Lester R. Brown: Author, Ecologist and Economist

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

PLOWBOY: To summarize what you've said, then, it looks as though mankind is running head-on into the problem of carrying capacity where the world's fisheries and croplands are concerned. Is that right?

BROWN: I think so, yes. But, of course, there's one food-producing system we haven't said anything about yet.

PLOWBOY: Which is ...

BROWN: Which is the world's grasslands.

PLOWBOY: How important are grasslands?

BROWN: Grasslands provide a substantial amount of the world's protein. They give us much of our milk, cheese, and butter, and certainly most of our beef and mutton. Grasslands are also the source of raw materials for the leather-goods industry and one of our important textile fibers, namely wool. In short, grasslands are an important part of the global economy. If grasslands deteriorate, the supply of protein will diminish and the cost of food generally will rise.

PLOWBOY: Are grasslands deteriorating?

BROWN: They're deteriorating dramatically in most of Africa, parts of Asia, the Middle East, Central America, South America, and some parts of the U.S. Surprisingly, the Bureau of Land Management?which oversees something like 150 million acres of grassland in this country?reported in 1975 that most of its rangeland is being overgrazed. Some of the Navajo reservations, I think, are carrying four times the number of livestock that the land can carry on a sustainable basis, which means that their grassland is going downhill very fast.

The implications of this are alarming. In many poor countries, for instance, the hope of replacing water buffalo and bullocks with tractors has gone by the board because of rising fuel costs. As a result, overgrazing is occurring much more frequently and is threatening both the supply of livestock products and-indirectly, by imperiling draft animals-food production.

It's a complicated situation. As fuel costs go up, people rely more heavily on draft animals, and the draft animals overgraze ... leading-in turn-to fewer draft animals and lowered food production. At the same time-as the demand for food increases-more forests are cleared to provide new cropland.

PLOWBOY: So in other words, the increased demands being made on the world's fisheries put additional pressure on the planet's land-based food systems ... croplands and grasslands. And that pressure-in turn-puts stress on the earth's forests ... because in order to "make" more croplands and grasslands, you have to carve 'em out of the woods.

BROWN: Well, where forests are concerned the problem is even worse than that. Because forests are not just being cleared to provide new cropland. They're also being cut down to meet the ever-increasing demand for firewood, paper pulp, and lumber. A third of the world's people, you know, rely entirely on wood to heat their homes and cook their meals.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print