(ARA) - How big is your footprint?

Not the one you leave with your shoe, but the one you leave by the way you live: your food and fuel consumption, the waste you generate, your impact on the environment.

It's worthwhile to assess the impact our way of life has on the environment and explore alternatives that are less wasteful and harmful, realizing that our actions affect not just our local area, but the entire globe.

A non-profit group based in Little Rock, Ark., Heifer International, has been promoting sustainable agriculture and improving lives in impoverished areas around the world since 1944. Heifer donates livestock and agricultural training that is appropriate for the land to a family in need. Families receive six to twelve months of training prior to their animal's arrival. Heifer only requires that each family pass on the gift by giving offspring of their animal, and the knowledge they've gained about raising it, to another family in need.

Heifer not only works with farmers who need livestock such as cows, goats, chickens and sheep, but also provides tree seedlings that can be planted to improve soil quality and prevent erosion. Aquaculture (raising fish) and vermiculture (raising worms) are two sustainable techniques being taught around the world and in several inner cities of the United States.

A central concept Heifer promotes is agroecology: the sustainable use of natural resources using social, cultural, economic, political and ecological methods that work together to achieve sustainable agriculture production. It's a way of breaking the poverty cycle and creating secure sources of food and income in the best interest of people, land and animals.

"That means everything is working together to help the environment," says Ray White. "It's a healing touch for our planet that helps reduce our environmental footprint, or the impact each one of us makes."

Heifer teaches techniques such as zero grazing to keep land from being depleted, growing fodder to feed livestock and preserve land, and using farm manure to heat homes and improve the soil, which also improves crop yields and reduces hunger and poverty. Heifer project managers also help indigenous people use the resources and knowledge of their local customs and culture to improve the health of their livestock and crop yields.

"Each step makes a difference and helps reduce the size of our footprint," says Ray White. "By working holistically on a small scale and keeping a balance between people, land and animals, Heifer is helping satisfy human food needs, sustain the economic viability of farms, enhance environmental quality and natural resources, integrate natural biological cycles and controls, and improve the quality of life for farmers and for society as a whole."

How does a gift of livestock change lives? One example is a young girl in India named Reena. "My parents are poor and I've never been to school," she says. "I have no marriage dowry." Her plight is common in south India, where for many young women like her, the future is bleak. But when Reena heard how Heifer was working with a local women's group, she asked to join. The group agreed, but asked her to attend training classes first, where she not only learned the necessary information to raise her animal -- a goat -- but she also learned to read and write.

"When my turn came to receive a goat, I was ready," says Reena. "My goat produced two male kids. I sold both and gave back the profit from one to the group so another woman could get a goat. With the money from the second goat, I bought equipment to start my own business: gem cutting!" In addition, her family receives nourishment from the goat's milk, and uses its manure to increase soil fertility in their vegetable garden.

Some other examples of Heifer projects around the world include planting trees in Peru and Nepal to curb erosion and reverse deforestation; cleaning up garbage in Romania; preserving traditional medicinal plants in Cameroon; and testing water purity in the Philippines.

Heifer International's gift catalog provides a wealth of ideas for helping sustain the Earth by helping families in poverty. Simply decide which farm animal (or share of one) you'd like to send to a family in need. Gift prices range from $500 for a heifer to $120 for a goat or pig to $20 for ducks and geese. Your gift can be made in honor of a friend or loved one, or you can organize a fund-raiser through a school, church or other community group to help Heifer International buy animals.

To order a free gift catalog or to learn more about Heifer International, call (800) 696-1919 or visit www.heifer.org.

Courtesy of ARA Content