Rhodesian Snake Oil: Genesis of the Regenerative Ranching Myth
Spencer Roberts
Ten years ago, Allan Savory delivered a TED talk that sparked a global craze about healing the climate with ranching. His claims have been exhaustively refuted, but few have engaged the history of the myth.
Our story begins in Rhodesia - a now-extinct British colony in Southern Africa. As Britain had little land and high demand for meat, ranching cattle and sheep for export became an important sector in the Rhodesian economy. But colonists met some challenges. There were already grazers on the Zimbabwean savannas: antelope of all kinds, buffalo, zebra, rhinoceros - but one animal above all interfered with the colonial agricultural project: the elephant.
Like humans, elephants engineer their habitats - they fell trees, dig wells, and curate vegetation. For the same reasons Indigenous Africans revered them as intelligent and spiritual, European colonists hated elephants. As the colonies matured and the ivory trade expanded, their hatred became ecocidal.
Like The United States did to buffalo, Rhodesia waged an organized military campaign, slaughtering at least 50,000 elephants in less than 20 years. The spirit of the endeavor is captured in contemporary texts, such as a 1977 New York Times report about "looting elephants" in Rhodesia "that must die". These elephant killing operations required heavy caliber firearms, large squadrons of soldiers, and long tracking expeditions. The Rhodesian state appointed "ecologists" to command these operations. This is where a young Clifford Allan Redin Savory cut his teeth.
Today, African ecologists measure higher biodiversity in elephant-engineered ecosystems, which provide habitat for amphibians and other lifeforms. But Rhodesian colonial ecologists prioritized cultivating grass for ranching. You might call it greening the desert. Rhodesians justified the slaughter, saying they were preventing elephants from overpopulating and causing their own extinction from drought. But nothing killed more elephants than white people. Savory claims to have personally ordered the deaths of 40,000.
To be fair, Savory says he regrets his role in killing those thousands of elephants. He doesn't appear to express the same remorse, however, for the humans.
In 1965, Rhodesia defied Britain's direction to move toward democracy and declared itself a rogue state to enforce white minority rule. This would set off the Rhodesian Bush War or Zimbabwe War of Independence. Savory recounts his service for the colonial military in a memoir. Savory says he joined the military before the war officially began in 1959, inspired by the "Nyasaland Emergency", in which Malawians rose up against colonial rule in the neighboring protectorate. In this incident, more than 1,300 Africans were politically imprisoned. Protesters against their detention were massacred.
Savory's involvement in Nyasaland is not clear from his writings, but what he details extensively is his role in pioneering the Royal Rhodesian Regiment's Tracker Combat Unit, which turned tracking methods he learned for killing elephants onto Africans fighting for their freedom. Savory was an early and, perhaps the primary, advocate for the use of guerrilla warfare against Zimbabwean forces, which would over time organize into militias like the Zimbabwean African National Liberation Army and Zimbabwean People's Revolutionary Army.
Savory explains how his Tracker Combat Unit would disguise itself in African fatigues and blackface to pursue fighters who attacked Rhodesian police or damaged colonial property. Legal historians argue Rhodesians' false uniforms (among worse acts) constitute war crimes, under Rule 62 of the Hague Regulations, which prohibits "improper use of the flags or military emblems, insignia, or uniforms of the adversary".
The guerrilla warfare techniques used by Savory's Tracker Combat Unit would eventually evolve into the strategies of the infamous Selous Scouts. TCU soldiers recount the unit's exploits, intensive hazing process, and incorporation into the Selous Scouts in written accounts. The Selous Scouts committed unspeakable atrocities across Zimbabwe, using anthrax and aids as biological weapons, torturing and murdering civilians, rounding up villagers into death camps, and leaving countless mass graves, some of which are being uncovered to this day. Just years ago, a former Rhodesian intelligence agent confessed of a nazi-style biological experimentation program run by the Rhodesians at a refugee camp in Mozambique, which he says was set on fire with the refugees inside to destroy evidence.
