One of the reasons that the advocacy of fellows like Manning discussed in the previous post is so over the top is that there are so many destructive myths to overcome.

PORTO VELHO, Brazil: At an experimental government farm in the western Amazon's Rondonia state, researchers analyze grass seeds under microscopes, shake soil samples in test tubes, and measure the milk production of a new breed of cows.

While high-profile police raids targeting illegal ranchers and loggers in the Amazon grab more headlines, these scientists may produce a more important solution in the long fight to save the greatest rainforest.

Their aim is to reduce the pressure for forest destruction by raising the productivity of pastures through fertilization, better choice of grass, and planting trees.

Brazil's ability to meet its ambitious 2020 target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent from 2005 levels depends largely on the ability of its agriculture sector, and particularly its huge cattle industry, to meet growing world demand without destroying more forest.

The cattle industry is the main culprit of deforestation, which accounts for around 75 percent of carbon emissions in Brazil, one of the top global emitters.

"Brazil's emissions targets hinge significantly on its cattle industry," said Paulo Barreto, senior researcher with Imazon, an environmental institute in the Amazon city Belem.

As in N. America the native grasslands of Brazil have been torn up for field crops, driving ranching to marginal land. But that isn't the end of it. After the marginal land is improved by clearing and a couple of years of grazing it too is appropriated for field crops, driving the cattle further into the bush, and the cycle of destruction goes round again. This is now happening in Argentina as well, even though they have an old ranching culture and a national cuisine dependent on its grazed livestock.

Ding bats leave all of that out and just bad mouth cattle, so the nonsense narrative expands, sucking the brains out of even those who might otherwise be decent people. But there's another way.

"We have the land and technology today that allows us to expand cattle ranching without chopping down a single tree," said researcher Luiz Carlos Balbino. He said Brazil can double or triple beef production without deforesting by boosting the productivity of existing pastures, recovering degraded grass lands, and developing as much as 50 million hectares of unforested savannah.

Even more could be done by restoring grasslands lost to cropping, and in so doing achieve the health, environmental and economic benefits that Manning touts. That can't happen with so many still repeating the old myths as if they were "science", and groups like greenpeas pursuing their nefarious agendas at the expense of the environment. Too bad, since the climate in the region is favorable for grasslands and with good management could be exceedingly productive.