Aging & Wisdom Quote by Richard Leakey

A dry paradox sits at the center of Leakey's observation: ecological scarcity paired with economic abundance. He’s pointing to a landscape that, by the rules of agronomy, should punish overuse, yet livestock numbers keep rising. That mismatch isn’t ignorance; it’s strategy. By calling a cow “capital investment,” Leakey frames cattle less as food and more as a bank account on four legs, a store of value that can be grown, displayed, traded, and mobilized when cash, status, or security is needed.

The intent is diagnostic, not scolding. Leakey is explaining why well-meaning outside prescriptions (“reduce herds,” “manage carrying capacity”) often fail: they misunderstand what cattle are doing culturally and economically. In many pastoral settings, the herd is insurance against drought, illness, market swings, and political instability. If formal financial systems are absent or untrusted, livestock becomes the most reliable portfolio - one that reproduces.

The subtext is sharper: environmental degradation isn’t simply a morality tale about “overgrazing.” It’s a story about incentives. When the safest way to hold wealth is to keep accumulating animals, ecological limits turn into background noise. Leakey’s line quietly indicts development models that treat conservation as a technical problem rather than a political-economic one. If you want smaller herds, you don’t start with sermons about sustainability; you start by offering alternative forms of security - credit, property rights, markets, drought support - that can compete with the brutal elegance of a cow as capital.