Despite the brutality of the Rhodesians, they lost the war. As the tide began to turn, Rhodesian president Ian Smith dug in his heels militarily and Savory, now a prominent political figure, founded an opposition party to Smith's ruling government, reviving an older political movement called the Rhodesian Party. The RP allegedly sought a dénoument with Zimbabwean forces. Savory says it was his antiracism that forced him into exile in the United States. Contemporary sources, however, interpreted Savory's political platform very differently, describing its core tenets as maintaining "white economic superiority" and "preventing... African majority rule", saying the party did "not want African members". Savory's Rhodesian Party did not succeed in ousting Smith's Rhodesian Front and this, according to Savory, led to his emigration.
Shortly after arriving in the States, Savory began publishing his theories on ranching. Distinct from established rotational methods, Savory claimed his "holistic" techniques could not only allow grass to recover, but heal ecosystems and green deserts. The holistic methods were recoined as "regenerative" by Robert Rodale in the 1980s and steadily gained popularity, securing Savory extensive government contracts in the Reagan administration during the ranching industry's "sagebrush rebellion" movement to privatize public land in the Western United States.
It was the TED Talk in 2013, however, that really launched the regenerative ranching myth in the public imagination. Corporations like Shell Oil and McDonald's quickly realized the marketing potential and injected tens of millions into public relations. A decade on, media still credulously trumpet Savory's claims about cows saving the world, which were adapted for agribusiness marketing the world over. Even prestigious publications like the Pulitzer Center stenographed advertising narratives lauding his tracking skills, glossing over their origin.
Allan Savory and his nonprofit institute work with ranching industry associations and beef marketing campaigns around the world, such as the General Mills-backed documentary Kiss the Ground, in which he explains his belief that poverty is a consequence of poor land management. Recently, a massive carbon credit scheme associated with the Savory Institute was exposed for selling fraudulent carbon offsets and brutalizing Maasai pastoralists - ostensibly for not herding cattle holistically, but more likely to clear them out of touristic areas.
And of course, the scientific claims that Savory's holistic management techniques regenerate ecosystems - and specifically sequester atmospheric carbon - have been thoroughly disproven in empirical studies. Nevertheless, the regenerative ranching myth has proven to be one of the most successful greenwashing campaigns in history.
photo by James Duncan Davidson, licensed under creative commons public law
Ten years ago, Allan Savory delivered a TED talk that sparked a global craze about healing the climate with ranching. His claims have been exhaustively refuted, but few have engaged the history of the myth.
Our story begins in Rhodesia - a now-extinct British colony in Southern Africa. As Britain had little land and high demand for meat, ranching cattle and sheep for export became an important sector in the Rhodesian economy. But colonists met some challenges. There were already grazers on the Zimbabwean savannas: antelope of all kinds, buffalo, zebra, rhinoceros - but one animal above all interfered with the colonial agricultural project: the elephant.
Like humans, elephants engineer their habitats - they fell trees, dig wells, and curate vegetation. For the same reasons Indigenous Africans revered them as intelligent and spiritual, European colonists hated elephants. As the colonies matured and the ivory trade expanded, their hatred became ecocidal.
Like The United States did to buffalo, Rhodesia waged an organized military campaign, slaughtering at least 50,000 elephants in less than 20 years. The spirit of the endeavor is captured in contemporary texts, such as a 1977 New York Times report about "looting elephants" in Rhodesia "that must die". These elephant killing operations required heavy caliber firearms, large squadrons of soldiers, and long tracking expeditions. The Rhodesian state appointed "ecologists" to command these operations. This is where a young Clifford Allan Redin Savory cut his teeth.
Today, African ecologists measure higher biodiversity in elephant-engineered ecosystems, which provide habitat for amphibians and other lifeforms. But Rhodesian colonial ecologists prioritized cultivating grass for ranching. You might call it greening the desert. Rhodesians justified the slaughter, saying they were preventing elephants from overpopulating and causing their own extinction from drought. But nothing killed more elephants than white people. Savory claims to have personally ordered the deaths of 40,000.
To be fair, Savory says he regrets his role in killing those thousands of elephants. He doesn't appear to express the same remorse, however, for the humans.
