This is the opening salvo of a critically important paper:
“Among options for atmospheric CO2 removal, sequestering soil organic carbon (SOC) via improved grazing management is a rare opportunity because it is scalable across millions of globally grazed acres, low cost, and has high technical potential.” (bold added)
Stanley et al. (2024) Ruminating on soil carbon: Applying current understanding to inform grazing management.
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17223
There is a lot to say about all this. So much that we did a book and film on the topic.
Now, the idea that properly managed grazing animals could be a boon for the climate, environment, nutrition, sovereignty and offer a host of other benefits was absolute heresy. Everyone from Bill Gates to the WEF, WHO, every mainstream media outlet said not only that the whole process was bad, but that it was the worst offender of all the things we do.
You know this to be true, you have seen theses pieces.
Yet this was not only false but so far from truth it was actually damning a solution that has no peer in our arsenal of options. Lab grown meat, windmills, and solar panels ironically TRY to emulate some of the laudable characteristics of a biodynamic grazing process. Predictably, they all come up short. Speaking of shorts, I DO thank those foolish enough to capitalize these things. I used to bemoan the waste of resources in these spaces, now I'm just grateful even folks like Gates are not as versed in thermodynamics as I'd have thought.
My apologies if I'm a bit smug about this, but championing this position has gotten Diana and I called everything from racists to misanthropes, who actually HATE humanity. I'll be honest, some vindication and "I told you so" feels pretty good.
An interesting angle on all this is this "technology" cannot be patented, owned by big-tech, pharma, gov etc. This could radically democratize both health and food production. The proper application of this process would dramatically reduce our needs for pesticides and fertilizer. That (as well as a shift away from hyper-palatable foods) would have a stunning impact on health, and by extension the use of all manner of dubious pharmaceuticals.
There have been a fair number of folks angry at me for supporting certain individuals and concepts in the health space. Well, guess what, this is the literal dirt that builds that whole foundation. Do ya get that?
I've built my conception of health from the ground up, starting at soil. I've incorporated non-equilibrium thermodynamics, evolutionary biology, least harm principles and a host of other concepts to offer insight into my framework. This by no means guarantees I'm right about everything, but I'd just ask that if you think my conceptions of health and who/what I support are out to lunch, what are YOU building your framework around? How well have your predictive models served you over the past ten years?
For those of you who have been onboard, thank you. We are just getting going.
Just letting you know that the https://sacredcow.org/ domain seems to have expired. The link goes to a domain sale.
I have followed the work of Allen Savory's Holistic Land Management for many years. I am very happy that it appears to be gaining traction in the mainstream. RFK Jr has plans that may include this method of regenerative land management, and raising livestock for Farm to Table consumption. We need to add to this more local butchers to make it all work.