan of Action for Animal Genetic Resources.”

Why are all these experts worried about livestock diversity? Consider the following: 190 of the more than 7,600 breeds listed in FAO's Global Databank for Farm Animal Genetic Resources have become extinct in just the past 15 years, and another 1,500 are considered "at risk" of extinction. And at least 60 breeds of cattle, goats, horses, pigs, and poultry have been lost since 2002—in other words, one breed is being lost each month.

Thanks to highly intensive production methods (including factory farming) and the globalization of livestock markets, the industry relies more heavily on a shrinking number of animal breeds. More than one third of the global pig supply is supplied by a very few commercial breeds, says FAO, and just a “handful” of commercial chicken breeds provide 85 percent of the world's eggs. In the dairy industry, high-output dairy cattle breeds—like the familiar Jersey cow—account for 75 percent of the world's milk supply.

Why is this a concern? There are still milk, cheese, and hamburgers in the grocery store, right? But relying on just a few breeds diminishes humanity's ability to respond to disease, disasters, and—most acutely—climate change. For the 1 billion people in the developing world who depend on cows, pigs, chickens, goats, and other animals to sustain their livelihoods, a strong livestock genetic base ensures that they will eat today and their children will eat tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the pressure to increase production in the world's poorest regions is forcing livestock herders to abandon traditional breeds—those that they have bred for centuries for certain traits like resistance to disease or the ability to withstand harsh climates—in favor of high-producing commercial varieties. These are animals that can produce a lot of meat or milk, but aren’t acclimated to developing country conditions and, because of their frailty, must rely on commercial feeds, antibiotics, and other inputs of industrial agriculture.

But NGOs, such as GRAIN and the League for Pastoral Peoples (LPP), are working hard to ensure that livestock keepers' rights are on the agenda next week, as well as in September. According to GRAIN, corporate agribusinesses have “dramatically increased their control over the livestock industry in recent years,” and this corporate control makes the food system “dangerously dependent on a few corporations and a vulnerable, narrowing genetic base.” The groups also warns that the vast knowledge attained by livestock keepers over millennia is quickly disappearing and that there is an urgent need for pastoralists and livestock keepers to “reclaim their rights.”

Before and at the meeting in Interlaken, GRAIN and LPP hope to raise awareness and appreciation of the importance of livestock to people’s lives and to figure out ways to “best address priorities for the sustainable use, development and conservation of animal genetic resources.”