What do you think?
Rate this book
Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment
Fossil fuels and livestock grazing are often targeted as major culprits behind climate change and desertification. But Allan Savory, cofounder of the Savory Institute, begs to differ. The bigger problem, he warns, is our mismanagement of resources. Livestock grazing is not the problem; it’s how we graze livestock. If we don’t change the way we approach land management, irreparable harm from climate change could continue long after we replace fossil fuels with environmentally benign energy sources.
Holistic management is a systems-thinking approach for managing resources developed by Savory decades ago after observing the devastation of desertification in his native Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Properly managed livestock are key to restoring the world’s grassland soils, the major sink for atmospheric carbon, and minimizing the most damaging impacts on humans and the natural world. This book updates Savory's paradigm-changing vision for reversing desertification, stemming the loss of biodiversity, eliminating fundamental causes of human impoverishment throughout the world, and climate change. Reorganized chapters make it easier for readers to understand the framework for Holistic Management and the four key insights that underlie it. New color photographs showcase before-and-after examples of land restored by livestock.
This long-anticipated new edition is written for new generations of ranchers, farmers, eco- and social entrepreneurs, and development professionals working to address global environmental and social degradation. It offers new hope that a sustainable future for humankind and the world we depend on is within reach.
Holistic management is a systems-thinking approach for managing resources developed by Savory decades ago after observing the devastation of desertification in his native Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Properly managed livestock are key to restoring the world’s grassland soils, the major sink for atmospheric carbon, and minimizing the most damaging impacts on humans and the natural world. This book updates Savory's paradigm-changing vision for reversing desertification, stemming the loss of biodiversity, eliminating fundamental causes of human impoverishment throughout the world, and climate change. Reorganized chapters make it easier for readers to understand the framework for Holistic Management and the four key insights that underlie it. New color photographs showcase before-and-after examples of land restored by livestock.
This long-anticipated new edition is written for new generations of ranchers, farmers, eco- and social entrepreneurs, and development professionals working to address global environmental and social degradation. It offers new hope that a sustainable future for humankind and the world we depend on is within reach.
552 pages, Paperback
Published November 10, 2016
87 people are currently reading
651 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 9, 2024
A lot of people in regen farming I feel like are a bit too obsessed with this guy. Besides his ideas about the brittleness scale and grazing this boils down to a book about mindful management that considers ecology, community, and economy. I guess I agree, but I’m not gonna worship the dude for that. It’s not like addressing root causes, considering all stakeholders, or biomimicry are new ideas.
Also Savory has one of the worst Wikipedia pages I’ve read. Political involvement in apartheid, mass elephant culling, and lies about climate change??
Holistic management and grazing seems okay enough, but heaping praise on a dude who has such an incredibly racist past? Not for me tbh.
Also Savory has one of the worst Wikipedia pages I’ve read. Political involvement in apartheid, mass elephant culling, and lies about climate change??
Holistic management and grazing seems okay enough, but heaping praise on a dude who has such an incredibly racist past? Not for me tbh.
November 26, 2021
Klimata pārmaiņas notiek, un patlaban lieli grēkāži ir fermeri ar savām govīm. Bet izrādās liellopus ganot atbilstoši 'holistic management' (daudz liellopi mazā platībā, bet uz neilgu brīdi), var panākt pretējo - palielināt organiskās vielas saturu augsnē (no atmosfēras piestāstīt CO2), palienāt bioloģisko daudzveidību (gan augsnē, gan virs tās), kā arī apturēt pārtuksnešanos vietās, kur tas aktuāli.
May 25, 2024
So thought provoking and the principles are not just applicable to agriculture and nature but throughout all daily life itself.
August 22, 2019
Principles to solve modern problems in systematic way thats in harmony with nature
Allon Savory is a Sage of our time. Just like Jane Jacobs was a Prophetess of modern urban renewal, Savory shows us a systems of rules to renew vast lands that are going barren or turning into desserts. All his rules together he packages under the system he calls Holistic Management.
