Holistic management of ruminant animals on pasture is a vital part of the solution to sequestering carbon in soils and reversing climate change.
There has been a lot of blame placed on cattle for green house gas (GHG) emissions. While cows do produce methane as a natural byproduct of their digestion (as do all ruminant animals and decomposing plant matter), in mainstream media and vegetarian press little attention has been given to the CARBON SEQUESTERING benefits of properly raised livestock. There are farmers, ranchers and researchers who are showing that properly raised animals benefit grasslands which pull CO2 from the atmosphere, putting it back into the soil where it belongs. Industrial agriculture, whether it be the raising of animals or plants, is damaging to the health of humans and the environment. “Meatless Mondays” or reducing or eliminating the eating of animals does not pull carbon from the atmosphere, but holistic management of grasslands using cattle and other grazing livestock does.
Environmental Issues / Using Livestock to Improve Climate:
Weston A. Price Foundation articles:
- Sustainable Meat: No Myth – Joel Salatin
- Only Livestock Can Save Us – Allan Savory
- An Inconvenient Cow
- The Ethics of Eating Meat: A Radical View
- Time for a One-Eighty on Cows and Climate
- Splendor From the Grass
- It’s the Beef: Myths & Truths About Beef
Elsewhere on the web:
Video:
- Allan Savory’s TED Talk (video)
- Soil Carbon Cowboys (video)
- One Hundred Thousand Beating Hearts (video)
- The Soil Story – Kiss the Ground
- Carbon Sequestration—The Climate Change Solution That Virtually All Climate Activists Ignore
- The Nutritional Environment & Ethical Case for Regenerative Agriculture – Diana Rodgers
Environmental Issues / Using Livestock to Improve Climate:
- Emerging land use practices rapidly increase soil organic matter – Nature Communications volume 6, Article number: 6995 (2015)
- Allan Savory: How to fight desertification and reverse climate change – Ted Talk
- It’s Not the COW, it’s the HOW: New Study Shows Grass-fed Beef Can be a Carbon Sink
- The Least Harm Principle May Require That Humans Consume A Diet Containing Large Herbivores, Not A Vegan Diet
- The Missing Tool without Which Climate Change Cannot Be Addressed – Savory Institute
- Livestock’s Contributions to Climate Change: Facts and Fiction
- Clearing the Air: Livestock’s Contribution to Climate Change, Maurice E.Pitesky*Kimberly R.Stackhouse†Frank M.Mitloehner†
- Pleistocene Park – Restore high productive grazing ecosystems in the Arctic and mitigate climate change
- Savory Institute – Regeneration of the world’s grasslands through Holistic Management to address the global issues of desertification, climate change, and food and water insecurity.
- Roam Ranch
- Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems
- Defending Beef’s Issuu page (viewable journal articles and white papers in their entirety)
- Defending Beef’s Pinterest page (compilation of articles and videos, organized by topic)
- The Carbon Underground White Papers
- Make America Graze Again – Sustainable Dish
- Soil Carbon Restoration – Natural Organic Farmers Association, Massachusetts
- Tips for Carbon Sequestration – Natural Organic Farmers Association, Massachusetts
- How Grazing Cows Can Save the Planet, and Other Surprising Ways of Healing the Earth – Dr. Mercola
- Mob Grazing Produces Healthy Soil and Livestock
- Meat is Magnificent: Water, Carbon, Methane & Nutrition – Sustainable Dish
- How Much Feed Does It Take to Produce a Pound of Beef?
