By Dr. Mercola
Judith Schwartz is a freelance writer and author of the book
Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring
Soil to Heal the Earth. I recently met Judy at a
conference held by
Allan Savory of the Savory Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
The Savory Institute helps farmers to holistically manage
their livestock in order to improve soil quality and heal the
environment. In fact, according to Savory, an African ecologist,
dramatically increasing the number of grazing livestock is the
only thing that can reverse desertification (when land turns to
desert).
This was Savory's first conference, and turned out to be
quite a memorable event. Judy has summarized a big portion of
what was presented in that conference in her book. But what made
her hone in on the issue of soil health to begin with?
Surprisingly, it all began with an investigation into the
economy. Around 2008, just before the economic downturn, she'd
started writing about the transition movement:
"One of the things that transition initiatives were
dealing with was local currencies," she says. "Looking
into local currencies kind of helped me understand how local
economies work and primed me to ask questions when the
economic downturn hit, like 'What is money? What is wealth?'
I was on that trajectory, writing about environmental
economics and new economics... Basically, it's the notion
that our economy can and should serve the people the planet
as opposed to the other way around.
This I fear is the scenario that we've kind of gotten stuck
in – that people and the planet, meaning all of our natural
systems, exist to serve the economy.
From that framework, I started looking at ecology and
observed the disconnect between our financial system and the
natural world, which just cannot be separate. That
disconnect doesn't work."
The Environmental Impact of Conventional Farming
This led her to learn more about soil health, economical land
use, and how modern agricultural practices affect our
environment.
For example, did you know that our modern agricultural system
is responsible for putting more carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere than the actual burning of fossil fuels?
Understanding this reveals an obvious answer to pressing global
problems.
There are only three places for carbon to go: land, air and
water. Our agricultural practices have removed massive amounts
of valuable carbon from land, transferring it into air and
water. By paying greater attention to carbon management, we have
the opportunity to make a dramatic difference in this area,
which is having major negative consequences to our agriculture,
and the pollution of our water and air.
As explained by Judy, early this past summer, concentrations
of atmospheric CO2 crossed the 400 parts per
million-threshold—the highest it's been in thousands of years.
According to an organization called 350.org, scientists believe
our CO2 levels need to be around 350 parts per million in order
to maintain favorable living conditions on earth.
Carbon management is a critical aspect of environmental
health and the growing of food.
That said, CO2 levels are not constantly or continuously
rising in a straight line. The level rises and falls, and this
is a clue to what's going on.
"Depending on the season, depending on how much
photosynthesis is happening, it dips down, and then goes up
again," Judy explains. "When we've got a lot of
plants, as we get towards the warmer part of the year, more
photosynthesis is happening, and the CO2 levels drop
slightly.
That's so important to know, because photosynthesis
is key to what we're talking about.
When I talk about bringing carbon back into the soil,
I'm talking about supporting and stimulating the process of
photosynthesis – in other words, growing more plants. Those
plants then take in the CO2. They make carbon compounds.
Those carbon compounds are drawn down, and they go into the
soil."
Sequestering carbon in the Earth's soils is a good thing.
There's actually more carbon in our world soils than in all
plants, including trees, and the atmosphere together. However,
due to modern agricultural methods, we've lost between 50 and 80
percent of the carbon that used to be in the soil... This means
there's plenty of "room" to put it back in.
"It's useful to understand that the notion of
bringing carbon back into the soil, one thing that it does
is withdraw carbon down from the atmosphere. That's hugely
important," Judy says.
"Carbon is the main component of soil organic matter.
That's the good stuff that you want in soil anyway for
fertility. It also absorbs water. When you have carbon-rich
soil, you also have soil that is resilient to floods and
drought. When you start looking at soil carbon, the news
keeps getting better and better."
The Importance of Holistic Herd Management
Another major factor that needs to be considered is the
management of livestock. Herds raised according to modern,
conventional practices contribute to desertification—turning
land into desert—which, of course, doesn't support plant life
and photosynthesis, thereby shifting the equation in the wrong
direction. When land turns to desert, it no longer holds water,
and it loses the ability to sustain microbial life and nourish
plant growth...
One of the reasons
Allan Savory has become so popular is his promotion of
holistic herd management, which causes desert areas to
convert back to grasslands that support plant life. As
explained by Judy:
"It occurred to him that the land needed the animals
in the same way that the animals needed the land. He began
to really observe how animals functioned on land, and came
to understand the really intricate dynamics, the system,
that had been naturally in operation.
Basically, when grazing animals graze, they're
nibbling on the grasses in a way that exposes their growth
points to sunlight and stimulates growth... Their trampling
[of the land also] did several things: it breaks any capped
earth so that the soil is aerated. It presses in seeds
[giving them] a chance to germinate, so you have a greater
diversity of plants. [Grazing herds] also press down dying
and decaying grasses, so that they can be better acted upon
by microorganisms in the soil. It keeps the decaying process
going. Their waste also fertilizes the soil."