The authority with which he writes come from the fact that his system of ideas were formulated in Zimbabwe under incredibly hostile and desperate conditions, where politics, mass starvation, and civil war all worked to wreck huge devastations. But its in this furnace Savory develops these system of ideas that can help us use what we already have at our disposal to tackle these very problems in a Holistic manner that can heal our communities, land, and the whole of our Ecology.
Allon Savory is a Sage of our time. Just like Jane Jacobs was a Prophetess of modern urban renewal, Savory shows us a systems of rules to renew vast lands that are going barren or turning into desserts. All his rules together he packages under the system he calls Holistic Management.
The authority with which he writes come from the fact that his system of ideas were formulated in Zimbabwe under incredibly hostile and desperate conditions, where politics, mass starvation, and civil war all worked to wreck huge devastations. But its in this furnace Savory develops these system of ideas that can help us use what we already have at our disposal to tackle these very problems in a Holistic manner that can heal our communities, land, and the whole of our Ecology.
February 15, 2023
Audiobook
Original review: Highly recommended to anyone. Lots of information in here that goes against much of what we've been taught and assumptions made over the past century. I recommend listening to the author's Ted talk to determine whether this is a topic you want to devote 17 hours (audio) toward learning.
Second time around: the information in this book and the trainings put out by the Savory network in general are crucial for the future of our planet. If you remotely care about how we will feed the growing population in the near future without resorting to even more wars and further damaging the planet you must understand the information in this book. Then go eat more beef ..... but sustainably or even better Regeneratively raised.
Original review: Highly recommended to anyone. Lots of information in here that goes against much of what we've been taught and assumptions made over the past century. I recommend listening to the author's Ted talk to determine whether this is a topic you want to devote 17 hours (audio) toward learning.
Second time around: the information in this book and the trainings put out by the Savory network in general are crucial for the future of our planet. If you remotely care about how we will feed the growing population in the near future without resorting to even more wars and further damaging the planet you must understand the information in this book. Then go eat more beef ..... but sustainably or even better Regeneratively raised.
February 20, 2020
Allan is not just a farmer and a scientist but a philosopher, and his 'holistic framework' is one absolutely everyone can benefit from. I think as humans it's essential we understand what our landscapes actually need to thrive rather than bickering from a very small knowledge base as to what's 'right' and 'wrong' so that aspect of the book is going to be useful to the overall discourse, but the cherry-on-top magic of this book is the invitation for us all to think more about 'the whole' and what holistic decision making looks like in our lives and for our planet. It's the kind of book I wish every politician would read before running for office in the hope that they'd think much bigger picture and longer term about the 'whole' of the impact of various decisions. A must read.
July 31, 2018
De todos los libros que he leído sobre agricultura/ganadería sustentable; este es definitivamente el más completo (y no solo porque usa la palabra holístico en el título). También, este es el único con ideas aplicables (que las tienes que ajustar al contexto en el que vives). En resumen:
- no todos los ambientes son iguales, el enfoque y las acciones deben ser diferente
- holístico aplica a la administración, que incluye desde la toma de decisiones del negocio (si fuera negocio) hasta las políticas públicas necesarias
Y lo que ya sabíamos: los alimentos son el problema, y los alimentos son la solución.
- no todos los ambientes son iguales, el enfoque y las acciones deben ser diferente
- holístico aplica a la administración, que incluye desde la toma de decisiones del negocio (si fuera negocio) hasta las políticas públicas necesarias
Y lo que ya sabíamos: los alimentos son el problema, y los alimentos son la solución.
November 22, 2021
This third edition of Holistic Management is a great handbook on how to manage land in a regenerative way. It goes into the details when it comes to holistic financial, planned gracing, ecological monitoring, and land planning. Allan has lifelong experience and have found that the key is how we manage not how we produce.
In my podcast Inside Ideas, Allan Savory goes into the details and on how we can save the environment. You will find episode no 143 here: https://youtu.be/qzNO0Qlkeec
Or check out any of the links below:
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/how-can...
