BIODIVERSITY and the WORLD

According to the current ORGANIC GARDENING Magazine (June/July 2009), "natural grasslands act as a reservoir for nearly a third of the world's carbon, making them an important resource in the battle against global warming." In line with that statistic, natural grasslands cover just over a third of the land mass of the earth. But that number is rapidly diminishing.

So too are the rainforests. Each year an area the size of Portugal dissapears from the planet.

But research proposes a global, mutually-benefital method to reverse this trend: grass-fed beef and lamb.

This is the heart of biodiversity. Land used for the production of natural food slows the encroachment of development and mass deforestation. In turn, production animals readily and directly improve the quality of the soil with their wastes. Quid-pro-quo, improved soil produces improved plant-feed, inturn producing superior meat, milk, cheese - even fleece.

Recent research at the University of Exeter in the UK profiled 75 farms producing meat and cheese and found that not only was grass-fed lamb and beef more tender and flavorful, but was also higher in linoleic acid, antioxidants and vitamin E than their conventionally-raised counterparts. An added bonus is the animals are actually healhtier, less-stressed, and in need of less medical care.

The French concept, terroir, sites the link between the quality characteristics of food as reflective of the soil and climate they were raised in. Although this may seem inherently sensible, it is not by and large how we produce food in America. But that's not to say it is not feasible.

On a relatively recent trip to my ancestral homeland I found the Irish animals in these photographs happily free-ranging on massive grasslands. The sight of these grasslands in Ireland is as much a part of the landscape in that country as are village pubs, plots of celtic crosses, and rain.

Personally I can state as fact that what passes for "conventionally-raised" meats and cheeses in Ireland equates to "specialty" food in America. The Irish staples have always and continue to be grass-fed, symbiotic systems.

One system in County Waterford in fact, incorporated a haying operation into the mix as well. Sections of a field, separated by ancient stone walls moved cattle from one coral to the next over a production season. When the grasses were high enough they were baled, thereafter cattle grazed the stumble, littering it with manure, and then moved on to repeat the process elsewhere.

Needless to say the temperate, rainy climate of southern Eire aided the process, but I've seen the same general methods employed in France, Costa Rica, Spain, Colombia...countries rich and poor alike. The result is flavorful and nutritionally superior food - meat, milk, icecream, and cheese that is just not largely available in the US. Even in the poorest neighborhood in Costa Rica, the ground beef is a dozen times better than the best grade of burger in the US.

Biodiversity is all about simple systems. Sometimes the more we learn, the more we realize we've gotten away from what really matters.