SFH #119: Regenerative Agriculture
It’s about the how, not the cow 🐄
Providing food doesn't have to wreak havoc on our environment. Instead, we can restore damaged ecosystems and produce high-quality food with a science-based approach called regenerative agriculture. The practice and term have been gaining steam and visibility over the last few years. It's reached marketing buzzword status, and Netflix has put out a documentary highlighting the practice. So why should you know about it?
For starters, factory farming is just one of the worst things in this world and inherently harmful.1 It is so severe that the United Nations estimates that converting 2/5ths of all the damaged land from industrialized farming practices would stop climate change in its tracks for 20 years. The price tag to make this one-time planet-changing shift is half the annual budget of our natural defense in the US or, in more recent terms, about 1/63rd of our current infrastructure bill.
As we look at the power of regenerative farming, it lies in our relationship with nature. It considers the whole enchilada. We can conserve and rehabilitate our soil and ecological chain attached (including ourselves) through these practices. 🙌🏽 Here are some examples of how that plays out.
Reducing chemicals and tillage enables our soil to enrich with microorganisms, trap carbon, and retain more water (gallons) per cultivated acre.
Natural growth with fewer pesticides invites back helpful pollinators like bees and bugs that suck methane out of the air reducing carbon.
Animals on regenerative farms live more humanely out in the meadows, grazing on the land versus being bulked up with feed for a yield that produces more dollars at the expense of everyone’s health.
Integration of the natural ecosystem helps promote crop diversity that produces phytochemical-rich foods and provides more quality air and water.
Watch this video for a simple and educational run-through on the power of Regenerative Farming. 📺
https://sentientmedia.org/factory-farms/