Technology to Improve Production Systems to Assure Animal Well-being and Economic Viability

It is instructive to examine the past when attempting to understand the present and anticipate the future. In this spirit I believe we can agree that developments in science and technology have had a great influence not only on the production and processing of food animals, but also on our dietary habits. Before these developments, domestication of plants and animals facilitated many changes in the food we eat and in its production. Domestication, a process recent in terms of human history, has greatly affected civilization. It allowed for development of industrial societies. These societies provide their citizens with many benefits as well as a myriad of problems associated with unprecedented population growth, increased urbanization, and an explosion in communications, which increase social contact among people.