Biologist Allan Savory made an international stir nine years ago with this provocative statement:
“Only livestock can save us.”
Due to climate change, land around the world is rapidly changing. Coastal areas are disappearing, hotter temperatures are changing what crops can be grown in many areas, and the weather itself is getting more extreme. Add to this, another worrying phenomenon: European Commission's World Atlas of Desertification states that three-quarters of the earth’s surface is either desert or in the process of becoming desert, and 90% may be considered “degraded” by 2050. In a Ted Talk that later proved to be controversial, Allan Savory claimed that he found a novel solution to save the planet.
In a presentation that has currently been viewed online over 5 million times, Savory begins with some poignant notes on his background. He explains that as a biologist in Africa in the 1950s, he determined that local desertification was the result of an elephant population that was more than what the land could bear. As a result, the government agreed to shoot 40,000 elephants. However, instead of improving the area, the process of desertification only increased. He called it the biggest blunder of his life.
In the years since then, Savory believes he found a new way to reverse desertification – with cows, sheep and other livestock. He points out that most of the world’s grasslands were created by large herds of grazing wildlife that migrated as they foraged. While most of these native animals have been eliminated by the human population, such as the buffalo on the Great Plains, their behavior can be mimicked in a process that he calls holistic grazing management.
While overgrazing has caused desertification across the planet, Savory notes that undergrazing land can also have negative effects, pointing to instances where desertification increased where land was left alone. Grazing wildlife maintained grasslands by ingesting plant material that would take time to die off and decompose, leaving behind natural fertilizer. They provided “green manure” by trampling vegetation while at the same time breaking up the algae crust on the surface of land with their hooves, allowing more moisture to be absorbed into the soil. The difference between these native herds and modern agricultural practices was that these animals continually moved on instead of remaining in one location. However, Savory believes these actions can be imitated with livestock.
The magnitude of the claims made in his Ted Talk earned Allan Savory a standing ovation. Savory believes desertification is a bigger contributor to climate change than fossil fuels – and if it continues unabated, he says, we will be unable to stop climate change even after we have eliminated the use of fossil fuels. However, Savory asserts that if holistic management practices are undertaken on even half the world’s grassland, we can take enough carbon out of the atmosphere to take us back to pre-industrial levels of CO2, while feeding far more people than we are currently capable of.
Savory’s speech in 2013 sparked intense debate in newspapers, online forums and in the research community. Detractors were quick to point out that Savory’s grazing methods were not supported in any peer-review papers, nor was the evidence he used in his presentation cited. Supporters insisted that the success the Savory Institute had already showcased stood as proof enough, having been in the process of restoring nearly 40 million acres of grassland on five continents. Because each ecosystem is unique, and holistic management takes into account each environment’s complexities, Savory insists it is natural that his work is not experimentally replicable by the scientific method. Critics have accused advocates of Savory’s ideas of simply wanting to believe that cattle are good for the planet. The other side insisted it was the vegans and vegetarians being stubborn in finding out their views were misguided.
Ten years later, it is still not clear if Savory’s form of planned grazing practices can alter the process of desertification on a global scale or be a major tool in combating climate change. All research contains a political element, and academic papers have increasingly appeared both in favor and against his claims. In the least, it has fulfilled some of the most basic tenets of science, which is to consider new ideas and spark further discussion. In a later video, Allan Savory points out that the most important discoveries come from the fringes of the scientific community instead of the establishment, suggesting that candlemakers could have never conceived of electricity.
Who knows? Maybe it’s the cow that saves us in the end.
