Summary

Recent widespread interest in Holistic Management (HM), primarily stemming from Allan Savory’s presentation at the February 2013 Long Beach, CA, TED conference, makes it important that Club members and staff be consistent in their response to calls for application of HM. Savory has received considerable attention for his claim that application of HM to husbandry of ungulate livestock (typically cattle) in the world’s grasslands could sequester sufficient atmospheric carbon to reduce atmospheric carbon concentrations to pre-industrial levels. The Sierra Club’s Grazing Core Team urges the Sierra Club to reject HM as a tactic to reverse climate change for the following reasons:

1. independent scientific research (in contrast to anecdotes from promoters and users of HM) since the early 1980s has not shown HM to perform better than other grazing management methods,
2. applications of HM have produced mixed results, but in arid regions worldwide have often led to further environmental degradation,1
3. Savory’s characterization of a “desertified” grassland is contradicted by well-established scientific understanding of desert ecology, particularly as regards biological soil crusts, and
4. claims of HM’s widespread ability to increase sequestration of atmospheric carbon have not been independently studied and are indirectly contraindicated by recent, peer-reviewed research showing that grazing exclusion in some grasslands actually increases carbon sequestration relative to continued grazing.

You can hear more of Allen Savory’s views on this podcast. Comments welcome on the TED talk, the memo, and to this blog post, especially if you have scientific evidence or direct experience with HM.