Blog #2 Oct. 2016
There is an exciting potential for climate change by putting carbon into the soil.
“The soil of our planet contains about three times the amount of carbon that’s stored in vegetation and twice the amount stored in the atmosphere. Since two thirds of the earth’s landmass is grassland, additional CO2 storage in the soil via better management practices, even on a small scale, could have a huge impact. Grasslands are also home to two billion people who depend on livestock…Both these animals and their human stewards could be mobilized for carbon action.” ( Kris Olson, “The Soil Will Save Us” 2014)
Today the great majority of people think that lands are changed to desert by too many livestock overgrazing and trampling before vegetation can recover. This belief, according to Savory, is just as mistaken as the belief a few hundred years ago, that the sun rotated around the earth.
As a young man in Africa, Savory learned the hard way, how livestock, with planned, intensive grazing, can be the tool to create vibrant, productive soil, rather than to destroy it.
Back in the 60’s he was the man in charge of a huge, recently established, National Park on the Botswana border and degradation and desertification in the park soon became huge problems. He determined that the cause was too many elephants. Park officials concurred and his plan to reduce the elephant population was implemented. 40,000 elephants were killed. But the problem just became worse. He realized that he had made huge mistake and dedicated his life to finding the solution—to learning how nature creates and to learn why man’s intervention so often destroys.
Savory was uniquely qualified for this mission or task, because of his background in biology, his willingness to question the standard wisdom, and most of all because of his motivation, having made such a huge blunder with the elephants.
In looking at the situation he saw that everywhere where lands, especially brittle, moisture deprived lands, were deteriorating and becoming deserts, both when conventionally farmed and when put aside as protected parks.
Why?
He came to the conclusion that nature’s way of preserving and building soil was by way of the movement of large herds, of larger animals, prey animals that moved in tight herds for their own protection. For example, the huge herds of Wildebeests that annually migrate around the Serengeti park, for millennia, creating some of the world’s lushest savannas.
He studied the Frenchman, Andre Voisin, who studied and wrote about the advantages of planned rotation of pasture lands. Savory also learned from a South African rancher,/botanist, John Acocks, who developed a grazing system, mimicking nature, that helped heal the land. Acocks concluded that the actual number of grazing animals was not that important. He made the statement that Africa was “overgrazed and understocked.”
Based on this information and a an examination of a farm that was following Acock’s guidance, Savory saw that livestock could simulate the effects of wild herds on the soil. Working with his rancher friends, it took many failed attempts, but eventually, recognizing the vital role of timing, success began to be achieved.
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