International Gathering 2007
From the Ground Up: Practical Solutions
to Complex Problems
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International Gathering 2007--
Connection & Inspiration By Mike Everett
We arrived at the Hotel Albuquerque in time for the Opening Reception and the ballroom was almost completely full by the time we got there. We enjoyed the great food and conversation, partly catching up with what all we were doing and partly on Holistic Management.
The Opening Reception of the conference was sponsored by Horizon Organic.
Key sponsors for the conference were: Healy Foundation, Horizon Organic,
Intel, Nancy Dickenson, La Montanita Coop, Diamond Tail Ranch, Organic
Valley, and Whole Foods.
The Opening Reception was a good time for folks to catch up after many
years, such as Allan Savory visiting with Bill and Kay Burrows from
Red Bluff, California.
Terry Gompert (Nebraska) and Neil Dennis
(Canada) share a light--hearted moment
during the Opening Reception.
Joel Salatin:Building a Local Food System That Works
Friday morning there were 400 attendees from 8 countries and 15 states
to hear Joel Salatin’s Keynote Address. He began by thanking Allan
Savory for opening the way for so many producers and others with his work.
Then, he started to dissect the current state of American agriculture
and national security. He said that the American food system is vulnerable
in three areas: Centralized Production, Centralized Processing, and Long
Distance Hauling and Inventory.
Joel Salatin roused the crowd with his talk on Building a Local Food System
that Works.
Most supermarkets currently have three days worth of food on the shelves and there is only a 45-day supply in the pipeline at any one time. He said the obvious answers to these problems are exactly the ones that government and industry refuse to take: Diversified, Local Food Producers, Local Food Processing, and Local Marketing.
Allan Savory received a standing ovation when Joel Salatin began his speech
by sharing his deep gratitude for Allan's work.
As the title of his new book states, Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, he described what could happen if policy decisions allowed producers, small processors, and consumers to meet each other on their own terms. His number one recommendation was to abolish the USDA. But in concrete terms he is pushing for what he calls the "Food Emancipation Policy," which would allow consumers to opt-out of the industrial system and deal directly with food producers without interference. He called it a person’s most fundamental right: the right to choose where to get food. He told us of a new program set up by the Weston Price Foundation, the Farmer Legal Defense Association, providing 24-hour legal advice on farm issues for $120 per year. He urged all producers to join.
He entertained and educated the crowd with his stories of his farm and
how by serving his customers and his family’s quality of life goal,
his farm keeps expanding in area and in products. Besides his famous chickens,
eggs, and salad-bar beef, he has opened his wood lots up to his pigs,
who feed on acorns part of the year now. He advised us to be innovative
and to invent, adapt, or construct what we needed to get the job done,
not just go out and buy something we could make ourselves. It was a very
inspiring talk and a good opening for this conference of innovators from
around the world.
HMI's Shannon Horst introduced Joel Salatin.
Friday Paralell Sessions
Betsy Ross spoke on her experience of plant succession with the
soil
food web in Texas.
Certified Educator Tony Malmberg of Lander, Wyoming spoke to
educators
about how to teach Holistic Planned Grazing and Biological Monitoring.
HMI Board member Roby Wallace spoke on Effective Small Business
Planning.
Three generations of the James family from Durango, Colorado
spoke about their experience with Family Enterprises.
Mark Campbell along with other members of the Campbell clan, including
his wife, Blusette, and father, Don, shared their experience of working
together on Family Enterprises.
Dale Lasater presented information about Sustainable Genetics.
Fred Provenza spoke on Behavior-Based Grazing for Animal Wellbeing, Ecosystem
Diversity, and Enterprise Sustainability.
After many parallel sessions during the course of the day and a fine lunch, the day finished with yet another excellent meal (beef donated by Byron & Shelly Shelton of Landmark Harvest) and entertainment from Raphael Cristy recreating Charlie Russell’s Yarns, a very entertaining one-man show.
Friday Night at the Auction
After the show, the evening finished with a Live and Silent Auction that
included a number of photo safari trips to ranches in Mexico, Texas, and
HMI’s ranch next to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. What may have been
the most interesting item, was a fly rod that ended up at $1,100 in a
duel between Allan and Roger Savory, with Roger finally outlasting Allan.
Chuck Stocks donated his auctioneering skills that netted HMI
over $12,000 for projects and services.
A Certified Educator breakfast on Saturday brought together Certified
Educators from around the world to discuss issues of recertification.
Temple Grandin: If You Eat, You Are a Change Agent
Early Saturday morning we gathered in the ballroom and partook of a thought-provoking and challenging keynote from Dr. Temple Grandin on creating Animal Handling Welfare Audits for many of the large restaurant chains, including McDonalds and Wendy’s. She urged the audience to work as consumers or producers with local processors to adapt them to their own ranches and facilities in order to match the big boys.
Temple Grandin speaking with filmmaker Aaron Lucich.
