It's Not The Cow. It's The How.
Cattle--properly managed--can have an irreplaceable restorative effect on the land. Here's how that works.
The mainstream climate movement is certain of two things: That we need to reduce fossil fuels and we need to reduce meat consumption. For fossil fuels, they don’t have a plan. For meat, they don’t have a clue.
I was there not too long ago. As recently as 2020, I thought meat consumption was bad for my health and bad for the environment. Then I read “Defending Beef” by Nicolette Hahn Niman, “The Vegetarian Myth” by Lierre Keith and “Sacred Cow” by Diana Rodgers and Robb Wolf. And let’s not forget “Cows Save The Planet” by Judith D. Schwartz.
Not that I’m “all that” because I read some books. But these books contain ideas that don’t make it into the mainstream, like how grazing--done well--can restore the land.
Think about it. North America used to have tens of millions of bison. And at the same time, the land where they roamed was fertile and fecund. Thousands of species of birds, butterflies, bees, small mammals, large mammals, reptiles and fish … lived and thrived in the land where the buffalo roamed.
Africa used to have more large, grazing mammals than it has now. And it was more abundant than it is now.
Why is that?
As regenerative farmer Joel Salatin points out, “All ecosystems have animals.” Show me an ecosystem that does not have animals. It’s hard to find one.
But what do animals do within an ecosystem? For one thing, they move nutrients uphill. Gravity and water move nutrients downhill. But animals are mobile, so they can move nutrients back uphill.
Think of animals moving to the stream or the watering hole. Where is the watering hole? Downhill. So animals go to the watering hole. But predators need to eat, too. So they follow the prey to the watering hole. So the prey cannot hang out forever near the water. They need to move back uphill where there is more cover in which to hide.
When they move back uphill, they poop and pee, thus depositing nutrients uphill from the source.
What else do animals do in an ecosystem? Well animals take nutrients and put them into biological form. So do plants, fungi, bacteria, etc. But animals tend to synthesize nutrients that are more complex than those formed by other species and kingdoms. Then, when they poop or pee or die, they contribute those nutrients back to the ecosystem.
What else do animals do in an ecosystem? They spread seeds and thus move plants to new areas. Many seeds are more likely to germinate after they move through the gut of an animal. The animal’s gut microbiome exposes the seed to bacteria and fungi that can trigger germination. And when the animal poops out the seeds, they come complete with fertilizer (the manure).
What do cows do in an ecosystem? Consider this … Grasslands co-evolved with grazing animals. The grass thrives when grazing animals move through, eat and then let it rest.
If we can mimic nature in our grazing practices, that is how we can restore our grasslands to their natural state. Cows, when properly managed, provide a healthy disturbance to the grasses and the soil. Without that healthy disturbance, grasslands die, because they lack the nutrient cycling and the hoof impact of natural grasslands.
Also, grasses want to be eaten. The grass wants its dead blades to be eaten, so it has room to grow again. And think about it. If that dead grass is not eaten, then it’s prone to fire. That means wildfires.
What else do cows--properly managed--do for an ecosystem? Well, they make hoofprints. Too many hoofprints, and everything dies. But in moderation, hoofprints create little pockets where water can pool when it rains. That means more water soaks into the ground and less is lost to evaporation or runoff.
Properly managed, cows improve soil quality. Good soil is about 40% empty (pore) spaces. Those empty spaces hold air and water. So when it rains, good soil soaks in more water and holds onto it, for the benefit of plants, fungi and the whole solid food web.
Sadly, cows, sheep, goats, etc. are often detrimental to the land. But don’t blame the animal. They are damaging because “we” have not yet learned to manage them. When I say “we,” I mean most farmers and ranchers.
Some farmers have learned to manage grazing animals. Cattle farmers who know what they’re doing have learned to let the land rest, and not bring the herd back around until that particular paddock is ready to be grazed again.
It takes time and effort, learning and preparation. But we consumers need to support farmers and ranchers who grow 100% grass fed and finished meat.
Good grazing MIGHT be the key to preventing drought, flooding and wildfires in much of the American West. I say this because if we restored our soils, we would get some relief from flooding, drought and wildfires.
We would have less flooding, because more rain would soak into the ground. We would have less drought because good soils are more drought resilient, and soils that hold more water will contribute more to healthy water cycles. And we would have less wildfires because the vegetation would hold more water and be more fire resistant.
So … why don’t we hear more about this? Because it’s not beneficial to those who have real power.
“The press is the hired agent of a moneyed system, and is set up for no other purpose than to tell lies where their interests are involved.” --Henry Francis Adams
The press is not here to tell the truth. They are here to churn out false narratives. But that’s another conversation, isn’t it?
Let’s just say that every sector of our economy, including the media, and including food & agriculture, is controlled by a handful of people who don’t care about people or health or the planet. They care about themselves and their own advancement, their own acquisition of power and money.
That will change when enough of us know how things really work.
Great post. I just travelled from the Pacific Northwest to Colorado and back. I saw almost no animals on the land, even cows., since so much land had been overgrazed. The landscapes of the West are in real crisis, drying out and burning up. But everyone's staring up at CO2. It's quite remarkable.
Thank you.