In my podcast Inside Ideas, Allan Savory goes into the details and on how we can save the environment. You will find episode no 143 here: https://youtu.be/qzNO0Qlkeec
Or check out any of the links below:
https://www.innovatorsmag.com/how-can...
September 23, 2018
Really like this book, although it might be worth splitting the concepts of holistic management and regenerative agriculture into two separate volumes so that it is easier for readers to find the specific information that they are looking for, regarding to either land management or management techniques in general.
March 6, 2020
I have to get back to it and relisten later because there is a lot of information to process, but overall, excellent! Four stars instead of 5, because I'd have really liked to hear Allan say something about pigs as well, how they would affect the soil they are on, which is our main animal on the farm, not just grazing animals.
January 2, 2020
It changed my life. I love this book
July 29, 2020
One of those damn paradigm changing books.
Cows are good for land?! (sometimes)
Cows are good for land?! (sometimes)
April 4, 2023
Book of the Day – Holistic Management
Today’s Book of the Day is HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT: A COMMONSENSE REVOLUTION TO RESTORE OUR ENVIRONMENT, written by Allan Savory in 2016 and published by Island Press.
Allan Savory is a Zimbabwean livestock farmer, co-founder and president of the Savory Institute. He is the creator of holistic management, a systems thinking approach to better management of resources.
I have chosen this book because I am, since 1990, an active supporter of every politics that can help mitigate the devasting effects of climate change on our environment.
Allan Savory is a pioneer in addressing the environmental issues generated by livestock farming. His innovative point of view, brilliantly explained in this book, is that there is a huge lot of bad management in this field and that if we do not drastically change it, we will not be able to really make a positive impact on our world.
Starting from the direct witnessing of desertification, the author understood that land management is the key element to avoiding permanent harm to the environment.
The proposal of Holistic management is a systems-thinking revolution that aims at designing a completely different approach to managing resources. Savory shows, in this book, how mindful management of livestock is essential not only to preserve but even to restore grassland soils, which represent one of the biggest, if not the biggest sequestrators of atmospheric carbon.
This third edition of the book brings the readers new updates on the idea of Holistic Management, spreading positive and practical tools to reverse land desertification, address the loss of biodiversity from its roots, and fight climate change.
Savory advocates the development and adoption of the most advanced technologies so as to develop alternative energy sources and reduce future harmful emissions to a minimum. He is a great supporter of grass-fed beef while opposing industrial livestock production.
There has been some resistance against this approach and some studies seem to indicate that Savory’s approach would not be sufficient, alone, to steer a permanent change in the emissions and the sequestration rates caused by livestock management. Yet, I consider this book and its proposed method to represent a good step in the right direction.
We all live on this planet, and it’s a responsibility for each of us to do what we can, with what we have, to promote politics, systems, and approaches that can help our planet survive.
Today’s Book of the Day is HOLISTIC MANAGEMENT: A COMMONSENSE REVOLUTION TO RESTORE OUR ENVIRONMENT, written by Allan Savory in 2016 and published by Island Press.
Allan Savory is a Zimbabwean livestock farmer, co-founder and president of the Savory Institute. He is the creator of holistic management, a systems thinking approach to better management of resources.
I have chosen this book because I am, since 1990, an active supporter of every politics that can help mitigate the devasting effects of climate change on our environment.
Allan Savory is a pioneer in addressing the environmental issues generated by livestock farming. His innovative point of view, brilliantly explained in this book, is that there is a huge lot of bad management in this field and that if we do not drastically change it, we will not be able to really make a positive impact on our world.
Starting from the direct witnessing of desertification, the author understood that land management is the key element to avoiding permanent harm to the environment.
The proposal of Holistic management is a systems-thinking revolution that aims at designing a completely different approach to managing resources. Savory shows, in this book, how mindful management of livestock is essential not only to preserve but even to restore grassland soils, which represent one of the biggest, if not the biggest sequestrators of atmospheric carbon.
This third edition of the book brings the readers new updates on the idea of Holistic Management, spreading positive and practical tools to reverse land desertification, address the loss of biodiversity from its roots, and fight climate change.
