WSP05005

• File Number: 8021
• Description: Section D General Studies - Western States Water Council
• State: CO
• Basin: Statewide
• Date: 9/1/1990
• Author: Land Institute
• Title: The Land Report - The Land Report - Fall 1990
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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horses in this country to plunge. In the 1920s, the
horse and mule population stood at about 25 million.
Today, the horse population stands at about eight 8
million, and most are for recreational purposes.'s
Many draft horse breeds have become very .
rare. The Belgian, which is the heaviest of the draft
breeds weighing 1,900-2,200 pounds, was once the
most numerous draft horse breed with 3,200 registra-
tions in 1937. During the 1950s, due primarily to the
mechanization of agriculture, Belgian registrations
fell to fewer than 200 per year. However, the breed
has proven to be an inexpensive alternative source of
power and the number of new registrations in 1980
surpassed the record of 1937. The numbers continue
to increase with 4200 registrations in 1985.'4 The
Belgian is now no longer considered a minor breed.
Other draft horse breeds however, are still critically
low : The Suffolk Punch, the only draft horse devel-
oped exclusively for farm work and highly efficient to
keep because of its excellent food conversionratio,
has a total population of approximately 400 in North
America. Horses of this breed are even rarer in their
country of origin, Great Britain.'. It would have been
disastrous if these animals had been allowed to
become extinct.
Many people are well aware of the importance
of saving wild animals and their ecosystems, whether
it be for econQmic reasons or just because they exist.,
Breeds oflivestock are equally prone to extinction
and should be preserved for the genetic diversity they
represent. They have served us well in the past and
may again be important to agriculture in the years to
come.

References and Notes

1; Lawrence Alderson, 1978. The Chance to Survive, Rare Breeds in
a Changing World, Cameron and Tayleur Books. London, p.56.
2. Lawrence, p.57.
3. Lawrence, p.58.
4. Derek Wallis, 1986. The Rare Br..ds Handbook, Blandford Press,
p.94.
5. Wallace, p.95
6. Laurie Heise and Carolyn. Christman, 1989. American Minor
Breeds Notebook, American Minor Breeds Conservancy, p.l?
7. Alderson, p.49.
8. Alderson, pp.96-97.
9. Alderson, p.183.
10. American Minor Breeds Conservancy Publication, 1989.
11. Alderson, p.7S.
12. Heise, p.ll.
13. Marty Bender, 1984. "Industrial Ve1'8us Biological Traction on the
Fa.rm." Meeting the Expectations of the Land. North Point Press,
San Francisco. p.90.
14. Heise and Christman, p.28.
16. Heise and Christman, p.40.
17. Thanks to Ron Blskely, director of the Sedgewick County Zoo and
chair oCTIle American Minor Breeds Conservancy. for providing
information' during an intervie~ on September 24..1990.
18. For more information on minor breeds, contact the American
Minor Breeds Conservancy, Box 477, Pittsboro, North Carolina
27812. Phone [phone].

Remembering Robert Rodale
Wes Jackson

Robert Rodale's instant death in a motor
vehicle accident on the way to the Moscow airport on
September 20, 1990, left a gap in the sustainable
agriculture movement that will never be f"Illed.This
is true because Bob had more or less created the
niche that only he could fllI.
Robert Rodale was one of those friends with
whom I had countless disagreements. The last time I
saw him, he and I had been roommates for nearly a
week at a conference in California. Whether it was
during the conference or in our room, our disagree-
ments were always polite, largely due to his spirit
and the nlanner in which he argned. At some level,
we both knew we were ultimately on the same side.
In spite of our clear differences, in the early' 80s The
Rodale Institute provided financial support to The
Land Institute for our fledgling research program.
Three summers ago, Bob generously gave himself for
four days as a visiting scholar at The Land.
There have been, and there will be, many de-
servedly gloWing eulogies about Bob's life and work,
all of them more or less accurate, I suspect, but there
, . is a side of Bob that will either not be mentioned or if
it is, not given the standing it deserves.
. As Chairman and CEO of Rod ale Press, Robert
Rodale became an entrepreneur with a style,all his
own. Rodale Press is for-profit, and yet Bob was
surrounded by people from non-profits and govern-
ment. He founded the non-profit Rodale Research
Institute which publishes The New Farm. There is a
plethora of entrepreneurs these days, but Bob was
, one of the very few entrepreneurial eccentrics left in
, this country. He inherited the company from his
father, J. I. Rodale, an organic zealot, who was an
. entrepreneur with a social conscience and likely set a
good pattern for young Bob. If we imagine for a little
bit what his upbringing must have been like, it is not
surprising that when Bob inherited the Rodale
enterprise from his father, he would lead it to f"Inan-
cial success. Rodale Press accurately judged the
physical f"Itness market when they began the special-
ized sports journals: Bicycling, Runners' World and
Backpacker. And under Bob's leadership, their
flagship publications, Prevention and Organic Gar-
dening,maintained a devoted readership. While
profits climbed (Bob said at least once that he could
not help but make money), Robert Rodale also led the
organization in what some would consider a loopy
direction by starting special projects in the non-prof"It
sector. Most notable was the Corncopia Project which
promoted and financially supported studies of the
food systems in several states with the goal of discov-
ering how states could lessen importation of food from

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