Backed by Data. Rooted in Reverence.
John Meadley — Pasture for Life co-founder and Honorary President — shares his thoughts from the East while visiting relatives in Penang, Malaysia. In the West, are we so focused on the measurable that we miss the bigger picture?
In the West, we tend to forget that nearly half of the world’s population is in China, the Indian subcontinent and SE Asia — with its kaleidoscope of faiths and customs and producing much of the world’s food. Driving across the island today, within a couple of miles we passed a Mosque, a Buddhist temple, a Methodist Church, a Hindu Temple, a Sikh Temple and the Confucian Society. And despite urbanisation there is still a strong association with the land and with tradition, which has been largely lost in the West.
Looking through my particular lens from a lifetime working in Africa and Asia, when it comes to ruminants it seems that the West is unhelpfully fixated on methane instead of looking holistically at the extraordinary capacity of this self-replicating anaerobic digester to convert otherwise indigestible cellulose, the world’s most common organic polymer, into nutrient-dense meat and milk as well as into leather and manure.
This commonly-held negative view of the ruminant is in part due to the significant and lingering damage done by the now largely-discredited FAO report — Livestock’s Long Shadow — whilst many of the articles about farming and climate change written by lazy journalists will have a picture of a cow grazing in a field.
In reality, the ruminant animal is fundamental to farming systems across the world — whether nurturing ground cover on land unsuitable for cultivation, converting crop residues into manure, healing the soil after cultivation, eating down lush cereals in spring or encouraging biodiversity.
More than 2,000 years ago in his Georgics, written in 69 BC, Virgil recognised the vital role of dung in feeding their crops and of sheep in eating down cereals too lush in spring (a practice that is emerging again as arable farmers begin to reintroduce ruminants onto their land).
Viscount (turnip) Townshend’s Norfolk four course rotation (1730)
Townshend’s revolutionary four course rotation had the grazing ruminant at the centre. Working at Rothamsted, Prof Andy Neal, noted:
‘…the Victorian-era switch from manure to ammonia and phosphorous-based fertilizers has caused microbes to metabolise more carbon, excrete less polymers and fundamentally alter the properties of farmland soils when compared to their original grassland state. Long term addition of nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers has caused microbes to burn more of these carbon compounds for energy, an activity that has increased emissions of CO2. Ploughing has also increased the availability of this soil carbon to microbes, further decreasing its levels in the soil.’
According to the International Year of Rangelands and Pasture, half of the world’s land is under rangelands with over 200 million people raising livestock in pastoral and agro-pastoral systems.
According to the FAO, two thirds of the world’s farmland is under pasture.
Although some of this is the result of planted pasture following recent forest clearing, the majority by far has evolved over centuries through a mutually beneficial relationship with herbivores and ruminants.
In 2016, the state of Sikkim in northern India was recognised as the world’s first wholly organic state. In a WhatsApp exchange with one of the farmers’ leaders I asked about the significance of cattle in the way they farm, to which she replied:
‘Everyone has a cow at home as it is the primary source of manure for feeding the crops.’
The state of Andra Pradesh, with a population of 50 million (including 6 million farmers) and a farmed area the same as England, is following suit. It is undergoing a modal shift at scale away from the intensive methods of the corporation-dominated Green Revolution to what is called Community Managed Natural Farming (CMNF) – with the state government aiming for 100% uptake within ten years. CMNF depends on the natural growth of crops without the use of any synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and with less consumption of ground water. It has dramatically reduced the net cost of production and the few significant inputs used for seed treatments and soil inoculations – cow dung, cow urine, handfuls of soil, jaggery, pulses flour – and botanicals for bio pesticides are all locally available. The cow is central to this farming system. You will find a detailed report on it here and on assessing the impact on food quality here.
Work by Dr James Bennett at CAWR has shown the important role of the grazing ruminant (both cattle and sheep) in utilising crop residues in the communal areas of South Africa. The vital relationship between livestock and livelihoods in Africa was addressed in this presentation by Dr Lovemore Gwiriri based on his work at Rothamsted – highlighting the particular role of goats in building food security; something I have also seen myself in Africa – the vital role that they can play in rebuilding lives following conflict. Here in the UK we can see how the introduction of ruminants onto formerly wholly arable land ‘can convert an arable desert into an oasis of biodiversity’ as well as the wider benefits of the grazing ruminant on biodiversity.
This slide is from a presentation made to a meeting of the Pasture for Life research group by Professor Harold van Es, professor of soil and water management at Cornell and a former President of the American Soil Science Society (in 2016) – where PESH refers to the Production Environment Soil Health Amsili et al (2023). By making soil under pasture the benchmark against which other soils are judged it highlights the vital role of the grazing ruminant in sustaining soil health.
This slide is from a presentation by Professor Rattan Lal, also a former President of the American Soil Science Society, with its focus on the integration of crops and trees with livestock.
For much of the world’s population, particularly for those living in Asia or West Africa, rice is central to their diet – often included in every meal. In the Thai language the verb ‘to eat’ is ‘kin Khao’ which literally means ‘to eat rice’. Much of this rice is produced in paddies, the methane-producing properties of which are well known. For each ton of rice grain produced there is around a ton of straw (0.7 – 1.4 tons depending upon variety) which must be utilised in some way. I discussed this with a farming friend in India who advised that:
- In those parts of India where intensive farming continues (as per the Green Revolution and notably in the Punjab) the straw is immediately burnt so that the land can be flooded and another crop planted. This is a major cause of air pollution in India (producing around 7,000kg of CO2 per ha).
- In northern India, particularly in Bihar, the straw is mainly used as feed for cattle (although it may also be collected for making bricks) supplemented with some form of green material through which this low value product is converted into a valuable manure. The role of these cattle in reducing such air pollution should be a measurable benefit.
He also told me that around 5kg of buffalo dung in a small biodigester will produce enough biogas to cook a day’s meal for a family (replacing bottled gas) with the residual dung still containing all its nurturing nutrients when added to the soil.
In some parts of the world, rice has a value way above its nutritional content reflected in the South East Asian proverb ‘The Cambodians grow the rice, the Vietnamese sell the rice but the Laotians listen to the rice growing’ whilst in Thailand rice has become the centre of Thai culture, with over 3,500 known varieties.
In her introduction to the Savory Institute annual report, an introduction which I commend you to read in full, Daniele Ibarra-Howell writes:
‘As we reflect on 2024, we are called to something deeper than progress—something that defines the very foundation of our work: Reverence.’
And in Jimmy’s introduction to the inspiring Pasture for Life annual report there is a picture of Gowbarrow Farm overwritten with the words, ‘We are part of a hopeful future’.
There is a phrase:
If you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it.
It clearly has an element of truth in it. To make a cake you need to measure the quantities of ingredients that go into it. But I am also acutely aware of Einstein’s observation that:
‘Not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted’.
Or Robin Wall Kimmerer’s observation that:
‘There are mysteries where a tape measure is not appropriate’.
Within the Pasture for Life community we recognise the need both to measure, as witnessed by our extensive research programme, and to show reverence for those intangible life forces that support and nurture us and the land, plants and animals in our care.
My wife recently attended Chinese brush painting classes. In one of her paintings, shown below, the teacher superimposed the character Ren (pronounced rurn) which she interpreted as ‘tolerance’. But a modern Confucian teacher recently interpreted it as:
‘The ability to feel and to cultivate within ourselves goodness and love and a capacity for service; it is the manifestation of the transcendent in the minds of human beings. Love is one of its faces and, among others, dignity, wisdom and courage…….’
