Conservation of genes and culture: historical and contemporary issues

The paper examines the reasons for and consequences of lost domestic animal biodiversity. The origin of domestic poultry and livestock diversity is reviewed from the first center of domestication in the Middle East during the Neolithic Revolution. Accompanied by domestic animals and birds, mankind spread worldwide over the last 12,000 yr, thereby increasing domestic animal biodiversity via adaptation to many environmental challenges, resulting in about 6,000 breeds within only a small number of species used for food. During the last 50 yr of the 20th century, about 20% of these livestock and poultry breeds have become extinct, and the remainder is at risk. This erosion of unique biodiversity is due to changes in farm practices developed in the West that involve mono-breed, intensive farming systems that are unsustainable. The close symbiotic relationship of Homo sapiens and domestic animals and birds over millennia is changing, resulting in a lost understanding of sustainability among urban communities. The single-minded focus on profit is resulting in the loss of the historic European and Western culture based on Judeo-Christian values. Respect for biological boundaries, community, and quality of life are disappearing in Western society. Concurrently, farming is now only a business. The principal decision makers are no longer farmers but business executives, who are remote from the farm. The emphasis on cheap food is the principal driver that leads to increased competition and unsustainable practices. Farmers as well as their breeds are disappearing. The advent of gene technology and transgenic livestock is reviewed with the prospect of extensive manipulation of animal form and function and abuse of genotypes as animals are redesigned, suffer, and lose all dignity. By handling its animals in this manner, high Western civilization is losing its culture and values and becoming simply the top animal species by using its power selfishly. The case is presented that the extinction of animals indicates an urgent need to conserve historic Western culture before it, too, is lost.