John Mashey writes

This must surely be a joke.
Maybe this works with well-controlled small herds of goats,

That seems precisely what was described.

but
unconstrained, they eat *everything* right down to the roots, leading
to erosion and desertification.

That depends on whether they are then moved on or not.
The roots are still there, and will doubtless produce new shoots (in
most cases) pretty quickly.

They certainly contributed to the
state of the mid-East.
The old saw: "How do you make a desert? Take nay land, add goats."

If you don;t understand what is being discussed properly,
best to stay quiet.

--
Oz
This post is worth absolutely nothing and is probably fallacious.
Note: soon (maybe already) only posts via despammed.com will be accepted.