RIP honeycreeper birds, Mariana fruit bat of Guam, Bachman’s warbler and the rest of the 21 species lost to extinction in the US alone in 2023. They join a growing list of animals in the process of disappearing forever.

Scientists have declared that we are in the midst of the earth’s sixth mass extinction, this one driven by human activities such as unsustainable uses of land, water and energy, and climate change. All of the other mass extinctions were natural phenomena, and the last one was 65.5 million years ago.

While there is plenty of blame to share among us humans, it would be foolish to ignore the role of agriculture in the demise of so many animal and plant species across the globe. Close to 40 percent of the planet’s land and 70 percent of its freshwater is used by agriculture.

But in recent decades, farmers, ranchers, and preservationists are individually, and in some cases collectively, working together to save rare and endangered animal species by using their products to feed, nourish, educate and clothe people. It’s counterintuitive perhaps to work—and in some cases, eat—animals as a way of saving them. But this strategy is not just ensuring the long-term health of species, it is creating opportunities to preserve traditional culture, farm greener, prepare for more extreme weather and eat healthier.

Famille Joly

The Loire’s Famille Joly has long held legendary status among wine lovers, largely for the quality of its biodynamic wines, and its leader Nicolas Joly’s unerring commitment to the authentic expression of the estate’s La Coulée de Serrant wines and vineyards.

This devotion goes much deeper than “just” committing to creating wines with minimal intervention in the vineyards and cellar.

“Winemaking should not be surgery,” says Joly. “Everything should happen in the vineyard. … When you feel the music come to you when you taste the wine, you know that the work you did in the vineyard is coming through.”

That work is meticulous, complex, and strategic. It even includes the specific type of manure Joly selects to fertilize his vineyards. In a bid to be totally true to his terroir—a French winemaking concept that aims to impart a combination of natural factors including soil, climate and sunlight to the glass—he’s working with a herd of indigenous cattle to “produce” compost.

“We brought in a herd of 10 Nantaise cows and a bull for their compost,” he explains. “But we also decided to use them because they are endangered. These cows are an essential part of our region’s landscape and history.”

These cows are an essential part of our region’s landscape and history.

And because they are indigenous to the region, their manure, arguably, will deliver more authentic terroir.

The Bovine Nantaise Are Docile, Flexible

The Nantaise are originally from the Loire and southern Brittany, and they have largely lived in coastal areas, according to the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity. This medium-sized breed (between 1,325 pounds for a female and 1,875 pounds for a male) is typically used for milk and meat, and is suited for humid and poor conditions. The Nantaise can thrive in regions where other breeds struggle, and they are notably docile. There are only around 900 cattle still in existence in all of France, and their presence in other countries is thought to be nonexistent.

Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg has been preserving rare breeds of cattle, horses, oxen, sheep and fowl since 1986. The focus, Colonial Williamsburg’s livestock husbander Darin Durham explains, is central to Colonial Williamsburg’s overarching mission of showing people what 18th-century colonial British American life looked like. The program defines “rare” as having fewer than 1,000 animals registered annually in North America.

“But the rare breeds program also preserves genetic material that will otherwise be gone forever,” says Durham. “Many of the breeds we work with are more suitable for self-sustaining regenerative agriculture in a variety of climates. They may be slower growers, but they often have great grass conversion or can tolerate extreme weather better.”

While farms across the world used to include a multitude of animal breeds, many of which were indigenous to the region, in recent decades, certain breeds selected for desirable characteristics such as high milk production or fast growth now dominate the landscape.

The composition of America’s cattle is 72 percent either straight or high-percentage British, with 17 percent primarily British crossbred, according to a recent survey conducted by Beef Magazine. That leaves just 11 percent of Continental or other breeds. (Of that 72 percent, 73 percent are Angus cattle, 15 percent are Red Angus and nine percent are Hereford).

Poultry populations are similarly uniform, with the Food and Agriculture Organization warning that up to 50 percent of poultry breeds are at risk of extinction.

“You never know what’s going to happen,” says Durham. “Many of the animals we work with are suitable for niche agricultural purposes, but you also never know when we might need that genetic material for science.”

There’s also the increasing prevalence of diseases that are entering our food supply. Just recently, the FDA noted that one in five retail milk samples tested positive for fragments of bird flu. Having a diverse genetic pool to draw from makes extinction-level disease spread less risky, researchers say.

The Rare Breeds program has about 150 animals on-site at one time, with many being either rented out to other farmers who want to breed them, or sold to buyers who plan to utilize the animals on their farm.

