The livestock and poultry industry has always had a malleable nature as regional markets shrink and swell according to global trends and consumer preferences. Since the 1960s, global agriculture has been in the throes of massive restructuring. The scale of these changes is massive when we take into consideration the surge in livestock output as beef production more than doubled during the last eighty years, while chicken meat production skyrocketed by a factor of nearly 10 during the same period. A key contributor to this surge is the substantial increase in both the number of animals and overall productivity. Carcass weights, a critical indicator of productivity, witnessed a notable uptick with chicken and beef cattle experiencing around 30% growth from the early 1960s to the mid-2000s. Pigs followed suit with a 20% increase. Meanwhile, camels and sheep saw more modest gains of approximately 5% in carcass weights per head. These production shifts have not occurred in isolation. The agricultural landscape has been dynamically altered as both arable land and pastures expanded considerably since the 1960s, although at slowing rates. Large-scale forest conversions in regions like the Amazon Basin, Southeast Asia, and Central and West Africa have been met with an increase in forest areas due to agricultural land abandonment in Eurasian boreal forests as well as parts of Asia, North America, Latin America and the Caribbean. The livestock industry has also had to adapt to cater to increasingly globalized diets. The rise of supermarkets, particularly in countries like China, India and Vietnam, has fueled a 20% annual growth in retailing. This trend is expected to persist as urban consumers drive demand for more processed foods. As a result, agribusiness exerts a growing influence in shaping the future of the livestock sector. Growing population and changing dietary preferences will remain the big driving forces in the sector.