Welcome back. This is Andy and this is the Port Pearls Almanac. Today we're joined to discuss a recently released book,

Hoofprints on the Land, from Ilsa Kohler-Rollifson. This book explores the stories of pastoralism

across the globe and its place in the world today. After decades of working with pastoralists

in India, Ilsa discusses living around camels, the role modern agriculture has played in these age-old practices, and much, much more.

Ilsa started as a veterinarian and found her way into pastoralism through a local herder.

We talk about her story, the nuances of pastoralism in a modern world, and so much more in this conversation.

Not only has Elsa written extensively on camels and pastoralism, she's involved with

multiple organizations, including the League for Pastoral People's and Endogenous Livestock

Development that she co-founded in 1992, as well as LPPS, a local organization in Rajasthan, India, and is also working

with international organizations such as FAO, G-I-Z, UNDP, World Bank, and others on matters related

to livestock. Take a look in the notes of the show for links to her projects and to find out

where you can get this book.

Elsa, thanks so much for joining us.

So we're here to talk about your newest book of Prince on the Land.

You talk about this a little bit, but I really want to know how did you get into the world of camels?

Oh, well, it's a long story. So I'm

basically, I'm an animal lover. I grew up with animals, with horses and dogs. I worked on a farm

and all that. So I studied veterinary medicine in order to seem like the natural choice.

But once I had graduated, I realized I wasn't really cut out for being a veterinarian.

And I didn't like the work very much.

Neither the large, the farm animals nor the small animals were really appealing to me.

So I was looking for something new to do. And cut a long story short, I got interested in archaeology and archaeologists need people to identify the animal bones that they dig up on their sites.

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