The Savory Method

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A system of intensive cattle ranching developed by Allan Savory, also known as or categorized under these names:

  • The Savory Grazing Method
  • Rotational grazing
  • Multi-paddock adaptive grazing
  • Regenerative grazing
  • Holistic resource management
  • Time controlled grazing
  • Short-duration grazing

The efficacy of Savory's method of cattle grazing is predicated on five assumptions:

(1) plant communities and soils of the arid, semiarid, and grassland systems of the world evolved in the presence of large herds of animals regulated by their predators; (2) grasses in these areas will become decadent and die out if not grazed by these large herds or their modern day equivalent, livestock; (3) rest from grazing by these large herds of livestock will result in grassland deterioration; (4) large herds are needed to break up decadent plant material and soil crusts and trample dung, urine, seeds, and plant material into the soil, promoting plant growth; and (5) high intensity grazing of these lands by livestock will reverse desertification and climate change by increasing production and cover of the soil, thereby storing more carbon.[1]

Critiques

Sources

"The Savory Method Can Not Green Deserts or Reverse Climate Change A response to the Allan Savory TED video" https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/4472/RANGELANDS-D-13-00044.pdf


"The Regenerative Ranching racket": <https://medium.com/@unpopularscience/the-regenerative-ranching-racket-fe6cce917a42>

"How Big Ag Bankrolled Regenerative Ranching": <https://jacobin.com/2022/03/big-agriculture-funding-regenerative-ranching-amp-grazing-soil-carbon>

^^^ Discusses, among other issues, Shell Oil's financing of "Soil Carbon Cowboys" in 2015, the first such documentary. Re: offsets, greenwashing & ties to Savory Institute. see also: <https://robbwolf.com/2016/03/18/sustainability-part-2-the-game-changers-of-small-ag/> & White_Oak_Pastures#Shell_Oil

Re: GHG emissions (incl. Methane), soil health, hoof action, biodiversity: <https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijbd/2014/163431/>

Re: General Mills & White Oak Pastures: <https://plantbaseddata.medium.com/the-failed-attempt-to-greenwash-beef-7dfca9d74333> <https://twitter.com/NicholasDCarter/status/1362341002946748421> <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKjQfn-HR6g>

Underestimation of emissions from extensive/intensive grazing (& Methane): <https://www.issuelab.org/resources/36458/36458.pdf>

Re: 'discounting' Methane from cattle: <https://twitter.com/NicholasDCarter/status/1335967274247876609?s=20> <https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aEKVErYpvXM7Nxx5xBkCI1POi1xomTD9/view>

Re: Kiss the Ground documentary: <https://plantbasednews.org/opinion/kiss-the-ground-last-ditch-effort-keep-meat-relevant/>

Key report - "Grazed and Confused": <https://www.fcrn.org.uk/sites/default/files/project-files/fcrn_gnc_report.pdf> <https://theproof.com/animal-vs-plant-agriculture-in-the-era-of-climate-change/>

Response to Critiques

According to Allan Savory, scientific evidence against his methods is irrelevant because holistic management "cannot be peer-reviewed." He has made this argument several times, perhaps most recently on Twitter in March of 2021[2] in response to scientific evidence showing that the beef supply White Oak Pastures provides for General Mills was heavily greenwashed. [3] White Oak Pastures is a "frontier founder" of the Savory Institute Land to Market program, which has inaccurately advertised WOP's products as "carbon-negative beef."[4]

Savory has also argued that his method has never failed in 50 years because it has "300 years of experience" derived from European military planning behind it.[5]

  1. ↑ John Carter, Allison Jones, Mary O’Brien, Jonathan Ratner, George Wuerthner, "Holistic Management: Misinformation on the Science of Grazed Ecosystems", International Journal of Biodiversity, vol. 2014, Article ID 163431, 10 pages, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/163431
  2. ↑ https://twitter.com/allanrsavory/status/1368586780790906885?s=21
  3. ↑ https://plantbaseddata.medium.com/the-failed-attempt-to-greenwash-beef-7dfca9d74333
  4. ↑ https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/climatecollaborative/mailings/1633/attachments/original/PPT-FINAL-Regenerative_Mapping-min_compressed.pdf?1579205603; p. 41
  5. ↑ https://centerforneweconomics.org/publications/greening-the-desert-holistic-management-in-the-era-of-climate-change/
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