ABSTRACT

According to Wadhwa and Bakshi (2013), by 2050 the world will need to feed an additional 2 billion people and require 70 per cent more meat and milk. This increasing future demand for animal products will impose a huge demand on feed resources. Sustainability of feed production systems is being challenged due to biophysical factors, which include food - fuel - feed competition, on-going global warming and frequent and drastic climatic vagaries, as well as increased competition for arable land and non-renewable resources. The keys to sustainable livestock development include efficient use of feed resources, and enlargement of the feed resource base through a quest for novel feed resources, particularly, those not competing with human food.

The challenge of getting edible food from a poisonous material has been reported even in the Bible. Moses in Exodus 15: 23 – 25 healed bitter water and it became sweet and healthy, Elisha healed a water source causing death and barrenness and it became pleasant in II Kings 2: 19 – 22. Most Christians and Bible students quote the riddle of Sampson in Judges 14: 14 – “From the eater came something to eat, from the strong, came something sweet.” This aptly captures my theme – “KillersTo Edibles”. The eater and the strong are the killers from which we get something to eat and something sweet which are the edibles. Also, in II Kings 4: 38 – 41, a pot of stew prepared from wild gourd (a poisonous herb) caused death among the guild of prophets but Elisha processed it into harmless nutritious pot of stew for the relish and nourishment of the prophets.