One of the most interesting and versatile characters in Antioquia was Antonio Jose Restrepo, whose life stretched long enough to make him a miner, entrepreneur, lawyer, congressman, diplomat, journalist, philosopher, philologist, writer, popular-song compiler, distinguished orator, free thinker, cattle rancher, coffee farmer, composer, poet, troubadour and bohemian.When Nito de Concordia, as he was nicknamed by some of his friends, was dedicated a little over a century ago to the livestock operations in the middle Magdalena region, today La Victoria (Caldas), he wisely analyzed the hardship of this risky activity which had no access roads, no finance nor technology, and which was ever exposed to the whims of the scarce cattle traders as well as to snake bites and to the frequent attacks by jaguars and cougars. Nevertheless, nothing concerned him more than cattle infectious-contagious diseases, especially bacillus anthracis, or anthrax, for which the country did not have any prevention methods back then. He intelligently left this claim to history: “the minister who founds four production facilities to create and cheaply sell the vaccine against anthrax will have done more good to this country than the one (minister) who sanctioned the Concordat…”I begin these notes by recalling the cited quotation because I am sure that a great part of our modern problems and challenges must be addressed with the spirit of greatness and the perseverance from the characters of the past; characters who endured harder situations with more difficult scientific tools and precarious technology. It is of special necessity to transmit to the newer generations of agricultural professionals, teachers and researchers, the love for the history of their land. Society does not only expect knowledge from its professionals, but also the competition of their services for the common well-being.The inhabitants of Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly well aware of the close relationship between quality of life and the environment, on the one hand, and the opportunities and limitations that the environmental considerations pose for the growth and the competitiveness of the economy, on the other.In a globalized market with ever increasing social and environmental demands, the disrespectful handling of the land and of the renewable resources can close markets and even threaten economic viability in livestock production.Rural competitiveness and sustainable development go hand in hand when production costs and collateral effects in mid and long-term production practices are analyzed.A recent analysis by the World Bank on eight crops that spread over an area of 1. 2 million hectares in Colombia pointed out that the use of pesticides ranges between 9 and 13 kilograms per hectare per year and that the use of fertilizers more than doubles that of countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, and Venezuela, and it is even higher than that in Mexico, Argentina, Panama and Peru. The production costs to farmers have increased several times during the