The Wire Rusts, Not The Metaphor
It’s been called the world’s most destructive invention — ecologically if not psychologically — barbed wire (pictured here on my property in Vermont). Although not so much in use anymore, the mentality of it is still with us. The wire rusts, but not the metaphor. To truly utilize soil as a climate solution, large herds of animals will have to be able to move again over large tracks of land. This will require coordination among many land and livestock owners — exactly what barbed wire was designed to make unnecessary. Our challenge is profound, but so is the opportunity. What Bill Gates and the World Resources Institute and other anti-animal advocacy forces don’t realize, is that they’re still in barbed wire mentality. They’re proponents of parcelization, which, almost by definition, means the death of soil and the loss of soil carbon. Their message is “no.” How do we move humanity back to “yes?”