Performance gains in industrial livestock breeding have been extraordinary, yet come at a cost to animal welfare, the environment and agrobiodiversity. Recognising this, heritage breed farmers are going back to basics in pursuit of more just and ecologically sound multispecies futures.
Paper long abstract:
Since the 1940s, in pursuit of profitability the livestock industry has subjected farm animals to heavy selection pressure for productive traits. Performance gains have been extraordinary, as seen in hyper-prolific sows, double-muscled cattle, and broilers with dizzying growth and feed conversion rates. Yet, these gains have come at a cost to animal welfare, the environment and breed diversity. Heritage breed farmers offer an alternative to the productivist model, making holistic selection decisions within systems oriented around the biological basics, including the sunshine and sex shunned by industrial poultry producers. This focus on the old breeds and farming methods serves as both an ode to the past, and a safeguard for an uncertain future, as these hardy, old breeds embody agrobiodiversity and can survive and thrive in diverse, often marginal, environmental conditions without the energy intensive, and ecologically expensive, inputs required in industrial systems.