Thanks for this well thought out article, Sheldon. You did an amazing job of explaining this in a concise and compassionate way. I have a pretty clear understanding of all that you wrote (I have Savory's, Holistic Management in my library and have read it several times), so I did not go to very many of the additional articles or resources at this time.
Perhaps because I did not read your additional resources, I am missing some of the rest of your research and writings, but without going through all of that, a few things come to mind.
One additional thing that you may want to consider, if you choose to expand this article at some point in the future, is the fact that brittle landscapes (or the area of the Earth that has it's rainfall distributed unevenly over the year), are increasing on this planet. Areas that were not brittle are becoming brittle through our land use practices (logging {particular for the purpose of unsustainable cattle farming}, swamp draining, plowing under sloughs and ponds, poor
irrigation, water diversions, dams, aquifer pumping, and other uses that break the hydrology of the landscape and water cycling in the atmosphere from the plant/animal/soil/landscape matrix. Much of this is coupling with other aspects of Climate Change and affect the long term future of our planet unless we act to change it. While it is impossible to calculate the numbers on this, there are numerous examples of landscapes that were not brittle that have become so, and would benefit greatly by the use of holistic grazing practices. As we continue to practice all sorts of unsustainable practices, we increase the need to rehabilitate large amounts of land, and the best way to do so is with animals, particularly ungulates.
Also, It might be a point of interest to include the facts around the idea that in brittle landscapes, and in many non brittle landcapes that have crop systems on them, the only way besides tilling to incorporate large amounts of dead carbonaceous material (like corn stalks, or grain
straw) back into the soil, is through trampling. This is the prime time for nitrogen fertilizers to join with the
carbon, and so the dunging and urination (nitrogen source) that the trampling animals also provide, go a long way to breaking this carbon down into a readily usable form by the soil food web. If this dead plant material is left standing, it can only break down chemically or through physical elemental erosion (wind or snow weight for example). The sooner that dead plant material gets involved with the upper soil, the better the microbes can break it down to carbon sequestered humus. It may be useful to point out the benefits of using animals to trample soil rather than tilling the soil to introduce the carbon stalks to the soil. Tilling often puts dead plant material into the soil without the proper ratios of nitrogen, oxygen, or moisture and ends up not being incorporated in the most healthy way for the soil food web. This results is the drawing of nitrogen from the soil system, the anaerobic breakdown of carbon waste buried inappropriately, the disrupting of soil and landscape hydrology, and the rapid metabolic burning of the carbon that is in aerobic conditions in a quick (but sadly short term) burst of microbial growth in the areas that are hyper oxygenated.
Anyway, thanks for getting this info out there. It's so great.
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