Addressing the largely producer audience, she said there should be no yelling or whistling when working livestock, electric prods should not be carried but placed where one had to walk to get one as a last resort for a balky animal. What most often is called working livestock is based on fear, and a fearful, stressed animal takes up to 30 minutes to calm down. Calm animals work much easier than stressed animals and are less likely to hurt themselves or humans. She then gave us a list of dos and don’ts when working any animal, whether on the ranch or farm or at the processing facility, and to watch out for transporters as well, as many of them are very aggressive in their treatment of animals.
She told us the reasons calm animals were better for everyone: easier
to work, getting a bruise can cause dark cutters as scar tissue from a
bruise which can last up to 6 months, the animal could hurt itself or
humans, many plants now dock producers for “wild” animals
that jump and chase, etc. She gave short lists of Critical Control Points
that she uses for both processing facilities and farms. Overall, it was
a stirring and very thought-provoking address which had the conference
attendees discussing it the rest of the conference.
Co-Founder Jody Butterfield introduced Temple Grandin.
Saturday Paralell Sessions
Financial planner, investment advisor, and Certified Educator Christopher
Peck spoke about Values Based Finances for the Conscious Consumer.
George Work spoke on a number of topics at the conference
including Ecotourism and Estate Planning.
Conference participants enjoyed learning from 30 exhibitors whose booths
filled the exhibit hall and lined the hallways.
Thom Hartmann: The Human Relationship to the Environment
After more parallel sessions, we broke for another great lunch and conversation
with a keynote speech on the Human Relationship to Environment from Thom
Hartmann, author, lecturer, radio show host, and psychotherapist. He described
using ancient texts including Gilgamesh and the Bible to draw out the
warnings of civilizations as to the destruction of the environment (Gilgamesh
and the Forest God) and the dangers of tillage agriculture (Cain and Abel),
and we ignore these warning at our peril.
Author and radio host Thom Hartmann drew a big local crowd for his
talk and booksigning.
He described the possibly fatal myth that Aristotle and Descartes created
that humans are separate and above Nature instead of Nature. That path
has led us to where we are today with 45,000 people starving to death
and 132 species becoming extinct daily. He warned us that if we did not
reconnect with Nature in a very serious and lasting way and correct our
mistakes, we were doomed. He called on us to help form a new myth to make
that reconnection.
Outgoing HMI Board of Directors Chair Ron Chapman
introduced Thom Hartmann.
Allan Savory: Healing the Land
Saturday’s closing reception was much awaited as the keynote speaker was Allan Savory himself, speaking on Healing the Land. This is what the attendees, including myself, had waited for all weekend. Mr. Savory reminded us all of how important the work each of us were doing, but we must expand our reach and share with others the message of Holistic Management: 1) land degradation can be reversed by using livestock, 2) decisions can be made in a better way, and 3) everyone’s quality of life can be improved. But, there is not much time left. Humans only join together long enough to overcome a challenge, then revert to killing each other.
Allan Savory delivered the final keynote speech of the conference
and received a standing ovation.
On global climate change, our greatest challenge yet and a true battle for survival, he said the best outcome we can hope for is major social disruptions, with urban areas being the worst; the worst outcome is runaway weather leading to the destruction of all higher life forms on Earth. Nevertheless, we should be optimistic, because this is the first time in history that we have the knowledge and technology to make the changes necessary. We know the cause—land degradation, which has lead to biodiversity loss and global climate change. We have on the shelf technology to mitigate and reverse land degradation.
He told us that in order to survive this challenge there is no “silver bullet”, that a combination of high tech – alternative fuels, lower emissions, etc., and low tech – carbon sequestering in soil and oceans, must be used. The greatest hope lies in soil carbon sequestration in the near term as ocean sequestration will take longer. If we can reverse land degradation on the large scale, it will:
1. Stop carbon loss into the air,
2. Sequester carbon in the renewing soils,
3. Store massive amounts of water in the soil,
4. Allow us to deal head on with poverty and hunger, and, finally
5. Offer humanity its best chance to survive.
As an example, he told us that approximately 30 million acres worldwide are being managed holistically at present. The organic matter on those acres has, on average, increased by 1 percent. That one percent increase in organic matter leads to an increased sequestration of 3.6 gigatons of carbon in the soil. Because the fate of water and carbon are tied to organic matter, increased water infiltration has also been noted. On one holistically managed ranch, water infiltration has increased 775 percent. With increasing organic matter, carbon, and water, rangelands are again being covered with grasses and forbs. On HMI’s ranch in Africa, even after two years of drought, there has been a 500 percent increase in stocking rate and the return of elephants, buffalo, and antelopes. They can’t keep up with the grass.
He told the audience that there must be a rapid expansion of what they
were doing—practicing and/or teaching Holistic Management. People
at the grassroots level were needed who had the knowledge to do the right
thing, and there must be policy changes to empower them to do what they
knew to be right. He left us with a word to be optimistic, to get to work,
and to spread the word. At the end, there was a deafening standing ovation.