U.N.: Globalization threatens livestock

Some new victims of globalization as the world's corporations spread their tentacles.

The United Nations says around 20 percent of domestic animal breeds are at risk of extinction, with a breed lost each month, because of globalization.

The reason, the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said, is livestock markets favor high-output breeds over a multiple gene pool that could be vital for future food security.

"Maintaining animal genetic diversity will allow future generations to select stocks or develop new breeds to cope with emerging issues, such as climate change, diseases and changing socio-economic factors," said the secretary of FAO's Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Jose Esquinas-Alcazar.

But, of more than 7,600 breeds in the FAO global database of farm animal genetic resources, 190 have become extinct in the past 15 years and 1,500 more are deemed at risk of extinction according to a draft report. The final version is expected in September.

Some 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have been lost over the last five years, according to the draft presented to FAO headquarters last week.

Have we humans found a way to undue evolution because it sure looks like it? Just asking.

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