Heifer International Announces Partnership with Savory Institute

Heifer International announced a new partnership today with the Savory Institute based in Boulder, Colorado. With complementing missions, the two international nonprofits established a goal of creating ecological and social wealth for families to support long-term viability of rural communities.

Heifer’s mission is to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth through training and gifts of livestock to empower participants to move from poverty to self-reliance.

“This is an ideal partnership, which will engage local livestock dependent communities to become the model farms from which innovation and new ideas emanate,” said Heifer President and CEO Pierre Ferrari. “The Savory Institute has scaled their impact using livestock to transform depleted grasslands and rangelands in key areas around the world that are vulnerable to climate change. This holistic approach improves the health of the soil, which can then be used to support healthy herds and to grow and diversify crops. This helps small-scale livestock owning farmers escape poverty, better manage climate-related crises and improve their food and security and nutrition.”

Savory Institute’s mission is to promote the large-scale restoration of the world’s grasslands through Holistic Management. The Institute realizes this mission through a global network of Savory accredited hubs. Entrepreneurial leaders commit to serving their regions through training, consulting and implementation support, to regenerate grasslands that were once thriving ecosystems and are now barren deserts.

With the Savory Institute’s Holistic framework and planning processes, Heifer participants will learn about the relationship between livestock and the grasslands. The Institute will assist in developing strategies for managing domestic livestock to mimic wild herd behaviors that help improve the land. The two organizations are looking at opportunities to create hubs in Senegal, Zimbabwe and Bolivia in the early stages of the partnership.

“With this partnership we are able to bring together our respective strategies, networks and resources to scale contextually relevant entrepreneurial solution to the escalating issue of land degradation. Working and creative positive impact at this grassroots level is what excites us the most,” said Savory Institute Co-founder and CEO Daniela Ibarra-Howell. “These self-sustaining, culturally sound and ecologically regenerative project prototypes with Heifer International will provide learning and insights to address poverty, climate resilience and mitigation, and food and water security across the grasslands of the world, using livestock as the primary land regeneration tool.”

ABOUT HEIFER INTERNATIONAL 
Heifer’s mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. For more than 70 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. Heifer is currently working in nearly 30 countries, including the United States, to help families and communities become more self-reliant. Heifer’s 2020 goal is to help 4 million families achieve living incomes by 2020, which will allow them to feed their families daily; educate all their children; and have proper housing, water, hygiene and other essential resources. For information, visit Heifer.org, read our blog, follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @Heifer or call 888.5HUNGER (888.548.6437).

ABOUT THE SAVORY INSTITUTE
The Savory Institute facilitates large-scale restoration of the world’s grasslands through Holistic Management. The Institute develops innovative tools and enhanced curricula, informs policy, establishes market incentives, increases public awareness, and coordinates relevant research, cultivating relationships with aligned partners. The Savory Institute is partnering with organizations worldwide to create a global network of 100 Savory Institute affiliated hubs by 2025. Additional news and information about the organization is available at http://savory.global.