Page 18 - Spring2008

What we are released into the atmosphere in the production of oxidize carbon into the atmosphere causing an
lacking these “improved diets,” just as there is never any historic increase in CO levels. A shift from a
2
carbon-releasing agriculture to a carbon-seques-
mention of the petroleum requirements to pro-
from an duce corn-based ethanol. Another U.N. solution tering agriculture requires nothing more than a
environmental is an overarching vaccination protocol also aimed shift from CAFOs and monocultures to grain-
perspective is at reducing fermentation activity in the rumen. free, all-grass livestock farming. In the process,
Aren’t these solutions brilliant? The U.N. cuts a we could restore the fl oral and faunal ecology
precisely that check to the likes of Monsanto for the “improved of the Great Plains to its pre-colonial status—a
which the U.N. diets,” and to the likes of Merck and Pfi zer for phenomenal, yet highly achievable prospect.

would like to the vaccines, all the while reducing “harmful One of the greatest ironies of this whole sce-
emissions” so that you can enjoy beef from an nario is that many of the world’s environmental
annihilate: animal that’s been pumped full of genetically activists stand behind the U.N. without examin-
farmers who engineered viruses and aluminum, and has had ing the agenda behind the “green” façade. This

use livestock to all of its gut flora eradicated, but at least you can is in large part because many environmentalists
eat that beef without a guilty conscience. This is have no better understanding of nature and its
enhance and indeed U.N. science at its finest, and it does not functions than the apologists of industrial agri-

embellish have the best interests of the environment, the culture. These seemingly opposing sides share a
landscapes. cow, or the consumer in mind. Its interest lies in common vision for the future—a world devoid
perpetuating consumer fear, so as to further its of farmers and domesticated animals, with fi elds
campaign for global governance and corporate of monocultures that stretch to the horizon, and
farming all over the world. token wildlife preservation zones that remain
locked up for eternity. These zones will inevita-
NATURE’S SOLUTIONS bly begin to deteriorate, as most of them already
Such U.N. research will not yield low- have, for lack of good land management and
cost, common sense solutions—like freeing the husbandry by man and livestock.
world’s beef animals from their feedlot bondage, In short, what we are lacking from an envi-
and returning them to the world’s grasslands ronmental perspective is precisely that which the
and deserts so that their manure may become a U.N. would like to annihilate: farmers who use
product that gets recycled by earthworms into livestock to enhance and embellish landscapes.
soil wealth—becoming a healing agent—rather These are the wonderful people who supply us
than a product of volatile nitrous-oxide genera- with raw milk and butter, grass-fed beef and lamb,
tion. The U.N.-sponsored research will not yield pastured poultry and eggs. I would argue that
solutions like shutting down our confi nement these farmers, those sturdy individuals presented
dairy camps and using these animals to return the with the daily task of managing plants and ani-
Midwest’s eroded and degraded cropland to the mals in harmony with one another for the benefi t
fertile prairie of yesteryear. That thick layer of of their land and their patrons, hold the most
black gold upon which a blanket of robust native supreme understanding of ecological processes
grasses once grew was a priceless gift to us from and are the world’s true environmental activists.
the American bison—a gift we have chosen to The managed landscapes of these pasture-based
send to the Gulf of Mexico on the order of mil- farms are the healthiest, most biologically diverse
lions of tons per year via the erosion caused by places on earth, and the sheer volume of life
mass-scale grain production to feed concentration in their soils proves it. And had it not been for
camp cows—animals not designed to eat grain the advent of an artifi cial support system called
in the fi rst place. chemical fertilizers and farm subsidies, healthy
Indeed, if the U.N. chose to, they could sug- soil—via livestock and their manure—would be
gest the above solutions, which would sequester the foundational vehicle for our prosperity and
carbon and add it to the soil bank, thus reducing propagation upon the earth.
this apparently harmful greenhouse gas from the Let’s now examine the U.N.’s foremost accu-
atmosphere. As it currently stands, our farming sation against livestock, specifi cally as it applies
practices both in the field and in the feedlot to global warming, and determine whether or not

18 Wise Traditions SPRING 2008