By the National Research Council
Small Animals with Big Futures Rabbits, guinea pigs, iguanas, and rodents, as well as tiny cattle, pigs, and sheep, have many economic and environmental advantages over their larger counterparts. Traditional livestock such as cattle and sheep require a lot of land, which is in creasingly precious in developing coun tries. Breeding micro livestock-smaller animals not traditionally used as live stock-could be the solution. Like computers, livestock is getting smaller and becoming more "personal." Conventional "mainframes," such as cat tle, are too large for the world's poorest people; they require too much space and expense. "Miniframes," such as the con ventional breeds of sheep and goats, have an increasingly important role to play. But tiny, "user-friendly"species-called "micro livestock" -could become a major food source in developing countries. These
small, hardy animals deserve much more attention. There are two types of microlivestock. One consists of extremely small forms of conventional livestock-such as cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The other consists of species that are inherently small-poul try, rabbits, and rodents, for instance. Microlivestock are important because the developing world's animal production is only a fraction of what it should be. Throughout Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the poor eat almost no meat, milk, or eggs-the most nutritious foods. It is estimated, for example, that in Mexico 25 million campesinos cannot afford meat. In poor countries, even the middle class THE FUTURIST
May-June 1992
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