Allan Savoury's

claims are crap.

Let’s look at baby elephant killing, merciless, industry shill Allan Savory’s claims and his myth that cows are good for the environment.

There are no peer reviewed showing that his method works, even after 4 decades. There are only before and after pictures of dry land that’s been irrigated.

In a 2000 review of short term grazing at high stock rates on irrigated pasture such as Savory’s method showed that it increased soil erosion, decreased water filtration into the soil and rejected the myth that soil health was improved.

Out of 10 studies of animal productivity only 1 showed increased productivity with Savory’s method and 4 showed decreased productivity.

50 studies show little difference between condition of the land or livestock production with conventional or Savory’s method.

According to papers in Agricultural Systems the method does not increase carbon in the soil, nor does it improve biodiversity of plants, nor does it benefit the soil.

1. Short term grazing was rebranded as Holistic Mangement. But is basically the same short term grazing but with a pseudo scientific management system that must be bought from the for-profit Savory foundation.

2. An Agricultural Systems paper mistakenly claimed that other authors had found more carbon in the soil using Savory’s method when it was not statistically significant.

3. Do his methods reverse desertification? Cows require 18,000,000 calories a day. A 2002 paper showed supplemental feed costs are higher using Savory’s method.

4. The land is irrigated by this rich white guy, taking water from elsewhere, which is why cows are able to live on it.

5. It is only viable where water points are close.

6. Pictures that Savory claims were from some irrigated areas, were in fact from other areas.

7. There would not be enough room on the earth to replace the dead animals we eat now with grass fed animals.

8. Can grazing reverse climate change and Co2? No published data. Using all available land would still be 8 fold less sequestration than required. Some greenhouse gas methane would have been produced by the millions of bison that were slaughtered but factory farmed flesh and dairy animals produce more due to their unnatural GMO corn and soy diets. This is used as an excuse to alter farmed cows diets further or even genetically engineer animals.

9. Do plants die without grazing animals? No. Many unpopulated areas without large mammals are lush. Changing rain patterns affect desertification not animals.

10. Lots of energy is put in for electrification of fences and labour.

11. Chickens fed imported non-organic, non-conservation farmed corn and soy are used to fertilise his cow pastures. The dead cows are then sold at a premium to the small percentage who can afford it as ‘green’, ‘organic’ and ‘sustainable’.

12. Savory says that he is very sad about murdering the 40,000 elephants but is continuing his blunder by claiming that killing yet millions more animals is the solution.

13. Savory says that animals are the only way to produce food from some land. This is not true, hemp and fungi can be grown in many of these areas to stop desertification.

14. Eating direct from the soil uses much less land so wild animals can be allowed to graze on all the extra land. The energy, nutrients and carbon from these animals will not be removed from the system as they are not taken away to be eaten.

    

15. Veganism is undoubtedly the best way. A large part of current land would be reforested and 56% of currrent water used would be realised to green up the land.

From The Sierra Club ‘In Savory's universe, ungrazed land, known as "rested" land, will always wither away. "It's just wrong," said Brewer. A substantial number of studies on desert grassland have found that with rest, grass cover "increases dramatically," while "intensive grazing delays this recovery."

‘Rest from grazing, contrary to Savory's claims, did not result in desertification. Instead, minimal grazing and then a complete respite from cattle produced a healthy, self-sustaining ecosystem. ‘

‘When there are too many cows in places with intermittent or little rain, where the vegetation is brittle and the soil fragile, the animals spell trouble. Overgrazing denudes the soil and produces erosion, which leads to a landscape where plants can't revive and grow. At least 8.4 billion acres on the planet are grazed, and 73 percent of that land is suffering from some form of land degradation, according to the International Journal of Biodiversity. The problem is perhaps worst across arid lands where plants evolved with almost no exposure to large grazers, such as in the mountainous west of the United States—where Savory happens to live.’

"Every study of holistic planned grazing that has been done has provided results that are rejected by range scientists because there was no replication! "Savory's claims "are not only unsupported by scientific information, but they are often in direct conflict with it." Briske's study, published in the journal of the Society for Range Management in 2013, concluded: "We find all of Mr. Savory's major claims to be unfounded."

The Briske team found that Savory misrepresented the photos of landscapes he presents as evidence of the alleged desertifying effect of removing cattle. One of the photo series he often uses features Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. But the land, the Briske report said, was not desertified from lack of cattle. Instead, the landscape was slowly recovering from decades of abusive overgrazing. (I emailed Briske for an interview, but he declined to talk. "Frankly, I have grown weary of the grandiose and unsubstantiated claims of Mr. Savory," Briske replied.)

‘If I had most of the credible range scientists getting together to write papers saying I was full of crap, I'd do some real soul-searching," he replied. "As a scientist, that's what you'd have to do. But I don't know if he (Savory) is a scientist."

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