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the grazing patterns of these great wild herds, The hoof action, manure, urine and saliva all act as bio-stimulants on
can produce an abundance of nutritious animal the pasture, encouraging the grass plants to thicken, bare spots to fi ll in,
foods, while sequestering massive amounts of and species diversity and succession to accelerate forward from simplic-
atmospheric carbon. We are told by the global ity to complexity. The productive grasslands of the world and the massive
warming gurus that the earth is heating up due to herds of herbivores that grazed them coevolved together. One cannot exist
excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Through without the other. The grass relies on the ruminant for its full expression

specific grazing strategies we can sequester this just as much as the ruminant relies on grass. Without ruminants to fertilize
excess carbon and form rich, productive topsoil in the soil and break down cellulose in dry climates, prairies quickly become
the process. We do this not by planting more trees, deserts; and with managed grazing of ruminant animals, deserts can be
or even setting aside more wildlife preserves. We restored to productive land.
do this with domesticated ruminants—pulsing
the landscape with large numbers of animals for GRASS-FED BUTTER: MOST
short periods of time. ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY FOOD
In nature, bison and wildebeest graze in huge Grass farmers produce the most ecologically sensible food on earth,

mobs, remaining in one location briefly, and then food derived nearly in its entirety from solar energy. Grass-fed butter is
they move on to fresh ground. They keep bunched perhaps the fi nest example of solar energy converted into nutrient-dense
together tightly for fear of pack-hunting preda- food for people. Grass-fed meat and other grass-based dairy products are
tors. These ruminants are Nature’s soil-building equally wonderful, earth-friendly foods. However, I use butter here to il-
and fertility management mechanism. We also lustrate how we can derive pure, nutrient-dense animal energy from solar
know that the soils under which these animals energy with very few steps in between. Here’s how it works: Grass plants
graze are our largest land-based carbon sinks on convert solar energy (and atmospheric carbon dioxide) into plant biomass,
earth. All we need to do, then, is to mimic these and the cow synthesizes that plant material into her own energy via the
native grazing patterns with our domestic stock, cellulose-digesting microbes in her rumen. From this energy she then
and we have an easily achieved, rapid solution produces milk, of which the energy-rich portion (the cream) is separated.
to the excess carbon in the atmosphere. The cream is then made even more energy-dense through churning into

THE CARBON FACTS

For some hard facts about carbon sequestration through grass-based agriculture, I turn to the pioneering work of
Allan Savory, one of the most practical and productive environmentalists of our time. Savory is the founder of Holistic
Management International and advocate for a holistic approach to resource management and land healing with livestock.
In a recent article published in the Green Money Journal, Allan Savory and Christopher Peck, a principal with Natural
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Investment Services, LLC, ran the numbers on carbon and how we ought to manage it to halt global warming. If these
gentlemen are correct, we can stop global warming in its tracks in the next 15 years if not sooner—this assuming that the
U.N. does not stymie the effort with their obstructive anti-livestock policy initiatives. The model documenting the poten-
tial for carbon sequestration using grass-based agriculture is presented in hectares, but to make it more user friendly, I’ve
converted it to acres.
To set the stage, we must consider the 180 gigatons of legacy carbon—that’s the anthropogenic carbon that’s been
emitted into the atmosphere since the onset of the industrial revolution. The procedure for removing this legacy carbon
load involves cows—lots of cows—and the utilization of the multifaceted behaviors and qualities of these ruminants,
described above, to build soil organic matter. Savory and Peck argue that a mere 0.5 percent increase in soil organic mat-
ter (defined as atmospheric carbon sequestered as soil carbon) on 75 percent of the world’s rangelands, which is roughly
11.25 billion acres, would sequester 150 gigatons of atmospheric carbon. This scenario bars the fact that we can certainly
increase soil organic matter by much higher margins within a decade or less. The biggest paradox of course is the fact that
livestock—the problem according to the bureaucratic wisdom of the U.N.—are really our best solution.
As evidenced by the above scenario, no terrestrial ecosystem sequesters carbon at the rate and volume of produc-
tive grasslands. The tired argument to plant more trees, or designate more national forest land, amounts to a net release
of carbon. It is another example of a feel-good policy backed by a powerful extreme environmental lobby and bloated
conservation funds. Just because a policy is backed by a strong PR campaign does not make it holistically sound. In fact,
by clearing more forests and establishing perennial grasslands in their place, we can accelerate the carbon cycle by vast
proportions. Trees take far too long to grow and die to have a significant effect on mitigating the excess load of atmospheric
carbon. The real solution to global warming is to build deep, fertile topsoil using large herds of domesticated cattle stocked
at high densities and moved very frequently.
SPRING 2008 Wise Traditions 21