FEASTA Lecture 2009 - Keeping Cattle: cause or cure for climate crisis?

dublin | environment | event notice Thursday October 29, 2009 18:19 by Liamo

The lecture will take place at 2.30 pm on Saturday, November 7th, at the JM Synge Lecture Theatre, Arts Block, Trinity College, Dublin. Admission is 10 euros, or 5 euros for members of Feasta or the Carbon Cycles and Sinks Network and the unwaged. Please contact us at [email protected], (098) 25313 or (01) 661 9572 if you would like more information.

2009 Feasta lecture, "Keeping Cattle: Cause or cure for climate crisis?".

This year's lecture will be given by Allan Savory, a Zimbabwean biologist and farmer who was the 2003 winner of the Australian Banksia Environmental Foundation prize. He will argue that while livestock may contribute to climate change, they can also be an important part of the solution. He has demonstrated time and again in Africa, Australia and North and South America that, properly managed, they are essential to land restoration. With the right techniques, plant growth is lusher, the water table is higher, wildlife thrives, soil carbon increases and, surprisingly, perhaps four times as many cattle can be kept.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, raising livestock contributes 18% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalent terms, if the forest clearance and pasture degradation to which it leads are included. This is a similar amount to the world's transport sector. Livestock are the source of 9% of human-induced CO2 emissions, 37% of its methane emissions and, when the growing of feed crops is included, 65% of its nitrous oxide emissions.

In Ireland, about 13% of the warming effect of the annual release of greenhouse gases comes from the methane produced by the national livestock herd. The government thinks it has to choose between cutting livestock numbers and cutting cars.

Allan Savory will argue that while livestock may be part of the problem, they can also be an important part of the solution. He has demonstrated time and again in Africa, Australia and North and South America that, properly managed, they are essential to land restoration. With the right techniques, plant growth is lusher, the water table is higher, wildlife thrives, soil carbon increases and, surprisingly, perhaps four times as many cattle can be kept.

Savory, the 2003 winner of the Australian Banksia Environmental Foundation prize, is a Zimbabwean biologist and farmer. He was a member of the Rhodesian Parliament and had to go into exile after opposing the policies of Ian Smith. He had previously declared that if he had been born a black Rhodesian he would have been a guerrilla fighter.