The increased demand of animal products, especially in emerging industrial economies, is a cause of great environmental concern. Livestock industry has marginalised to a production factor the millenary relationship established between man, animals and environment. Modern zoopolis providing animal products to the urban supermarkets and megacities are only one aspect of a more complex reality. Livestock provides income and food for subsistence to 80 percent of the world's poor, especially in the planet's dry and mountainous areas. From a global perspective, there is an urgent need to reintegrate livestock production as a public good. To cope with economic uncertainties and environmental changes, livestock resources must be sustainably preserved given their multi-functionality and unique capability to transform inedible matters into valuable food. Cows are not a threat. History proves them to be one of nature's biggest successes.
 
Pier Paolo Ficarelli
Technical Advisor Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ)
Eschborn, Germany
Pier-Paolo.Ficarelli@gtz.de