By Maggie Romuld

In 1999, Allan Savory presented the keynote address at a sustainable business symposium in Eugene, Oregon. He began his speech by asking the audience a question, "What exactly is it we are trying to sustain?" Then he continued, "history shows that all businesses and all civilizations ultimately rest on the shoulders of agriculture, in its broadest sense. When agriculture fails, no business or civilization can persist…. Thus, my answer to the question of sustainability begins with agriculture and land…."

In early October of this year, Jonathan Foley, from the University of Minnesota, re-iterated Allan Savory's message of ten years ago. In a Yale E360 web article, he argued that agriculture plays a huge role in future sustainability, and suggested that "we now face a global crisis in land use and agriculture that could undermine the health, security, and sustainability of our civilization… Without a highly efficient, productive, and resilient agricultural system, our society would collapse almost overnight." The difference between Foley and Savory, however, is that while Foley was simply telling us that we need to "find ways to simultaneously increase production of our agricultural systems while greatly reducing their environmental impacts," Allan Savory was probably hard at work, doing just that, as he has been for the past 25 years.

Decades before his speech in Oregon, Savory was a young wildlife Biologist in his native Zimbabwe, trying to tackle the twin problems of degradation and desertification of grassland ecosystems. He eventually concluded that the spread of deserts was ultimately related to the way people made decisions about land management, and after many more years of work in resource management and sustainability, he formulated the concept of Holistic Management (HM), whereby land is "managed to mimic the natural relationships between land, grazing animals, and water."

Savory developed his concept, and in 1984, founded Holistic Management International (HMI) as an international, non-profit organization dedicated to restoring "degraded private, public and communal grasslands worldwide." Holistic Management International, based in the United States, provides direct training and consulting services to government and non-government agencies, and to farmers, ranchers and environmental groups throughout the world. The organization also trains "Certified Educators" to teach others about HM.

One core belief of HM is that, properly managed, grazing animals can actually improve the land and reverse desertification, which makes managing animals and moving them through a planned grazing strategy a key component of the program. The animals "till the packed soil with their hooves, distribute fertilizer and seed in their manure and urine, and move from one area to another before they can overgraze any one spot… the animals help maintain the soil, rather than destroying it, and increase the amount of organic matter in the soil, making it function as a highly effective carbon bank." In addition to planning grazing strategies, the HM approach to land management includes financial planning, land planning and biological monitoring, or, as Holistic Management International (HMI) describes it, "making a healthy profit, getting animals to the right place at the right time for the right reasons, designing the ideal property plan, and assessing land health and productivity."

Over 30 million acres of land are managed under HM practices across Canada, Africa, the United States, Australia and Mexico, and HMI/Australia estimates that HMI has trained over 15,000 people in their methods. Canada is home to some of the longest running HM groups in the organization and Sunrise Farm, in central Alberta, is one of many farms across the country that are holistically and organically managed. The Ruzicka Family farmed their land conventionally until 1995 when they decided to embrace HM and adopt a number of new tools and practices. They now use a free range, pasture model to graze their livestock and poultry; they have planted thousands of trees and berry shrubs in shelterbelts and wildlife habitat covers; they have mounted hundreds of bird houses along the perimeter fences of the fields, and they have fenced off riparian areas around creeks and wetlands on the farm. Don Ruzicka says "Holistic Management has been a major influence on how we farm and how the farm is continuing to develop and evolve."

Holistic Management International has worked with both independent and government-run agencies in Africa for over 20 years, and HMI founded The Africa Centre for Holistic Management in 1992. The Dimbangombe Ranch is a 6,500 acre working ranch and training centre in Zimbabwe. The land was donated to HMI and the Africa Centre (jointly) to act as a training site for HM practitioners, and as the home of Dimbangombe College of Wildlife, Agriculture and Conservation Management.

Holistic Management International has another learning site at the West Ranch, a 12,000 acre property located near Ozona, Texas. It is a working cattle and sheep ranch, and the ranch managers also collaborate with academic and government researchers to study how HM practices contribute to the "triple bottom line" of sustainability (economic, environmental and social benefits).

In Australia and New Zealand, HMI works directly with practitioners and with local Certified Educators to offer training through universities and other educational organizations. There is also an active network of Certified Educators in Mexico, and the Fundacion para Fomentar el Manejo Holistico, plans to release a Spanish edition of the HM textbook. In April of this year Holistic Management International released a documentary entitled "The First Millimeter: Healing the Earth." The film profiles ranchers and farmer who have successfully embraced HM, and includes interviews with scientists discussing the role HM plays in improving soil health, increasing ecosystem diversity and fighting climate change. If you want to learn more about Holistic Management, visit the HMI website at www.holisticmanagement.org or look for the documentary, showing now on a PBS station near you.