Weekend Reads

Allan Savory is the father of holistic management, a systems-thinking approach he pioneered decades ago after witnessing the run away desertification destroying his native Zimbabwe.

To return grassland soils to a condition where they can do their job as a major carbon sink, Savory says effective livestock management is needed. And in the latest edition of his book: Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment, he expounds on why he believes this to be the case, sharing some of the ideas he introduced during his now famous 2014 TED Talk: how to fight desertification and reverse climate change, which has been watched by nearly 8 million people, and was voted one of the 50 most intriguing TED talks of all time.

“I think we’ve had almost every sane person calling themselves a scientist acknowledge that humans are causing climate change,” Savory said this week on Inside Ideas. “That acknowledgment means that if we are causing it then coal, oil, gas, corporate greed – all the things we’re blaming, are not the cause. If we are causing it, it is our management of resources. It is how we manage coal and oil, how we manage livestock and have for thousands of years, that is what is causing it, not the resources themselves.”

For Savory, the mismanagement of resources is the number one issue that must be overcome if the world is to have a shot at overcoming the challenges of climate change. The co-founder of the Savory Institute, a global movement of regenerative farmers and land managers, he describes in the book his efforts to find workable solutions people can implement to overcome many of the problems besetting communities and businesses today.

Savory believes change will happen but that the road ahead will be more than a little bumpy.

“Buckle in, the ride is going to get worse and worse until we use basic common sense and address the cause of the problem,” he added.

Catch up with the full podcast for more from the pages of Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment.

Building Community Food Webs

In his new book, Building Community Food Webs, Ken Meter, one of America’s most renowned food system analysts, shows how civic networks led by ‘grassroots food and farming leaders’ in the U.S. are working to deliver healthier, more equitable food systems that can combat hunger.

“Overturning extractive economic structures, these inspired leaders are engaging low-income residents, farmers, and local organisations in their quest to build stronger communities,” the book’s publisher, Island Press says.

Meter cites trust as the key element underpinning these networks of community food webs, which ‘strive to build health, wealth, capacity, and connection’. It is an inspiring story of people power, with those marginalised by the current state of food systems collaborating to forge a new path that addresses one of the toughest challenges facing humanity: how to ensure everyone has easy access to healthy and nutritious food.

Catch up with the full podcast for more from the pages of Building Community Food Webs.