In 1965, Rhodesia defied Britain's direction to move toward democracy and declared itself a rogue state to enforce white minority rule. This would set off the Rhodesian Bush War or Zimbabwe War of Independence. Savory recounts his service for the colonial military in a memoir. Savory says he joined the military before the war officially began in 1959, inspired by the "Nyasaland Emergency", in which Malawians rose up against colonial rule in the neighboring protectorate. In this incident, more than 1,300 Africans were politically imprisoned. Protesters against their detention were massacred.
Savory's involvement in Nyasaland is not clear from his writings, but what he details extensively is his role in pioneering the Royal Rhodesian Regiment's Tracker Combat Unit, which turned tracking methods he learned for killing elephants onto Africans fighting for their freedom. Savory was an early and, perhaps the primary, advocate for the use of guerrilla warfare against Zimbabwean forces, which would over time organize into militias like the Zimbabwean African National Liberation Army and Zimbabwean People's Revolutionary Army.
Savory explains how his Tracker Combat Unit would disguise itself in African fatigues and blackface to pursue fighters who attacked Rhodesian police or damaged colonial property. Legal historians argue Rhodesians' false uniforms (among worse acts) constitute war crimes, under Rule 62 of the Hague Regulations, which prohibits "improper use of the flags or military emblems, insignia, or uniforms of the adversary".
The guerrilla warfare techniques used by Savory's Tracker Combat Unit would eventually evolve into the strategies of the infamous Selous Scouts. TCU soldiers recount the unit's exploits, intensive hazing process, and incorporation into the Selous Scouts in written accounts. The Selous Scouts committed unspeakable atrocities across Zimbabwe, using anthrax and aids as biological weapons, torturing and murdering civilians, rounding up villagers into death camps, and leaving countless mass graves, some of which are being uncovered to this day. Just years ago, a former Rhodesian intelligence agent confessed of a nazi-style biological experimentation program run by the Rhodesians at a refugee camp in Mozambique, which he says was set on fire with the refugees inside to destroy evidence.
Despite the brutality of the Rhodesians, they lost the war. As the tide began to turn, Rhodesian president Ian Smith dug in his heels militarily and Savory, now a prominent political figure, founded an opposition party to Smith's ruling government, reviving an older political movement called the Rhodesian Party. The RP allegedly sought a dénoument with Zimbabwean forces. Savory says it was his antiracism that forced him into exile in the United States. Contemporary sources, however, interpreted Savory's political platform very differently, describing its core tenets as maintaining "white economic superiority" and "preventing... African majority rule", saying the party did "not want African members". Savory's Rhodesian Party did not succeed in ousting Smith's Rhodesian Front and this, according to Savory, led to his emigration.
Shortly after arriving in the States, Savory began publishing his theories on ranching. Distinct from established rotational methods, Savory claimed his "holistic" techniques could not only allow grass to recover, but heal ecosystems and green deserts. The holistic methods were recoined as "regenerative" by Robert Rodale in the 1980s and steadily gained popularity, securing Savory extensive government contracts in the Reagan administration during the ranching industry's "sagebrush rebellion" movement to privatize public land in the Western United States.
It was the TED Talk in 2013, however, that really launched the regenerative ranching myth in the public imagination. Corporations like Shell Oil and McDonald's quickly realized the marketing potential and injected tens of millions into public relations. A decade on, media still credulously trumpet Savory's claims about cows saving the world, which were adapted for agribusiness marketing the world over. Even prestigious publications like the Pulitzer Center stenographed advertising narratives lauding his tracking skills, glossing over their origin.
Allan Savory and his nonprofit institute work with ranching industry associations and beef marketing campaigns around the world, such as the General Mills-backed documentary Kiss the Ground, in which he explains his belief that poverty is a consequence of poor land management. Recently, a massive carbon credit scheme associated with the Savory Institute was exposed for selling fraudulent carbon offsets and brutalizing Maasai pastoralists - ostensibly for not herding cattle holistically, but more likely to clear them out of touristic areas.
And of course, the scientific claims that Savory's holistic management techniques regenerate ecosystems - and specifically sequester atmospheric carbon - have been thoroughly disproven in empirical studies. Nevertheless, the regenerative ranching myth has proven to be one of the most successful greenwashing campaigns in history.
photo by James Duncan Davidson, licensed under creative commons public law