The remnants of the feed and additives in animal products in industrial livestock breeding lead to serious health problems in people who consume these products. The alternative, organic breeding based on pastures and chemical free feeds is a less dangerous and more ethical production system. In organic system animals should be fed with organic forage. According to the legislations, it is necessary to put fields where organic forage plant breeding will be carried out, into a transition period of two years; this issue is one of the most important challenges in transition to organic livestock breeding. On the other hand, high costs of inspection and certification services also obstruct small scale enterprises to pass to organic livestock breeding. There is a great organic livestock breeding potential in Turkey. Particularly regions of Black sea, East and Southeast Anatolia where rich natural resources and dominant native breeds exist, are convenient territories for organic cattle breeding. Ovine breeding is carried out with new strong local races resistant to diseases and animals are mostly fed with stubble based forage at meadows and pastures. Therefore, ovine breeding provides more extensive opportunities for transition to organic breeding. In this study, the history and status of organic agriculture in the world and Turkey, the development of organic agriculture legislation, the basic principles of organic livestock breeding, the basic organic breeding principles for cattle and ovine, and the opportunities of transition to organic livestock breeding in Turkey are analyzed.