This guy needs to get out of the ivory tower more often. Of course properly managed breeding stock produces surplus. Why was Abraham tending flocks, hello?
Incidentally, that is the entire premise of the Heifer Project. Giving a poor third-world family breeding stock can quickly lift them out of poverty by the standards of the place. And once a village has several families doing this it can lift the entire village.
I wholewheatedly agree. The only sustainable economy / society is one based on surplus. Agriculture is the basis for civilization, and for that matter, the basis of animal husbandry.