Efficiently managing livestock is crucial to rejuvenating the soil and trapping carbon in grassland and savanna ecosystems, which have evolved with ruminant herds and cover nearly 40% of the Earth's land surface. As environmental and climate advocates, it's our responsibility to consume food from these vital regions where farmers and ranchers cultivate nutritious produce. This includes animal products produced using ecological practices and vegetable and tree-based foods that integrate well with livestock management.
By Managing Holistically, the Land, Animals, Water, and World will be Healthier!
According to the University of Kentucky, "Holistic management is a method of managing the land in a way that mirrors nature. With less artificial inputs and actions, advocates believe that by managing holistically, the land, animals, water, and world will be healthier. Inputting less also has economic benefits."
From the Savory Institute (See its animation on Holistic Management below): "Holistic Management is so much more than just grazing. Holistic Management is a framework for managing complexity. The living world is comprised of beautifully and infinitely complex adaptive living systems – land, animals, people, plants, fungi, and more all interconnected and in relationship – and the way we manage decisions amidst these complex living systems matters."
Holistic Grazing Improves the Soil with Increased Microbe Activity & Organic Matter
Holistic Management International states that this system produces cleaner water, more wildlife habitats, increased food security, and less pollution.
Forty years ago, Allan Savory developed Holistic Management as an approach to help land managers, farmers, ranchers, environmentalists, and policymakers develop strategies for regenerating degraded landscapes and the livelihoods of the people living on them. According to Soil4Climate advisor Hunter Lovins, in an op-ed published in the Guardian, "In brief, he contends that grazing livestock can reverse desertification and restore carbon to the soil, enhancing its biodiversity and countering climate change."
Savory’s argument, which counters popular conceptions, is that more livestock rather than fewer can help save the planet through a concept he calls “holistic management.” In brief, he contends that grazing livestock can reverse desertification and restore carbon to the soil, enhancing its biodiversity and countering climate change. Monbiot claims that this approach doesn’t work and in fact does more harm than good. But his assertions skip over the science and on the ground evidence that say otherwise.
Fake Foods are not the Answer to Climate Stability and Food Justice.
In no scenario — none — is fake food, cultured meat, or industrial, glyphosate-sprayed, GMO soy-based and ocean dead zone-expanding, Imposter Foods, or similar patented Franken foods a solution for the environment or the climate.
On the contrary, they are precisely the convenient but wrong approach that exacerbates our reliance on chemicals and industry. Furthermore, and perhaps of tremendous significance, they disenfranchise, not empower, the small and medium-sized producers who are the heart and soul of every nation from time immemorial. All concerned citizens are responsible for pushing against this corporate assault on common sense.
