Do ranchers harm the environment by grazing animals?

When properly managed, grazing animals can help the environment. “America’s farmers and ranchers are considered everyday environmentalists,” shares the Cattlemen’s Beef Board. Ranchers work with the environment by practicing rotational grazing, using innovative technologies to produce more product with fewer natural resources and partnering with environmental agencies to monitor and improve the environment. Allan Savory of the Savory Institute shares that, “Instead of fearing overgrazing and taking livestock off land to rest it, most grazing lands should have more livestock added because their movement and their waste and their relentless chomping stimulate grasses to grow.” “When grasslands restore themselves,” he adds, “they sequester carbon; so, increasing the density of cattle and other grazing animals not only restores the environment, it protects against climate change.”

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