Meditations with Cows: What I've Learned from Daisy, the Dairy Cow Who Changed My Life

Fair warning: this book will force you to be aware of many parts of our food system that most people never think about because they're so many steps removed from the action. The middle of the book left me in deep despair with tears streaming down my face and snot in my nose because of Shreve Stockton's clearly-presented facts about concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs, or factory farms) and how thoroughly they contribute to climate change and fossil fuel use. I reacted this way in part because I'm a poor disabled person on fixed income, and can't really do anything to fight the fact that we're killing the planet for money and for food that is lacking in all of the nutrients it could and should have. I can't buy Stockton's humane beef, or anyone else's; I can't buy much from local farms, and I sure as hell can't commit to only buying food free from pain and toxic chemicals. My parents and I have food to eat at all because of SNAP; we shop at Walmart and Amazon because we have to, there isn't another choice, with our budget. Stockton addresses this in this book as well, but it's still depressing.And then it gets more hopeful. Stockton presents the ways in which the situation could change; they're not easy methods, but they're far from impossible. Mostly it'll require a loud majority voice to help bolster small farms and ranches, and to shut the factory farms down. It sounds easy on paper, honestly. According to Stockton's facts and anecdotes, barren pasture can be rejuvenated through livestock grazing in a matter of a few years. If everyone switched to mob grazing (a technique where herds are cycled through subdivisions of pasture every few days, or even a few times a day, to simulate wild grazing), we could potentially undo the effects of the industrial age in a decade. Earth's soil is our biggest asset for sequestering carbon, which is vital to the process of slowing climate change, and livestock activity over the soil creates the perfect conditions for the soil to store carbon. It doesn't have to be hard; it'll be a matter of time and money, and forcing the profiteers to look further ahead than they're used to.The book itself is fantastic, though, as I expected. I'm a long-time fan, between The Daily Coyote (RIP Charlie) and Stockton's farm blog, and this hasn't disappointed. She lives an enviable life; the chapters talking about living with just nature and her animals, reconnecting to the earth in the way we would all benefit from, filled me with a bittersweet kind of happiness. I'm glad she can experience that sort of life, truly. I'm disabled and poor, and even sleeping leaves me with pain. Trying to adhere to a farm schedule and do the level of physical work involved would likely kill me. I'd love to be one of those people who drops their old life to go build a cabin in the woods with their own hands, and raise chickens and bees and an abundant garden, but I can't. I'd love to not live next to a two-lane state highway full of noisy, smelly trucks that usually go too fast, but I can't. Capitalism is the primary problem here, as usual.Anyway, this book has made me emotional, and that's honestly a good thing. It should be required reading for every person in power in the factory farming industry, and for every individual who switched to veganism to save the animals. Humans consuming animals is not the problem here, it never has been; it's the factory farms, the terrified animals crammed together and fed nutrient-poor mass-grown crops that are stripping further nutrients from the soil and damaging the land. As I've learned from reading this, put cows in a mediocre pasture for a few years, and the pasture will be vibrant with life, the soil springy underfoot, wildlife passing through it at all hours. It will heal and recover, and in the meantime the entire setup will have net-neutral carbon emissions. Raising cows to be used for food is GOOD for the land.We only have the one planet. Humans have brought it to the brink of destruction, but we also have the power to pull it back from that edge. Read this book, make your friends and family read it; buy local, if you can, buy humanely raised meat if you can, and stop contributing to the profits of factory agriculture, if you can. And try not to feel bad if you can't; I have to remind myself of that often.

Not only is this a really beautiful book, it's a very important book.Meditations with Cows is beautifully written, lyrical, poetic, enchanting, and sensitive. Shreve is a modern cowgirl on a working ranch in rural Wyoming. She tells her story in an engaging way. Through her writing we see and experience her connection with her animals - the trust, the caring, and the magic. We see the brutalities and beauty of the weather and seasonal cycles. We see the the soil and vegetation working together. This book is spiritual, yet based in grass roots reality. This book is intelligent, and it's sensitive. It is real, magical, profound, and wise.This is an important book. In very clear language, Shreve explains how agriculture and livestock can work together to heal the planet and feed the people. She explains how industry and corruption are poisoning and destroying the planet, and contributing to greenhouse gases and climate change. Her explanations are clear and well presented. In addition to this being a beautiful book, beautifully written, this book needs to be in the hands of, and read by, everyone in a position of decision making with agriculture and livestock - farmers, processors, and policy makers who influence change.This book will connect you back to your roots and your very essence - back to the land, to farm animals, to your food chain, and to yourself. It will connect you to our beautiful planet, beneath sidewalks, and behind grocery stores. It will deepen your understanding of the big picture. This book will make you "more."Shreve is a master story teller. This book will change you. It's profound, and wise, and important. I've been a city girl all my life. I have shopped in grocery stores, and not had the gift of knowing farm animals. This book opened up a glimpse into a world I have not known - a beautiful and complex world of interconnectedness, grace, love, and beauty.

As a follower of Shreve Stockton's books and blogs for years, I have been impatiently awaiting "Meditations With Cows" with great anticipation. No one will be surprised to hear that, thanks to Stockton's clear and lyrical writing, the book has exceeded all expectation! I guarantee you will laugh, cry, love and learn from cover to cover. I read it slowly, cherishing each page, each animal, each experience, and came away enormously enriched; so enriched that as soon as I finished it, I went back to the beginning and started reading it again from the beginning."Meditations With Cows" succeeds completely as a memoir, an "inside" peek at an ethical rancher's life among the animals in her loving care, but it succeeds even more profoundly as a crash course in sustainable agriculture, ecosystems, humanity.In very clear language, and without preachiness, rancor or disdain, Stockton explains how and why agri-biz works as it does today, why it's unsustainable as well as cruel, and how we can take steps to change the paradigm, and thus save ourselves and our planet for future generations of humans, plants and animals. Her ability to so clearly distill complex systems into understandable terms and achievable goals is, ultimately, what makes this book so important. We inhabit a planet on a knife edge, and there's not much time left. Stockton's great gift in this book is a clear, understandable blueprint for action. All we have to do is follow it. As quickly as possible!As a memoir, "Meditations With Cows" is a joy and a blessing; it practically guarantees to enrich your heart and change your life. As a primer on sustainability, it proves to be a vitally important book which should be required reading for everyone holding any kind of public policy position anywhere across this entire country.

I am following Stockton's websites for more than a decade now, and I love her passionate attitude to animals, farming and life in general. What a woman! Now that I know more about cattle raising in the US I understand it better why my visiting American friends were so appreciative after eating Irish beef steaks. I love how she is not judgmental about meat eaters, vegans or vegetarians - a rare example of measured writing. This book should be on the list of all schools and colleges of animal husbandry.

Shreve Stockten blickt mit soviel Liebe auf das Leben. Sie lässt sich ein auf alles was ihr begegnet und verwandelt es in etwas Heiliges. Im Alltäglichen findet sie tiefe Einsichten in das Leben. Danke das wir teilhaben dürfen!