Activity 2.3.2- Ranches and Grasslands Conservation

Six-Point Critical Analysis Worksheet 1. Exploratory                                        A gentleman named Jim Howell is the CEO of a company called Grassland LLC, which is a subcompany that exists under a company called Savory institutes, both of which Jim co-founded. Grasslands LLC. is the land management branch of Savory, which both “focus on conserving and restoring the world’s grasslands through what they call “Holistic management” (Robertson, E. 2016). When it comes to the grasslands and plains of the world, there are more efficient, and cost-saving measures that can be used to not only make the land healthier, but to also receive more yield from the agricultural practices they perform, equivalating to more money being brought to the ranch. Robertson himself describes Holistic Management as      The more efficient practice that Jim and his company use to have healthier, and more conservative-conscious fields is the practice of Holistic Management. According to Ed Robertson, the interviewer in the podcast, Holistic Management can be described as a process, and in this process livestock are used in order to “mimic natural grazing patterns from hundreds of thousands of years ago”, long before these natural habitats were developed by humans (Robertson, E. 2016).      In Activity 3.2.3.1 (which I did not make a blog post for but will in the near future) we introduced to a large scale, solar-electric farm that was built in Dalton city, Georgia by a company called Hanwha (Hsu,. 2019). Hanwha is a company based in South Korea who manufactures the needed components to make solar panels to produce electricity, and who seeks to spread operations globally (Hanwha, 2020). In the article we were given to read, which is called “How Georgia Became A Surprising Bright Spot In The U.S. Solar Industry”, the article talks about the solar opportunities that are brought to the farmlands (or grasslands) of Georgia, and also introduces a local from that area of Georgia who runs his pastures a little different from others around him. This gentleman is named Will Harris, and he believes that “agriculture, solar (electric farms), and sustainability go hand in hand” with the right practices (Hsu,. 2019).     Will is the owner of White Oak Pastures, and for the last two decades has been utilizing a type of farming practice, similar to Holistic Management, called regenerative land management. With regenerative land management, Will raises cattle, sheep, hogs, poultry and rabbits using only the organically raised grasses in his pastures. He rotates the animals through the pastures for them to not only graze, but also fertilize with their waste. He says this is not the cheapest way to raise animals, but it is the right way because it makes the animals healthier, and ultimately makes these anthropogenic practices more sustainable for the earth (Land Regeneration).       These two practices of conservation when it comes to grasslands and agriculture are path paving ways of thinking. They are being conscientious of not only the health of the animals they are raising, but also of the land and plants they are using to raise these animals. All of these aspects combined help to create practices which export healthier products out into society, but also bring in more revenue for their farms in ranches in ways that are healthy for the earth.   2. Diagnostic                                           The utilization of conservative practices in land management occur because people, especially ranchers and farmers, are becoming more aware of the problems they face, and that the world faces environmentally. Ranchers and farmers literally make their money, and living, off of the plant and animal products they sell from their lands. As a business owner, especially one who relies on nature to make money, the issue has always risen that the environment they are growing on aren’t too healthy, and that they are producing less crops than they should be. The other issue that always faces business owners and farmers is money. We all need money to be able to buy food and life-management supplies, and farmers need to do that for a bunch of animals as well as themselves. Because of this, and many other things, business owners are always trying to find ways to make more money and produce more yield from their productions.      Some business owners and farmers also realize that maintaining the health of their farms and environments means they will get that better yield. They’ve also been able to realize that many typical agricultural practice are wasteful, and ultimately damaging to humans, the environment, and the biodiversity of these environments. Combined with the ever growing knowledge of the impending threat of climate change (Lewis, Madison), these ways of thinking and bits of knowledge have been able to be synergized by a few rare individuals in way that they were able to create land management processes that would not only make the farms and animals more healthy and productive, but that would ultimately leave an impact on the earth that is positive and full of growth-opportunities, instead of negative and destructive.     3. Cause and Effect                               If even just half of the world were to adopt conservative land management practices for agriculture and business processes, we could put the world on track to truly being a sustainable place to live, and not HAVE to entertain thoughts of living on different planets like mars, because we will have the resources and clean living spaces to continue thriving on earth. If farmers, ranchers, and business owners do not adopt more sustainable land management practices, and instead continue to remain ignorant to how wasteful, destructive, and unsustainable their processes of working actually are, then we as a human race likely WILL have to continuously consider living on different planets simply because we made ours so uninhabitable. If that is the case, and people don’t adopt better processes, then towards the end of human life on earth, whether it be through extinction or moving off planet, humans are going to be experiencing a lot more disease, death, and pain in general because they will constantly be consuming the harmful, toxic chemicals that have over taken the earth.   4. Priority      The most important issue here is sustainability. Like mentioned earlier, many bad things can and will continue to happen to the environment, and human health, until we can make better changes. We as humans are extremely wasteful, and on average, America alone uses 3.5 times the resources that the earth actually has available in just one year. If every country did that, then in less than 5 years, our earth will be a desolate wasteland that can’t sustain life.    Sustaining life is important, because it is how the human race will continue to survive and thrive for thousands of years to come, just like it did for the thousands of years before this. The issue of having sustainable habits is what is important here because, if we can be self-sustainable, or self-supporting, and be able to regenerate those resources we use as soon as, or sooner than we do now, we won’t have to deal with the exaggerated illness, aches, pains, and death rates that are caused due to the building up of effects caused by unsustainable living practices.   5. Application                                          This applies to me and the culture we have studied so far, because it helps me understand that I myself, even as an individual need to make changes to my ways of living so that I can contribute to the human race being more sustainable. It makes me further realize I need to be deeply probing and analyzing the issues that face the world and humans in the environment, so that I can have a better understanding of how to make changes to my life that will actually be effective and efficient enough to be considered sustainable. For example, when buying and raising animals on my own ranches, I can make changes that align with the holistic management processes and regenerative land processes that help me not only make my animals healthier, but that also makes my land healthier, and my living practices sustainable.   6. Critical                                                 This new knowledge challenges my thinking in a couple different ways. Firstly, it makes me realize that there is a lot more that I need to be doing to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly. Second, it made me realize there is a lot that business and land-owners in general need to be doing to make their practices more sustainable. Third, I remembered from the reading about the solar farm in Georgia that not many states have regulating laws in place that make business owners and land-owners proactively seek to be sustainable in practice. I also learned that most people don’t do things unless they have incentives, like financial gains. Finally, all of this knowledge and realizations made me have the final realization that I personally need to do more in depth research to educate myself on sustainability and conservation so that I can not only educate my family and everyday people on how to help these issues, but also so that I can be more thorough and effective in my future career fields when it comes to making and implementing policies that are aimed at making the human race more sustainable in our environments.

 

 

WORKS CITED

Hanwha, 2020. “Hanwha.com | Energy for Tomorrow .” Creating a More Sustainable Future , Hanwha , www.hanwha.com/en.html.

Hsu, A., & Kelly, M. L. (2019, June 24). How solar grew in Georgia despite lack of mandates on renewable energy. National Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/2019/06/24/733795962/how-georgia-became-a-surprising-bright-spot-in-the-u-s-solar-industry

“Land Regeneration.” Land Regeneration: Building Soil with Animal Impact, White Oak Pastures , www.whiteoakpastures.com/meet-us/environmental-sustainability/.

Lewis, Madison. Activity 3.3.1 Air Pollution Core Activity , Blogger , 21 Oct. 2020, www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/preview/1969934053263801549/7677576905611766379.