Abstract
The world is presently facing key challenges due to the population explosion, shortages in renewable sources of energy, and environmental problems. One important aspect of ecological intensification is the use and improvement of marginal lands and spaces often ignored, until now. Goats are known to be well adapted to scrubs, forage trees, and rangelands. Goats could contribute marginally, but significantly, to the growing demand for meat without using arable lands. Since 2000, there were 752 million goats globally, and goat livestock increased by 26.8% in 2010, accounting for 954 million heads. Goats are widespread due to their high adaptability to different environmental conditions and nutritional regimes, high productivity, and low maintenance cost. A significant growth in goat number was noticed in the period 2000~2010 in the Netherlands (+113.83%), in spite of the 9.75% decrease in EU-27. A cheese making goat farm in the Netherlands showed how it can survive in the one fifth size of the average. It may be a good model for the Korean goat industry since it uses seasonal breeding and results in reduced "goaty" flavor in the cheese.
