Reminds me about this TED talk http://youtu.be/vpTHi7O66pI where Allan Savory speaks about the behavior of herbivores with/without predators and the impact on flora.
Fascinating, really.
I hope the day will come when we understand the biosphere of this wonderful planet we live on.
I'm not convinced Monbiot is completely unbiased here. He still appears to be upset about how meat producers misrepresented his words [1] after he gave a favorable review to Simon Fairlie's _Meat: A benign extravagance_ [2], and it seems to be this position from which he attacks Savory. Savory's ideas are not terribly different from those of Joel Salatin, whose sustainable farming techniques are profiled in Michael Pollan's _The Omnivore's Dilemma_. Monbiot's arguments for why he recanted his review has more to do with the problems of currently prevalent meat production techniques than the techniques promoted by Savory, Fairlie, or Salatin. There is at least one rebuttal to Monbiot that cites several examples of Savory's techniques working in practice. [3]
Also interesting is that the Guardian article is by the same person (George Monbiot) as the OP video. Not saying that's good or bad, just worth noting.
Fascinating, really.
I hope the day will come when we understand the biosphere of this wonderful planet we live on.