Howard Lyman:
Howard Lyman evolved from a fourth generation cattle rancher to an author, activist,
vegetarian and co-defendant with Oprah Winfrey in the Texas cattle rancher's lawsuit. He
is uniquely qualified for his role as President of EarthSave
International.
Howard travels an average of 100,000 miles a year, speaking and educating the public about
organic, sustainable agriculture and the state of our current food choices and methods of
food production. He has appeared on more than a
thousand radio shows, hundreds of television programs, and has spoken to hundreds of
thousands of people around the world. Howard has won several distinguished humanitarian
awards, and is author of the bestselling book, Mad
Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat.
Here's Howard Lyman's story in his own words:
As a fourth-generation family farmer in Montana for almost 40 years, I speak from a
background of personal experience when I say that chemically based agricultural production
methods today are unsustainable, and therefore
ecologically disastrous. My experiences range from working in a large organic dairy to
raising registered beef cattle to owning a large factory feedlot. I have farmed thousands
of acres of grain and reproduced a herd of over one
thousand commercial beef cows. In addition to raising cows, I have raised chickens, pigs,
and turkeys. I have also grown crops such as wheat, barley, oats, corn, alfalfa, and
grass.
I was involved in agriculture at a time when the call dictated getting bigger and better
or getting out. I was educated in modern agriculture, and I can tell you from firsthand
experience -- it is not sustainable. I followed all the modern
advice and turned a small organic family farm into a large corporate chemical farm with a
thousand range cows, five thousand head of cattle in a factory feedlot, thousands of acres
of crops, and as many as thirty employees. I saw the
organic soil go from a living, productive base to a sterile, chemical-saturated,
mono-cultural ground produced by my so-called modern methods.
In 1979, a tumor on my spinal cord caused me to be paralyzed from the waist down. That
changed my life forever. I promised myself that, whatever the outcome of the surgery, I
would dedicate the rest of my life to doing what I
believed to be right -- no matter what changes that necessitated.
The period before and after the surgery gave me much time to think about the changes
resulting form my methods of farming. Convinced that we were going the wrong way, I
decided to become a voice for the family farmer and the
land. In 1983, I sold most of my farm and started working for farmers in financial
trouble. This led to my working for the Montana Farmers Union and from there to
Washington, D.C. as a lobbyist for the National Farmers Union.
For five years I worked on Capitol Hill for America?s family farmers. In that time we had
some small successes, such as passing the National Organic Standards Act. But even after
the act became a law, it took the administration
several years to allow funds for its implementation. I became convinced that the changes
needed had to come from the producer and the consumers at the grassroots level. Until that
alliance is put into play, the big money interest will
continue to control public policy in the Congress of the United States.
My goal is to see a producer-consumer alliance controlling public policy decisions in
North America. To that end I have founded Voice for a Viable Future. This campaign has
been
designed to educate people about organic sustainable agriculture and the dangers of
current methods of food products. Informed producers and consumers can help by making
humane choices in their personal lives.
My progress in achieving sustainable agriculture has been marked by some very interesting
events. I ran for Congress in Montana in 1982 and was able to enlist over two dozen full
time volunteers to carry the message through the political campaign. Although we lost (by
less than 4 percent to a six-term incumbent), we were able to focus the voters' attention
on
who was producing our food and how they were doing it. I was the executive director of the
international Beyond Beef Campaign, which was able to organize over 2,400 teams
consisting of over 10,000 people who handed out over 1,000,000 pieces of information in
one day at over 3,000 separate locations around the world. This information was to educate
consumers about their food choices.
While promoting the producer, comsumer alliance, I have spoken on radio stations in over
200 countries; appeared on television shows viewed by over two million people; and I have
spoken to thousands of groups--from small audiences to an assembly of over 25,000 people
at the EarthDay celebration in Oakland, California. The message is always the same; If
there is to be a bright future for our children and grandchildren, it will come from
consumer support of producers who work in concert with nature -- organically, sustainably,
and
humanely.
