Released April 20, 2011
BROOKINGS, S.D. -- John Carter’s introduction to ranching is certainly unique.
The Texan U.S. Army veteran graduated from a beginning-rancher program at Texas Christian University and then began work in Brazil, where his first months included livestock losses to jaguar, face-offs with armed gangs of bandits, and anaconda encounters. Carter moved to Brazil in 1996, and after nearly a decade of work, he established and led a group of landowners to develop a new method that sustains not only the ranches carved from the Amazonian rain forest, but that natural ecosystem as well.
Carter visited South Dakota State University’s Department of Animal and Range Sciences where he delivered an address on the importance of leadership in his field, and where he opened student eyes to the wide-ranging differences between one ranch and another. SDSU animal science professor Eric Mousel invited Carter to speak with students, in part because of his work.
“John’s story compels students, and once they realize he’s doing what they are learning, just in an amazingly ‘not like the Midwest’ location, the connections and lessons just click,” Mousel said. “His central idea is leadership as the crucial element in his success, and I feel students who attended his lecture – we had a standing-room-only crowd – took away that idea.”
Almost 250 people attended Carter’s evening presentation, where he explained his experience, and how it relates to ranchers around the world. In the years since his Brazilian experience began, Carter has developed a certain amount of celebrity. He’s appeared on television on several shows, including Late Night with David Letterman, where he shared his amazing wildlife “near combat” experiences with the audience. Students like SDSU senior environmental management major Ben Lardy of Burnsville, Minn., said that Carter’s visit gave them perspective on challenges faced in both North and South America.
Getting production and conservation folks to talk
“He realizes that the development of Brazil is inevitable due to the growing global demand for food and the economic opportunities for the country, and while his main goal may not be conserving the rainforest, his alliance’s long-term goal is to show the ranchers and farmers in the area that the forested area provides the rain they need,” Lardy said. “The rainforest is like the CRP and grass buffer strips that reduce soil erosion in states like South Dakota. He told us the most difficult part of finding a happy medium is to get people from production and conservation to come up with real solutions they can sustain together.”
During Carter’s time at SDSU, he explained that the ideas that have allowed the Land Alliance to grow in Brazil are valuable to others outside of the Amazon.
“We started our program with my 12,000 acre ranch, and one family, my own,” Carter said. “Now, seven years later, we have 410 farms and ranches in the program that own about 6.25 million acres. Of that land, half is native vegetation. The Alliance of the Land is growing, in part, because of the way the industry is changing. People have joined us because we found a smart way to develop agricultural production and conservation side-by-side.”
Carter often mentions he carries no water for environmental factions, but that he knows the necessity of maintaining a balance between development and the native flora that surrounds Alliance lands. Smoke from fires darkened the entire region for days at a time when he began living there, and soot and ash were everywhere. These efforts at clearing forest for ranch land were not working, he said.
“We had to find ways to tame this wild deforestation and make this frontier and so we did. We developed links with tribes, with land owners, and with other groups to make our own fire departments, since the government was not doing so,” Carter said. “Later the government augmented our efforts, but we found ways ranchers and environmental types could work together.”
SDSU student Ty Littau attended Carter’s visit, and the second-year ag-business major from Carter, S.D. said that while the details of the presentation were captivating, it was truly an event at SDSU where education and entertainment meshed.
Not a textbook answer for everything
“John shared with us his love of adventure and his passion for working with cattle and people to achieve goals, and I took away a greater optimism for the industry,” Littau said. “It continues to amaze me how we as cattle producers on opposite ends of the world can still have a great time learning from each other by sharing those common bonds: the love for cattle and that entrepreneurial spirit that resides within us. His visit really enriched my education by showing not just how important good management practices are, but also reminding us all that there’s not always a textbook answer for every situation. He reinforced my thoughts on global agriculture and gave me a new appreciation for what previous generations have done for us.”
Carter’s passion is evident in his manner, but the former U.S. Army paratrooper (Carter served with the 101st Airborne Division’s Long Range Surveillance Detachment before his intensive nine-month beef-business management training in Texas) makes his experiences – learning Portuguese, facing outlaw gangs, learning who lived there, finding poisonous snakes in his home – seem like mild challenges anyone could overcome.
“Our life became one of modern frontier living, and we began with what we called environmental x-rays, evaluating our land first and considering the native vegetation, the water, many factors,” Carter said. “Once we started, we began to seek others who would join us, and we added five the first year. In the second year, we added 27 more.”
Now with more than 6 million acres, the Alliance continues to build connections with both locals and entities like SDSU. Carter said their efforts are diversifying to include an assortment of agricultural efforts. The Alliance also provides safe access for in-field research for a growing number of scientists, and they have begun many homestead-act-style agrarian reform projects for small producers. Carter himself has branched into eco-tourism, too.
“The Alliance of the Land is not about nationalism, nor is it focused solely on profits, it’s a testament to the human experience of all of us in the Americas,” Carter said. “Ranchers have to unite, be it in South Dakota or South America. We all face many challenges, and I hope my experiences will help students realize the necessity of courage, the importance of leadership, and the unlimited potential of working with allies to overcome those challenges.”
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South Dakota State University, http://www.sdstate.edu/news/articles/carter_visit.cfm