Some years back one supposed expert named Allan Savory did a TED Talk [the ultra-processed McDonald’s of information] claiming that he was able to make deserts verdant and reverse climate change through livestock grazing.
His absurd claims racked up nearly 6 million views and was enthusiastically welcomed by both livestock industry supporters and people who don’t know much about basic ecology of arid systems.
People desperately wanted to believe the myth that they can have their meat and green the deserts and reverse global warming all at the same time.
Savory’s magical thinking has pervaded the discussion on livestock in the arid west as well as elsewhere around the world ever since.
As one could have expected from such fanciful claims, there is a vast separation between the theory and reality.
I expect you may be one of the millions who watched the TED Talk or who has heard about it.
A few years after the TED Talk, I and a few other authors published a response to the Savory myth. We looked at Savory’s claims in light of the scientific literature and found nothing to support his claims. While we looked at the questions from the perspective of the western US, we couldn’t even find support within the literature from his native South Africa.
If you are one of those millions who got infected by the Savory myth, I would urge you to read our paper.
Other authors have reviewed Savory’s claims, a few are provided below for further reading:
- Holistic management – a critical review of Allan Savory’s grazing method
- The Savory Method Can Not Green Deserts or Reverse Climate Change – A response to the Allan Savory TED video
- Commentary: A critical assessment of the policy endorsement for holistic management
Maybe I am a dinosaur, out of sync with the new tick-tok fiction, alternative, manufactured reality but I think in today’s world as we rush towards a fact-free world where reality is being usurped by ‘perception’ [i.e. make-believe] we need to push back against fact-free living.
You can only ignore reality for so long before reality does you in because you ignored it.
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