Dave Brower: Tireless Environmental Champion

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When I say that "we" forget the ecological laws, I mean the people who are running the United States Department of Agriculture and the people running the Food and Agriculture Organization. They're positively geared to the energy-intensive disruption of the earth's fertility. They're putting it on a halflife basis . . . playing around to handle the immediate requirement at an enormous and unknown cost to the future.

What's even more unsettling is the way these people hide what they're doing from the public. They strip the labels off miracle wheat when they ship it, for instance, and say, "Watch out. Don't plant too much and don't depend on it too much." This is where we're making frightful mistakes and I know of no ecologist who will disagree with what I've just said and no one in the USDA or FAO who will pay any attention to it.

Why the hell don't we just go back and design by nature. There isn't anything we need that hasn't already been designed so well that it's just sitting there waiting for us. And if it's not there, forget it. . . because if it was going to work, it would be there. Like miracle wheat . . . it would be here if nature intended it to work, but it's not here.

PLOWBOY: They're finding that out, you know, right now in some of the Western States. After years and years of trying to grow better pasture and breed more efficient cattle, they're starting to learn that they can grow more pounds of meat per acre—and do it easier—if they'll just let the native grasses come back and then use that forage to raise buffalo.

BROWER: I didn't know that, but it's very interesting.

PLOWBOY: The ranchers who've tried it claim that the native grasses—although so scrubby that cattle can't fatten on them—are better for the soil. Buffalo, however, will gain weight on the scrub forage. Not only that, but the bison meat commands a premium price and is supposed to be tastier than beef. As a matter of fact, it is better . . . I ate some last summer. Maybe the Indians had the right idea all along.

BROWER: They just didn't know that their buffalo herds were less energy-intensive crops than the white man's cattle.

PLOWBOY: Right! Which brings up another question: How are we going to get everyone to reduce his or her consumption of energy, even if we all agree that the idea is a good one? Who goes first, in other words? Why should I try to live a less energy-intensive life unless I'm sure you'll do the same?

BROWER: That's just the point. We're all in the same boat—or on the same Spaceship Earth—together. It's time that we all got out the pledge cards and made a pact with each other. I'll turn off my lights if you will. I'll overheat and undercool my house and office half as much, drive half as wasteful a car half as far—or ride the train instead—if you'll do the same.

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