Will we still be eating beef in 50 years?

Beef production contributes to numerous global crises, from climate change to habitat destruction and biodiversity loss. Major NGOs that promote conservation have worked fervently to combat these crises and many also have programs to encourage more sustainable livestock practices. Advocates of "regenerative grazing" and other similar approaches that involve rotational grazing and other strategies say these practices have benefits for conserving grassland habitats, fostering bird diversity, wildlife, and grasses that live on these livestock farms, and capturing carbon dioxide in their soils. However, many ecologists also argue that the world must reduce the number of cattle on the planet and find other sources of protein.

When drought became a perennial visitor to Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado in the late 1990s, Steve Wooten remembers telling his family, "We have to do something different." Between 1997 and 2003, the Wootens, who have been raising cattle on this arid landscape since 1929, had to sell cows, a last resort for any rancher. Steve Wooten estimates they lost half a million dollars. "I don't want to do that again ever," he tells Mongabay. "We figured something we need to do is build resilience into the ranch so that drought doesn't destroy us." At that time, the family "got more serious" about fighting drought, and that helped the ranch continue. They planned to allow the grasslands to recover, so they can spring back to life when the rains come, says Wooten. And they have bet on a strategy they had tested before, one that aims to mimic the role played by wild grazing animals on the North American prairies for millions of years. Proponents say that focusing on holistic grazing helps the ...