Ehrlich Gretel - Cows save the planet and other improbable ways of restoring soil to heal the earth

the politics and practise of sustainable living

CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING

Chelsea Green Publishing sees books as tools for effecting cultural change and seeks to empower citizens to participate in reclaiming our global commons and become its impassioned stewards. If you enjoyed reading Cows Save the Planet, please consider these other great books related to Nature & Environment.

GROWING FOOD IN A HOTTER, DRIER LAND
Lessons from Desert Farmers on Adapting to Climate Uncertainty
GARY PAUL NABHAN
9781603584531
Paperback $29.95

PARADISE LOT
Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre, and the Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City
ERIC TOENSMEIER
9781603583992
Paperback $19.95

INQUIRIES INTO THE NATURE OF SLOW MONEY
Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered
WOODY TASCH
Hardcover $21.95
9781603580069
Paperback $15.95
9781603582544

TASTE, MEMORY
Forgotten Foods, Lost Flavors, and Why They Matter
DAVID BUCHANAN
9781603584401
Paperback $17.95

THE SEED UNDERGROUND
A Growing Revolution to Save Food
JANISSE RAY
9781603583060
Paperback $17.95

GOOD MORNING, BEAUTIFUL BUSINESS
The Unexpected Journey of an Activist Entrepreneur and Local-Economy Pioneer
JUDY WICKS
Hardcover $27.95
9781603585057
Paperback $17.95
9781933392240

REBUILDING THE FOODSHED
How to Create Local, Sustainable, and Secure Food Systems
PHILIP ACKERMAN-LEIST
9781603584234
Paperback $19.95

FARMS WITH A FUTURE
Creating and Growing a Sustainable Farm Business
REBECCA THISTLETHWAITE
9781603584388
Paperback $29.95

Judith Schwartzs book gives us not just hope but also a sense that we humansserial destroyers that we arecan actually turn the climate crisis around. This amazing book, wide reaching in its research, offers nothing less than solutions for healing the planet.

GRETEL EHRLICH, from the Foreword

Judith Schwartz takes a fascinating look at the world right beneath our feet. Cows Save the Planet is a surprising, informative, and ultimately hopeful book.

ELIZABETH KOLBERT, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change

In Cows Save the Planet, Judith Schwartz takes us on a fascinating, John McPheestyle journey into the world of soil rehabilitation. The eclectic group of farmers, ranchers, researchers, and environmentalists she visits have one thing in common: they all believe in the importance of organic matter in the soil for solving our most pressing environmental issues. Some of the innovative techniques they use to increase the vitality of their soil include no-tillage, using deep-rooted perennial grasses, cover crops, mulching, and, surprisingly, grazing large herds of animals according to a program called holistic management. Imagine, a book about soil thats a real page turner!

LARRY KORN, editor of The One-Straw Revolution and Sowing Seeds in the Desert by Masanobu Fukuoka

Heres a secret climate-change activists and energy-efficiency and renewable-energy promoters neglect: nature is designed to be self-healing, and her most profound tool is photo-synthesis. Free sunlight is the best energy source to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while also producing organic matter and oxygenand a by-product is healthier soil, forests, wetlands, and ecosystems. When politicians, policy leaders, and activists get serious about cost-effective solutions to climate change, then a top priority will be ecological restoration to harvest and store carbon naturally, and Judith Schwartzs new book will provide a destination and map.

WILL RAAP, founder, Gardeners Supply and Intervale Center

Judith Schwartz reminds us that sustainable range management is as much about the microbes in the soil and their feedback loops with cattle as it is about the cattle themselves. When I finally go home on the range to be composted, I want to be part of the miraculous cycle of rangeland renewal that is managed in the way that Schwartz describes so well.

GARY PAUL NABHAN, author of Desert Terroir, Kellogg Endowed Chair in Sustainable Food Systems, University of Arizona

COWS SAVE
THE PLANET

AND OTHER IMPROBABLE
WAYS OF RESTORING SOIL
TO HEAL THE EARTH

JUDITH D. SCHWARTZ

FOREWORD BY GRETEL EHRLICH

CHELSEA GREEN PUBLISHING
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION, VERMONT

Copyright 2013 by Judith D. Schwartz.
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Bill Bokermann
Developmental Editor: Brianne Goodspeed
Copy Editor: Laura Jorstad
Proofreader: Helen Walden
Indexer: Margaret Holloway
Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Printed in the United States of America.
First printing April, 2013.

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because we use recycled paper, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Cows Save the Planet was printed on Natures Natural, an FSC-certified, 30-percent postconsumer recycled paper supplied by Thomson-Shore.

Schwartz, Judith D.

Cows save the planet and other improbable ways of restoring soil to heal the earth / [by Judith D. Schwartz].