I have recently completed the first phase of a Savory Institute accredited course on Holistic Management. Although many people associate this with what is often termed “mob-grazing”, the philosophy encompasses a much wider approach to how we make decisions on our farms, in our organisations and at a policy level.

Allan Savory has developed his “Holistic Decision-Making Framework” over several decades working on several continents. It is a powerful tool, so much so that its use at a national level in Allan’s native country of Zimbabwe has been a significant part of that country’s gradual return to peace and prosperity.

The Framework is complex but essentially trains us to move from making decisions based on immediate and short-term needs, narrow goals, aims or objectives, to a process which checks all our decisions against a wider context of the land, money, people and resources we manage. As humans we have a tendency to turn to technology to solve our problems, before first considering whether we are truly addressing the root cause, or what the unintended consequences may be, and whether we are eroding or improving our resource base.

The Holistic Framework takes several steps back from this and encourages us to think about what we want from life, in two broad terms:

• Quality of Life – relationships, economic well-being, challenge and growth, purpose and contribution
• Future Resource base – the people and land that are affected by our management and decisions, either directly or indirectly

This statement or “context” is then used as a point of reference for all decision-making, to check that decisions made are:

• In line with overall ambitions for quality of life and a sustainable resource base
• Addressing the genuine root cause of a problem
• Addressing the weakest line in the chain of production (rather than incurring expenditure with the hope of future increases in income)
• Contributing to true wealth generation (conversion of sunlight into money) without degrading mineral resources or damaging the environment

Farmers and other organisations around the World who have adopted this Framework have seen their quality of life improve, their profits increase, and their businesses become more resilient. At a time when we are exposed to ever-more weather extremes, the physical and mental health of farmers continues to be a major concern, profitability is stagnating or declining, and our agriculture system continues to rely upon unsustainable levels of chemical inputs, there has never been a greater need for a major shift in our ways of thinking.

Have you had time to stop and reassess what you are doing, where you are going and what you are trying to achieve for you, your family, your business and wider community? What will be your legacy to the next generation? Contact Tom at tommalleson@fcgagric.com or your local FCG Office, for an independent review to help answer some of these questions. Is what you are doing today helping you achieve what you want in 10, 20, 30 years’ time?