Savory advocates the development and adoption of the most advanced technologies so as to develop alternative energy sources and reduce future harmful emissions to a minimum. He is a great supporter of grass-fed beef while opposing industrial livestock production.
There has been some resistance against this approach and some studies seem to indicate that Savory’s approach would not be sufficient, alone, to steer a permanent change in the emissions and the sequestration rates caused by livestock management. Yet, I consider this book and its proposed method to represent a good step in the right direction.
We all live on this planet, and it’s a responsibility for each of us to do what we can, with what we have, to promote politics, systems, and approaches that can help our planet survive.
June 23, 2024
⭐️ 5/5
1. […] the environment is ultimately everyone’s concern if we are to sustain our economies, our civilization, and our planet. – pg. 63
2. Humans have a need to experience challenge; without it we fail to grow and develop. – pg. 84
3. There is far more collaboration in nature than competition. – pg. 127
4. Because all life depends on the plant’s ability, through photosynthesis, to convert sunlight energy into edible forms, so does every economy, every nation, and every civilization. – pg. 142
5. In truth, every person in the world has exactly the same amount of time. How we manage it makes the difference in the quality of our lives and in what we achieve through our creativity. – pg. 173
6. The authors were not being dishonest, just human. – pg. 207
7. Rather than condemn the animal, we should be condemning our management for what we have done. – pg. 228
8. […] natural cases give the purest illustrations […]. – pg. 404
9. Although you might have spent considerable effort creating the best possible plan, when your monitoring turns up a few adverse figures, you have no option but to do better than your best. – pg. 493
10. Almost all of the problems overwhelming us now are, I believe, a consequence of reductionist management, where the context is reduced to a need, desire, or problem, when we, in fact, live in a holistic world and must manage within a holistic context. – pg. 499
1. […] the environment is ultimately everyone’s concern if we are to sustain our economies, our civilization, and our planet. – pg. 63
2. Humans have a need to experience challenge; without it we fail to grow and develop. – pg. 84
3. There is far more collaboration in nature than competition. – pg. 127
4. Because all life depends on the plant’s ability, through photosynthesis, to convert sunlight energy into edible forms, so does every economy, every nation, and every civilization. – pg. 142
5. In truth, every person in the world has exactly the same amount of time. How we manage it makes the difference in the quality of our lives and in what we achieve through our creativity. – pg. 173
6. The authors were not being dishonest, just human. – pg. 207
7. Rather than condemn the animal, we should be condemning our management for what we have done. – pg. 228
8. […] natural cases give the purest illustrations […]. – pg. 404
9. Although you might have spent considerable effort creating the best possible plan, when your monitoring turns up a few adverse figures, you have no option but to do better than your best. – pg. 493
10. Almost all of the problems overwhelming us now are, I believe, a consequence of reductionist management, where the context is reduced to a need, desire, or problem, when we, in fact, live in a holistic world and must manage within a holistic context. – pg. 499
June 12, 2020
Largely a reprinting of indigenous ideas with little to no credit being given where it is due. Savory is a scientist and farmer in the same way that Elvis was a musician -- he's good, but most of his material is stolen.
March 17, 2023
This is a very clear book on land management which is complex, detailed and brilliant. It is not an easy read because you have to keep stopping and thinking about what he has to say, but it will change the way you view land management.
December 15, 2023
Alan Savory is the grandfather of the regenerative management movement and does a fine job of weaving his own story into the concepts of regeneration. I love people who are paying attention to the world around them and thinking about in systems.
April 13, 2024
A fascinating book that combines clear-headed environmental concepts alongside cold hard business sense. While predominantly focused on agricultural enterprises, many of the approaches are equally applicable to other businesses.
April 23, 2019
Deceptively detailed and a relatively heavy read. It covers a number of conceptual ideas and leaves the nuanced detail to other ebooks.
Read
June 24, 2018A polemic to action. Our industrialist agriculture is being challenged to make it's work sustainable not necessarily profitable at all costs, even the very resource that sustains it is expendable:- soil!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews