Milkwood is extremely excited to announce that we’re presenting Allan Savory, founder of Holistic Management, for a series of talks and seminars in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne this coming August.
Alongside our long-time collaborators Kym and Georgie of RegenAG, we’re charged with presenting Holistic Management for what it is: a key tool for reversing desertification and healing climate change. Right now. On this Planet Earth.
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I take it most of you will have seen Allan Savory’s TED talk by now, but if you havent, here it is above. Go make a cuppa and sit down to watch it. There’s a reason why it’s had over 2 million views in the last few months, between the TED site and youtube…
Holistic Management teaches people about the relationship between large herds of wild herbivores and the grasslands and then helps people develop strategies for managing herds of domestic livestock to mimic those wild herds to heal the land.
The economic, environmental and social benefits are enormous.
Currently over 40 million hectares worldwide are under Holistic Management practices, but we could do with a whole lot more.
What we’re aiming for with this tour is to get more conscious consumers, farmers, wanna-be farmers and those advocating clean food systems connected to the fibre of what regenerative agriculture can be. And should be. And how we can use it to heal climate change.
A lot of what Allan talks about seems at first counter-intuitive. More cows? On less ground? Really? When is that ever a good idea?
And yet Holistic Management has shown that while livestock management has been part of the problem of climate change, desertification and degradation of farmlands and watersheds, they can also be an important part of the solution.
Savory has demonstrated time and again in Africa, Australia and North and South America that, properly managed, herbivores can be essential to land restoration.
As a result of using Holistic Management in land restoration, plant growth is lusher, the water table is higher, wildlife thrives, soil carbon increases and, surprisingly, more cattle can be kept.
Advocates of Holistic Management and Allan’s work range from Professor Tim Flannery (who called Holistic Management “one of the key tools at our disposal” to fight climate change) to HRH Prince Charles who states in a speech to IUCN that Holistic Management is an important form of biomimicry which needs to be fostered.
Holistically Managed ranch is on left, desertifying ranch is on right. This is in a climate with 200mm annual rainfall in South Africa
So. Up until this tour, Allan Savory’s visits to Australia have mostly been focussed on working with large-scale graziers, industry conferences, and meetings with ministers. But this time, we and RegenAG are bringing him to the heart of the cities, to take this important message into the thick of it.
This is not just about farming, or our food supply. It’s also about climate change: that thing that scares the bejeezus out of us all, and which we all feel pretty powerless to do anything about. Well, we’re not. We’re really not.
It’s going to be a unique chance to learn from and listen to a world-changer…
The events we’re running are evening talks, followed by morning seminars. In short, if you’re interested, come to an evening talk. If you’re ready to learn more (or you already know more, but you’d jump at the chance to learn from Allan himself, while re-invigorating your knowledge), come to a seminar.
Together we can create a culture of regenerative farming and food production in this country, but we need to do it now. And we all need to know about and advocate tools like Holistic Management to make it happen.
Allan Savory Tour: August 2013
- 14th Aug: An evening with Allan Savory: Brisbane
- 15th Aug: Intro to Holistic Management with Allan Savory: Brisbane
- 16th Aug: An evening with Allan Savory: Sydney
- 17th Aug: Intro to Holistic Management with Allan Savory: Sydney
- 17th Aug: An evening with Allan Savory: Melbourne
- 18th Aug: Intro to Holistic Management with Allan Savory: Melbourne
A super big thanks to The National Landcare Facilitator for getting behind this tour on a national level, and to the Savory Institute for their support.
The full Milkwood and RegenAG crews will be out in force across all three cities, so please join us. It’s going to be a pretty inspirational series of events. And don’t forget to tell all your friends, comrades and your nearest member of parliament to come while you’re at it!