This natural symbiotic relationship between animals, soils
and plants—where each benefits the other mutually—is a powerful
insight. And it's one that can be replicated with great benefit.
Besides the environmental benefits, grass-fed, pastured
livestock is also an excellent source of high quality meat. In
fact, it's the only type of meat I recommend eating, as raising
cattle in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) alters the
nutritional composition of the meat—not to mention such animals
are fed antibiotics, growth promoters and other veterinary
drugs.
You Can Make a Difference in More Ways Than One
As for recommendations for what we can do to get us going in
the right direction with regards to improving not only animal
and human health but the health of the planet, Judy says:
"Most recommendations are very simple. The simplest
thing is to avoid having bare soil. Because
when you have bare uncovered soil, the land degradation
process begins. When you have bare soil, that means that the
carbon is binding with oxygen and becoming carbon dioxide."
We also need to shift our focus to emphasize the biological
system as a whole. Soil is not a static "thing." It's a living
symbiotic system, and
soil microorganisms also play a very important role in this
system. When I visited Elaine Ingham at the Rodale
Institute, I learned the value of
compost tea for promoting beneficial soil microbes, and I
now use a vortex compost tea brewing system to revitalize my own
garden. Interestingly, the better you farm or garden, the less
land you need. According to Judy, a biological farmer using
appropriate methods can grow on 1,000 acres the same amount of
food another farmer might need 5,000 acres to produce...
Another factor is the importance of integrating animals on
the land. Most biological farmers understand this, and will tell
you that in order for soil to get to its highest potential of
productivity and health, there needs to be animals on the land.
(According to Savory, grazing large herds of livestock on half
of the world's barren or semi-barren grasslands could also take
enough carbon from the atmosphere to bring us back to
preindustrial levels!) But what if you're not a gardener yet, or
a farmer? How can you help achieve this much needed shift?
"I think people can make a difference in all sorts of
ways that people make decisions every day, such as asking
yourself how the food you're buying was grown," Judy
says. "Because once you start asking where the food
comes from, even posing that question, will lead you to make
different choices.
Apart from food, what decisions are being made in
your community about the use of land? Can your community
save money by working with soil rather than, say, putting in
an expensive waste or water treatment plant? That's another
thing, getting involved on a local level. There are all
kinds of organizations that are working on different
environmental and different food aspects locally and
nationally, etc."
Biological Farming Solves Many Pressing Problems
My first passion and career was being a physician, then an
Internet educator, and now I'm moving into high-performance
biological agriculture because I really believe it's the next
step in our evolution. We must shift the way we produce
food because the current system is unsustainable. And while this
information really is ancient, it's not widely discussed.
There's only a small segment of the population that even
understands this natural system, and the potential it has for
radically transforming the way we feed the masses AND protect
the environment at the same time.
I thoroughly agree with the recommendation to get involved
personally, because it's so exciting. For me, it's become a
rather addictive hobby. Once you integrate biological farming
principles, you can get plant performances that are 200-400
percent greater than what you would typically get from a plant!
What's more, not only does it improve the quantity, it also
improves the quality of the food you're growing. These facts
should really be at the forefront of everybody's mind when they
think about farming, as it's the solution to so many pressing
problems. Judy agrees, noting:
"The challenge is that we've been led to believe that
our agricultural model, which is an extractive model, is the
way it needs to be. But we can shift to a regenerative
model. That's where we need to go."
Final Thoughts
As Judy says, there's a lot to be optimistic about, because
whether we're talking about the degradation of the environment
or our food supply, there are answers!
"Many people just sort of give up and say, 'I can't
do anything about this.' I was speaking to someone the other
day who said that her son, who just finished college, said,
'You know, it's over. We're doomed.' To me, that is just so
sad. How can we let the next generation feel that way? I
think that betrays a huge lack of imagination. Because when
we talk about our environmental challenges, one thing we
don't talk about is nature's desire to heal itself. Once we
ally with that natural process, it's amazing what we can
do."
Ending the burning of fossil fuels is not the one and only
way for us to turn the tide on rising carbon dioxide levels.
Granted, solar energy and wind power would certainly be
preferable to burning fossil fuels. But even if we didn't stop
burning fossil fuels, we can still reverse rising CO2 levels by
addressing the way we farm, using sound, time-honored
agricultural principles.
And—something else to consider—even if we completely stop
burning fossil fuels but do not change agriculture,
we'll still be left with problems like lands turning to
desert, flooding, and drought for example. In short, we really
must address how we manage our lands and soils... You can learn
more about
biological farming by reviewing the related articles listed
in the right-hand side bar on this page. I also highly recommend
Judy's book,
Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring
Soil to Heal the Earth. It's a great read for anyone
wanting to learn more about this topic.
© Copyright 1997-2014 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.