- It’s Not the COW, It’s the HOW: New Study Shows Grass-Fed Beef Can Be a Carbon Sink
- More protein, better protein
- Vertical Farms: Thermodynamic Nonsense
- Why Fake Burgers Make No Sense
- A climate change solution beneath our feet (WashPo piece by UC Davis)
- If you want to save the world, veganism isn’t the answer
- Can Dirt Save the Earth? (NYT piece by Moises Velasquez-Manoff)
- Doing What Works: Sloppy Science is Damaging Rangelands & Wildlife (article discussing why removing cattle from land isn’t the solution)
Books:
- Cows Save the Planet by Judith D. Schwartz – (book review)
- Defending Beef by Nicolette Hahn Niman
- Holistic Management, Third Edition: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment by Allan Savory
- Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture by Gabe Brown
Podcasts:
- RHR: The Impacts and Ethics of Eating Meat—with Diana Rodgers
- Episode 380 – Diana Rodgers – Eating Meat and Sustainability
- Sustainable Dish Episode 101: The Truth About Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Livestock Production with Frank Mitloehner
- Sustainable Dish Episode 100: Feeding the World with Regenerative Agriculture with Dr. Allen Williams
- Sustainable Dish Episode 97: Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing with Paige Stanley & Jason Rowntree
- Sustainable Dish Episode 95: The Vegetarian Myth with Lierre Keith
- Sustainable Dish Episode 90: Meat and Regeneration with Ronnie Cummins
- Sustainable Dish Episode 83: The Truth About Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Livestock Production with Frank Mitloehner
- Sustainable Dish Episode 82: Feeding the World with Regenerative Agriculture with Dr. Allen Williams
- Sustainable Dish Episode 65: Nikita Zimov – Bison to Save the World
- Sustainable Dish Episode 60: Adaptive Multi-Paddock Grazing with Paige Stanley & Jason Rowntree
- Sustainable Dish Episode 52: Kiss the Ground
- Sustainable Dish Episode 46: The Vegetarian Myth with Lierre Keith
- Sustainable Dish Episode 43: Russ Conser of The Grassfed Exchange
- Sustainable Dish Episode 41: Why Meat is NOT a Condiment with Nicolette Niman
- Sustainable Dish Episode 40: Economics, Energy & The Environment with Chris Martenson
- Sustainable Dish Episode 37: Live Cycle Assessments and Sustainability with Ruben Anderson
- Sustainable Dish Episode 31: The Ecological and Morals Arguments for Raising Animals to Eat with Joel Salatin
- Sustainable Dish Episode 27: Jack Kittredge & Carbon Soil Restoration
- How Grazing Cows Can Save the Planet, and Other Surprising Ways of Healing the Earth – Dr Mercola interviews Judith Schwartz
- How to Regenerate Soil Using Cover Crops and Regenerative Land Management – Dr Mercola interviews Gabe Brown
- How Animals Impact Regenerative Agriculture Efforts – Dr Mercola interviews Will Harris
- Pioneer in Sustainable Agriculture Shares His Vision of the Future of Food – Dr Mercola interviews Joel Salatin
- Regenerative Agriculture Is Saving Farmers, Ranchers, and the Environment from Financial and Ecological Failure – Dr Mercola interviews Dr. Allen Williams
- How Regenerative Agriculture Can Go Large-Scale, with the Help of Chickens – Dr Mercola interviews Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin
Wise Traditions Conference Recordings:
- 15969 – Keynote Address: The Politics of Beef – Joel Salatin, BA
- 17556 – The Integrated Farm – Alan Yegerlehner
- 17581 – Whole System Poultry – Harvey Ussery
- 20190 – Turning Sunlight into Animal Products – Peter J. Ballerstedt, PhD
- 20191 – The Farmstead Meatsmiths – Lauren and Brandon Sheard
- 22087 – Long Way on a Little
- 24458 – Teaming with Microbes: All you need to know about the Soil Food Web
- 24472 – Six Inches of Soil
- 26164 – Holistic Management: Promoting the Restoration of Grasslands to Save Civilization
- 26182 – How To Put NUTRIENT DENSITY Back Into Meat, Milk and Eggs??We Have Gone from Aurochs to Shmoos
- 26188 – Keynote: Hope for Humanity in Holistic Management
- 28096 – How to Make Your Farm Less Efficient
- 28119 – Red Meat and the Masculine Ideal Through History
- 28134 – Closing Ceremony: Restoring the Family Farm
- 29656 – #itsallaboutthegrass: The Story of Northstar Bison
- 29657 – Minerals, Vitamins, Salt and High Brix Forages-Rearing Livestock the Natural Way
- 31391 – Grazing for Nature: Creating Real Ecological Wealth Using Animals
