In a story as old as farming itself, livestock breeds regularly come to be and cease to exist in the ongoing quest to feed more people. It’s not that extinction of any breed is the desired outcome, nor is its passing callously unnoticed. Indeed, many farmers see the value in protecting legacy and purebred breeds even as they pursue better genetic blends to increase food yields as a matter of necessity. From this duality come a number of breed and species protection programs. But many of those cut both ways; sometimes helping the farmers and other times threatening their livelihood.
It’s not just a desire to maintain a balance in nature that drives these genetic preservation efforts, although that is a practical undertaking as well, but an acknowledgment of the value in keeping extensive genetic material available in order to meet future challenges.
Programs such as the Smithsonian & SVF Foundation Biodiversity Project work diligently to this very practical end. As the name suggests, this project is a collaborative effort between the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) and the SVF Foundation.
“The ‘Smithsonian & SVF Foundation Biodiversity Project’ is a terrific example of how a public and private partnership can address a formidable world challenge,” said Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough in an article in Smithsonian Science. “By bringing together the cutting-edge scientific expertise of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute with SVF’s extensive genetic material, we will gather more information on rare and endangered heritage breeds to make a lasting impact on global biodiversity.”
“Heritage breeds of livestock carry valuable and irreplaceable traits such as resistance to disease and parasites, heat tolerance, mothering ability and forage utilization,” continues the writer of that article. “Protecting the genetics and traits of these breeds will help ensure genetic diversity, which could protect the global food chain.”
Both groups bring unique skills to the effort. The SCBI brings “scientists who are leaders in applying advanced biomedical approaches, including assisted reproductive technologies and germplasm cryopreservation, for enhancing the demographic and genetic diversity of endangered species.” The SVF Foundation, on the other hand, “preserves and manages germplasm (semen, embryos, blood and cells) from rare and endangered breeds of food and fiber livestock, elevating rare-breed conservation through biomaterials cryopreservation. The SVF Foundation will be able to reawaken a breed, with its full genetic diversity, within one generation.”
This project has no foreseeable downside and poses every conceivable advantage to farmers worldwide.
But there are other efforts afoot that pose a conundrum for farmers. These tend to focus more on preserving species we generally don’t think of as traditional livestock, e.g. deer and bison, but have historically been a source of food for humans nonetheless.