Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth

Bovine superhero of planetary rescue—unlikely? Yes, indeed they get blamed for a good many offenses. But this catchy 2013 title from journalist Judith D. Schwartz, Cows save the Planet: and Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth certainly got my attention!

Unmaking the Deserts, Rethinking Climate Change,
Bringing Back Biodiversity, and Restoring Nutrients to our Food

And our attention is really what’s at stake, isn’t it? Despair and hopelessness about the state of our fragile blue and green planet breed more of the same. From the foreword to the book by Gretel Ehrlich:

Judith Schwartz’s book gives us not just hope but also a sense that we humans—serial destroyers that we are—can actually turn the climate crisis around. This amazing book, wide reaching in its research, offers nothing less than solutions for healing the planet.

I’m not likely to begin pasturing cows in my urban backyard anytime soon. But Schwartz’s message is for anyone and everyone who tends the land. And as a gardener, I can be a part of the solution. What a wonderful thought. I look forward to starting 2015: International Years of Soils with this book on my bedside.