This was one of the strongest concepts of Allan Savory’s Master Conference at the World Meat Congress. “Land is desperate for animals, it is actually the opposite of the concept that is being used.” The specialist explained that livestock is not the problem but the solution.
Referring to the enormous difficulties the planet faces today with regard to desertification and climate change, Allan Savory replicated what can be understood as popular belief and claimed the role of livestock in the world.
According to his vision based on studies and years of experience working with and for the land, it is guaranteed that if we graze livestock on grasslands these will recover. “We need to take the animals to the grasslands. The earth needs animals.”
He added that countries like Uruguay in which extensive pastures abound could perfectly well produce more than twice what they are currently producing.
Allan Savory
Allan Savory was born in Zimbabwe and studied Zoology and Botany in South Africa, at the University of Natal.
He began his career as a biologist, researcher and park ranger at the British Colonial Service of then Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and later became a farmer and park ranger in Zimbabwe.
In the 60´s he stood out for his contributions to the understanding of the cause for the degradation and desertification of grassland ecosystems in the world.
Within this context, he worked as a resource management consultant with several land managers across four continents to develop sustainable solutions.
His lecture focused on his experience and his expertise at the Savory Institute, set up in 2009 together with his wife and a group of colleagues in Colorado, to create an international network of innovative business people and leaders committed to serving their regions.
This Institute is one of 11 finalists in the Virgin Earth Challenge, a USD 25 million initiative for the successful commercialization of ways to capture greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and keep them out without any compensatory impact.
In 2009 he founded the African Centre, the first center managed locally and funded by a donation of an establishment to become a learning site for people of all parts of Africa.
In 2003, Allan Savory received the Banksia International Award of Australia “to individuals and institutions for their innovation, achievement and commitment to sustainability at the global level” and in 2010 Savory (and the African Centre) received the Buckminster Fuller Institute Challenge Award for work with a significant potential to solve some of humanity’s most pressing problems.”
Savory´s TED talk in 2013 received more than 3.4 million visits and in 2014 it was chosen as one of the 50 most interesting TED talks of all times.