Nankin Bantam Chickens Are Foundational, Broody Breeds

The Nankin is believed to be one of the oldest bantam chickens in existence, and is foundational to most other bantam breeds. Durham notes that, in addition to being stunning farm eye-candy with copper-colored bodies and green and black tail feathers, they are docile and gentle, which makes them easy to care for. They are also broody, which makes them useful for hatching the eggs of pheasants and quails at larger operations.

American Milking Devons Make Great Cheese and Milk, Work the Land

American Milking Devons were the “trucks and tractors” of American farms before the advent of the internal combustion engine. In addition to being strong, and willing to work the land, Durham says that these cows offer milk with unusually high butterfat content, which makes them favorites among cheesemakers. They also provide quality meat and fatten up on grass well without supplements.

The Leicester Longwool Sheep Is a Triple Trophy

Animals that can be utilized for meat, milk and wool are rare, but the Leicester Longwool Sheep delivers, says Durham. The sheep are docile, easy to feed, are happy to graze on grass with good meat conversion and offer up to 10 inches of beautiful, ringleted wool.

Vermont Wagyu

“When I tried my first Wagyu burger in Montana, my reaction was the same as everyone else’s: ‘Wow,’” recalls Dr. Sheila Patinkin, a University of Chicago-trained pediatrician-turned-Vermont Wagyu founder.

Patinkin grew up around cows her whole life, and she found the opportunity to grow the market for Wagyu beef in the US on the 350-acre farm she purchased in 2006 irresistible—not that it was easy or straightforward.

“It was not possible to buy Wagyu cattle in the US at that point, so, instead, I purchased 20 embryos and had them implanted in Angus surrogates,” she says. “We ended up with 10 males and [10] females, which is pretty good.”

Growth of the market—and the cattle—was slow. It takes about three years for Wagyu to be ready for market, more than a year longer than Angus. And Patinkin had to pound the pavement to get any buyers.

But then she hooked Michael Anthony, executive chef at the Michelin-starred Gramercy Tavern in New York. By the time COVID hit, Patinkin had scaled up to 70 animals. What could have been a business-ending crash turned into an opportunity, thanks to her four children who shared her nascent e-commerce site with their email lists.

“It was amazing,” says Patinkin. “We actually ran out of inventory because word began to spread on the quality of what we had, and people were getting so interested in home cooking and high-quality food when everyone was stuck at home.”

Today, she typically has around 150 heads at any one time and e-commerce has turned into a mainstay of her business.

In the US, the presence of Wagyu cattle also contributes some much-needed diversity to the ranks of cows in the US. Until 1976, there were no Wagyu cattle in the country, and today, 100-percent Wagyu cattle still only account for 0.029 percent of the country’s 89.9 million cattle.

But Patinkin thinks that the Wagyu farmers, under current US labeling rules, are unable to leverage and fully recognize the rarity of the product they’re selling. As a rancher herself and as the president of the American Wagyu Association, she is spearheading a Wagyu transparency labeling initiative.

“We need to do a better job of identifying our heritage on labels,” says Patinkin. “There’s a lot of half-Wagyu beef out there that is selling at a discount, and doesn’t taste like my 100-percent Wagyu. It confuses the market. Why would a consumer spend double for mine if they don’t know it’s more authentic? And if they taste the other and think it’s 100-percent Wagyu, they won’t understand why it’s not as good as they’ve been told.”

Patinkin hopes that she and the roughly 1,700 other members of the American Wagyu Association will soon have a label that clarifies what they are selling, along the lines of certified Angus labels.

Wagyu Cattle Are Docile, Calve Easily, and Command Much More in the Market

The term refers to four breeds of cattle that hail from Japan, two of which (Japanese Black and Japanese Red) are available in the US. The first appearance of American Wagyu commercially became available in the 1990s amid a bid to produce super-premium beef. Wagyu beef also has a more heart- and cholesterol-friendly balance of fats than other beef products. In addition to offering superior flavor, nutrition and texture that make the product highly desirable and commands up to 50 percent more than comparable beef counterparts, Wagyu are docile, have good grass conversion, tolerate extreme weather better than other common domestic cattle breeds and calve easily, says Patinkin.

Currently, more than 44,000 species are threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Perhaps if we placed commercial value on more of these species, we would all value them more, and preserve them for the generations to come.

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Geary

3 months ago

I think the article is valuable in describing an approach for preserving heirloom/specialized breeds and varieties. Wagyu, for example, is a breed of cattle. The first sentence, however, lists various species of animals, not breeds. More importantly, even if there were human uses for these species, human protection efforts may be ineffective. The Hawaiian honeycreepers, for example, are a good case: the feathers of a few of those species were used by the Polynesian (indigenous) Hawaiians for decorative arts and “crafts.” Kings imposed a restriction requiring catch and release, among other measures. But habitat destruction/ alteration and introduction of mosquitos… Read more »

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