Cows Save the Planet

And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth
http://media.chelseagreen.com/cows-save-the-planet/

By Judith D. Schwartz
Foreword by Gretel Ehrlich

Unmaking the Deserts, Rethinking Climate Change, Bringing Back Biodiversity, and Restoring Nutrients to our Food

Cows saving the planet? Why not? An idea that sounds preposterous begins to make sense when you take a soil’s-eye view of our current ecological predicament.

In Cows Save the Planet, journalist Judith D. Schwartz looks at soil as a crucible for our many overlapping environmental, economic, and social crises. Schwartz reveals that for many of these problems­climate change, desertification, biodiversity loss, droughts, floods, wildfires, rural poverty, malnutrition, and obesity­our ability to turn these crises into opportunities depends on how we treat the soil. Where do cows fit in?

Cattle, like all grazing creatures, can, if appropriately managed, restore land and help build soil. Rebuilding soil is only one aspect of this important, paradigm-shifting book. Drawing on the work of thinkers and doers, renegade scientists and institutional whistleblowers from around the world, Schwartz challenges much of the conventional thinking about global warming and other problems. For example, land can suffer from undergrazing as well as overgrazing, since certain landscapes, such as grasslands, require the disturbance from livestock to thrive. Regarding climate, when we focus on carbon dioxide, we neglect the central role of water in soil­“green water”­in temperature regulation. And much of the carbon dioxide that burdens the atmosphere is not the result of fuel emissions, but from agriculture; returning carbon to the soil not only reduces carbon dioxide levels but also enhances soil fertility.

Cows Save the Planet is at once a primer on soil’s pivotal role in our ecology and economy and an antidote to those awash in despairing environmental news. It is also an important call to action on behalf of the soil­and, by extension, those of us who benefit from it.

PODCAST

Judith Schwartz, author of "Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth"

About the Author

Articles by Judith D. Schwartz

• Just Planting Trees Won’t Stop March of Desert, Pacific Standard, June 17, 2012
• Turning the Clock Back on Desertification, Christian Science Monitor, October 24, 2011
• Greener Pastures, Conservation, June 2011
• How to Save the Grassland: Bring in More Cattle, Time.com, September 7, 2010
• This Import Might Save American Jobs, Miller-McCune, December, 2009
• What Jane Jacobs Can Teach Us About the Economy, Miller-McCune, October, 2009
• Can “Slow Investing” Remake America’s Food Industry?, Time.com, September 11, 2009
• Dollars with Good Sense: DIY Cash, Yes! Magazine, June 2009
• Communities Plan for a Low Energy Future (Transition), Christian Science Monitor, September 11, 2008

 
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