ABSTRACT
Most crops are raised for food (for humans and livestock) but are also employed for fiber, industrial products, and production of ornamental plants. The wild ancestors of crops and livestock harbor invaluable genes and are the subject of intensive conservation activities. Wise agricultural policies could reduce dependence on the small number of major crops and livestock species by encouraging the production and consumption of a greater variety of sustainable food species. Most humans are disrespectful of, indeed quite hostile to, insects, which make up most of the world's species. The product is nutritious and represents a far more sustainable source of protein for human consumption than currently grown mammalian livestock. Animal tissues, principally semen, ova (unfertilized eggs), and embryos, of very valuable livestock are now often stored cryogenically in liquid nitrogen, and some plant gene banks today similarly conserve apical meristems of some species.
