Read full article: “What place for livestock on a re-greening earth?”
Summary: This paper contemplates the role of livestock and livestock management in providing helpful ecosystem services, “re-greening the earth,” through a literature review considering both the well documented injurious and highly beneficial outcomes of ruminants on landscapes, such as promoting perennials on landscapes. It thus acknowledges that livestock can be both “stressors and benefactors,” at the onset and builds from there. It offers seven questions for which to frame the discussion of livestock management and research that can be seen through the lenses of “systems,” “place,” “time,” and “community.” It argues for creativity in how researchers approach the issue of assessing grazing management in order to “envision new ways of melding animals into our ecosystems, not only to minimize harm, but to advance their re-greening.”
Janzen, H. H. 2011. “What place for livestock on a re-greening earth?” Animal Feed Science and Technology 166-167:783-796.
