50 images Created 7 Feb 2018
WORLD FOOD: Heirlooms
Extinction threatens many species of wildlife on Earth, But our world is also facing another, different extinction: that of our heritage of domesticated livestock and crops. Without them and their rich biodiversity built up over 10,000 years of domestic breeding, we face great danger in feeding the world’s growing population -- with potentially catastrophic results.
Generations of painstaking breeding has produced supreme adaptations which allowed mankind to prosper in wildly differing environments and improbable places. Intensive agriculture (and its modern incarnation, industrial agriculture) striving for high yields inevitably casts aside diversity in favor of maximum uniformity and production. The danger comes when new diseases or climactic disasters threaten our food supply. Then the forgotten diversity becomes mankind’s last lifeline. And the possible loss would be more than just economic, but the loss one of mankind’s greatest legacies.
Around the world, scientists and farmers alike are racing to save our domesticated heritage for future generations depending on them to feed our ballooning world population. This is a story of that shared heritage in peril, of the people working to save it, and of the richness and beauty that has been entrusted to us.
Generations of painstaking breeding has produced supreme adaptations which allowed mankind to prosper in wildly differing environments and improbable places. Intensive agriculture (and its modern incarnation, industrial agriculture) striving for high yields inevitably casts aside diversity in favor of maximum uniformity and production. The danger comes when new diseases or climactic disasters threaten our food supply. Then the forgotten diversity becomes mankind’s last lifeline. And the possible loss would be more than just economic, but the loss one of mankind’s greatest legacies.
Around the world, scientists and farmers alike are racing to save our domesticated heritage for future generations depending on them to feed our ballooning world population. This is a story of that shared heritage in peril, of the people working to save it, and of the richness and beauty that has been entrusted to us.
![The Williams family raises Hill Radnor on Trawscoed Farm in the Brecon Beacons region of Wales. <br />
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Lyn Williams is seen looking over the sheep with the Welsh hills in the background. <br />
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The Hill Radnor is a breed of domestic sheep originating in the United Kingdom. Classified as one of the mountain (or upland) breeds, it is most common from Powys down to southwest Herefordshire and Monmouthshire. The Hill Radnor has a dense white fleece, with a light brown face and legs. Ewes are polled and rams are horned.[1] It is hardy and forages well, like many hill breeds. Hill Radnor ewes have good maternal instincts, and are sometimes crossed with lowland rams to yield market lambs or mules. Lambing percentages vary under different conditions but the breed can easily average around 155%.[2] The breed is listed as "vulnerable" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust of the U.K.](https://www.jimrichardsonphotography.com/img-get2/I0000ur4RRvRgpA0/fit=180x180/fill=/g=G0000QaL1We2j0i4/I0000ur4RRvRgpA0.jpg)
![Sheko cattle being kept, protected and studied at the ILRI farm in the Ghibe Valley of southern Ethiopia. The Sheko are endangered with only about 2,500 known to be alive. Their are valuable for their adaptation to climates where they are resistant to diseases carried by the tsetse fly. ILRI is studing and breeding the herd.<br />
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Sheko and Abigar and 31 of the Gurage were purchased from their natural habitats and introduced in to medium to high tsetse–trypanosomosis challenge area of the Ghibe valley<br />
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Trypanosomiasis or trypanosomosis is the name of several diseases in vertebrates caused by parasitic protozoan trypanosomes of the genus Trypanosoma. Approximately 500,000 men, women and children in 36 countries of sub-Saharan Africa suffer from human African trypanosomiasis which is caused by either Trypanosoma brucei gambiense or Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. The other human form of trypanosomiasis, called Chagas disease, causes 21,000 deaths per year [1] mainly in Latin America.](https://www.jimrichardsonphotography.com/img-get2/I0000fc463QlHVJs/fit=180x180/fill=/g=G0000QaL1We2j0i4/I0000fc463QlHVJs.jpg)
