A CALL TO PRESERVE TRADITIONAL LIVESTOCK

A warning this week from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) about the loss of genetic resources in agriculture. Basically because we are all consuming more livestock products, farmers and agri-businesses are turning to those breeds that produce the most meat, milk and eggs. This means that many traditional breeds are losing out and in some cases becoming extinct. Indeed 84 breeds of domestic farm animal have become extinct in the last seven years, say FAO - that is one every month, and 20 per cent of the world’s cattle, goat, pig, horse and poultry breeds are in danger of annihilation.

This matters of course because once a breed is lost the genetic resources are lost too. Quite apart from the matter of taste - many of the traditional breeds produce better quality products because of their slow growing nature - genetic diversity is needed for cross-breeding to meet new demands and circumstances that are now not foreseen.

I have always been a great fan of traditional or 'rare' breeds. We used to keep Norfolk Blue chickens that laid lovely brown eggs with bright orange yolks. Not quite in the industrial quantities that modern hybrid hens are bred to produce, but a lot better tasting. We find that the traditional breeds of pig - Tamworths, Saddlebacks, Gloucester Old Spots, for example - also taste better, especially if they have been slow-reared in outdoor conditions.

In Europe and North America the displacement of traditional breeds is now almost complete in mainstream agriculture. Since the mid-twentieth century, a few high-performance breeds, usually of European descent – including Holstein-Friesian (by far the most widespread breed, reported in at least 128 countries and in all regions of the world) and Jersey cattle; Large White, Duroc and Landrace pigs; Saanen goats; and Rhode Island Red and Leghorn chickens – have spread throughout the world.

But now, say FAO, they are crowding out traditional breed in many developing countries, even when conditions may not be fully suited to their rearing. In Vietnam, for example, the percentage of indigenous sows has declined from 72 percent of the total population in 1994 to only 26 percent in 2002. Of the 14 local Vietnamese breeds, five are vulnerable, two in a critical state and three are facing extinction. In Kenya, introduction of the Dorper sheep has caused the almost complete disappearance of pure-bred Red Maasai sheep.

The FAO is less sure of its ground when it comes to what should be done. It has called for improved conservation programmes and says that these statistics are a 'wake-up' call - as indeed they are. But merely stressing the need to bolster global food supply by maintaining and deploying a wide array of vital and irreplaceable genetic resources is not likely to persuade a hard-pressed farmer in the developing world not to sire his traditional dairy cows with a Friesian bull.

Still, if you have any better ideas, I am sure that the Rome based FAO will be very pleased to hear from you.

Posted by Fennie Somerville