The Cattle industry at the turn of the 21st century

Its role and outlook

Abstract

"The 1980's are to be considered a decade of squandered opportunities in so far as a more equitable distribution of resources is concerned. The economic growth registered by certain industrialized countries in both the East and West ran parallel to the stagnation and recession afflicting Africa and Latin America,where poverty brought into sharper relief the gap between the rich and poor nations. " The problems of hunger and malnutrition are anything but solved and the food supply needed to meet increasing demand remains one of the key issues to be faced in the coming millennium.

Assessing against such a backdrop the economic importance and the role of the cattle industry in its varying social contexts and surveying its typologies, range of production practices and the particular development that distinguishes them are but part of a far more multifaceted and complex world than may, at first glance, seem to be the case. Indeed, understanding and defining this sector are complicated even further by the far-reaching changes that have occurred over the last few years in the agricultural policies and trade relations of the world's leading agricultural producers as well as by the rapid transformation in the political and social fabric of both the former command-economy countries and those of the southern hemisphere. Then, too, the ongoing evolution in the modern dietary regimen and in the consumption patterns of meat and dairy products puts any interpretation of what is happening in the sphere of wishful thinking and makes any attempt to define the development prospects for the cattle industry very debatable.