Holistic Management International: Answer to Global Warming Lies in Dirt Beneath Our Feet

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--“New York Times columnist Tom Friedman posed an extraordinarily important question in his recent piece, ‘The Inflection is Near?’ (Mar 7), when he asked if the growth model we have created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically,” says Peter Holter, CEO of the Albuquerque-based non-profit, Holistic Management International (www.holisticmanagement.org).

With global warming and the worldwide economic crisis now upon us, “I agree with Friedman when he wrote that both Mother Nature and the market have probably said, ‘No more.’”

Holter points out that the problem - and the answer - lie in the dirt beneath our feet. “Dirt provides everything it takes for us to survive; but our very survival is at risk because our agricultural and animal-management practices have caused much of the topsoil to erode or blow away.”

According to Holter, Holistic Management practitioners, working on more than 30 million acres on four continents, have learned from practical experience that we need to make some important changes in how we manage land. “We can begin by restoring topsoil to health – with methods like no-till farming and organic farming. But then, we have to go deeper, and institute measures that will help sequester carbon, which improves land health and biodiversity, reverses desertification, and resists the affects of global warming.”

“The folks we work with,” Holter says, “utilize an approach called ‘planned grazing,’ which works today -- as it did for thousands of years -- with wild animals whose predators kept them on the move. The grazers’ hooves worked the soil, which allowed it to absorb their waste products quickly, become and remain fertilized, absorb carbon, and become healthier.”

“The results have been very powerful,” Holter notes. “We have measured solid improvements in land health by the successful introduction of new seedlings, the extent of plant and biodiversity in the deep soil, water infiltration in soil, and decreasing soil erosion.”

“We can reverse the effects of global warming,” Holter asserts, “if livestock owners, public land agencies and the public can all work together to change how we manage the relationship between domestic grazing animals and the land. Only then will we have a real opportunity to restore our land – and our environment overall.”