ABSTRACT
Vertebrate protein can be ranked, in very general terms, from the environmentally most desirable to the least desirable—that is, from fish, through small livestock, to large livestock. The use of livestock, to recycle small surpluses of grain beyond that which the individual farmer can sell or store can improve efficiency. However, beef cattle are creating major environmental problems because their production recently has become such a central feature of Western agriculture. Livestock production can be less of an environmental problem to the extent that fertilizer and biogas are produced from the manure. In India's AKUL project 240,000 farmers, roost of whom have only one cow or buffalo produce 700,000 liters of milk per day. In Asia and elsewhere in the wetter tropics, water buffalo fill a unique role in rice culture as work animals, milk producers, and converters of the relatively coarse, high silica-content rice straw, along with miscellaneous roadside vegetation.
