What We're Reading - May 26, 2020
Here’s a few resources we’ve found to be helpful & informative:
Spotlight on Soil: Farming Returns to its Roots
A look at the regenerative farming movement taking hold in the UK from Positive.News’ Lucy Douglas
Unlike, say, organic or biodynamic farming, regenerative agriculture doesn’t have a hard definition or a set of standards that need to be met. Farmers might adopt various techniques that help enhance or maintain soil ecology. Under the “no till” approach, for instance, farmers no longer plough their fields, to prevent disturbing the topsoil.
Cereal crops are rotated and replaced with grasses and herbs to allow the soil to sequester carbon and build organic matter. Plant varieties are chosen for their ability to restore different nutrients. Farmers often refer to it as a “journey”.
How Farming Can Save Our Lakes and Rivers
A States-side look at how Regenerative Agriculture is helping keep our waterways healthy & clean from the Minnesota Post’s Jeff Forrester.
But here’s the thing, when farmers farm with an eye toward soil health, they sequester carbon. And soil health means that grazing animals are included in the farm rotation. And this makes sense. In Minnesota, the bountiful soil early settlers found was the result of thousands of years of grazers like buffalo, elk, caribou and antelope that dominated the prairies. Unlike cows, which will graze plants down to the soil, these animals moved, cropping the sweet new leads of the prairie plants, and then moving on. Their hooves aerated the soil and their waste fertilized it and served as habitat for dozens of dung beetles, birds and soil organisms.
Here's the beef: Falkner Farms foray into grass-fed beef pays dividends
A case study of Falkner Farms’ success in transitioning to a more sustainable grass-fed system from Daily Journal’s Dennis Seid.
With the coronavirus pandemic, the farm has seen a surge in interest. As the meat supply has tightened and prices skyrocketed, more people are looking for safer and more reliable sources. Giving them a boost as well is the state agriculture commissioner’s website, which has a Farmers Marketplace that allows farms to put their information online.
“We’ve had people emailing us the past two weeks since they did that, and we also have people calling for wholes, halfs, quarters ... it’s been amazing,” Reed said.
For now, it’s mostly individuals who buy the meat that come from the cows at Falkner Farms. They go to a a meat processor in Kosciusko twice a month, where the meat is frozen and sold at the farm and a couple of farmers markets.
The Joe Rogan Experience - Episode #1478 w/ Joel Salatin
It’s a long episode but they get into the details quickly & first 15-20 minutes are highly enlightening regarding our food supply chains.
Joel Salatin is an American farmer, lecturer, and author whose books include Folks, This Ain’t Normal, You Can Farm and Salad Bar Beef. His latest book, co-authored with Dr. