by Lawrence Alderman

About the author: Lawrence Alderman is a consultant specializing in animal breeding and the founder and president of Rare Breeds International, an organization that coordinates international genetic conservation efforts.

The loss of plant genetic material—from the destruction of the rainforest, disappearance of valuable medicinal plants, and the decline of old domesticated varieties of vegetables and other plants—is well publicized, and most people are aware of the inexorable advance of overwhelming monoculture. Less well known is the loss of animal genetic diversity, which has equally serious implications for efficient and sustainable systems of food production.

Many breeds have become extinct not because they lacked genetic merit, but because they were unfashionable or evolved in remote areas. It is precisely because they were not in the mainstream...