The collective purpose of these instruments is to establish the use of feedback mechanisms that ensure that the use of livestock is consistent with overall social objectives. Within an enabling policy framework, a wide range of available technologies can be employed while others still need to be developed. Their purpose is not simply to reduce the environmental damage by reducing the polluting load, but also to enhance and save natural resources, through the use of livestock, and to turn waste into useful products. The previous section analyzed the major environmental contributions and losses attributable to livestock, and the fundamental pressures that drive various systems into dis-equilibrium with the environment. The symptoms are manifold and so are the causes.
Economists refer to such a phenomenon as a market failure .
Problems associated with implementing this principle are not easily overcome. It begins with the need to quantify environmental damage because, as we have seen, interactions are complex and actors not easily identified. It continues with the need to translate these effects into monetary terms. Policies must then be designed to redress the externalities. This results in a redistribution of income.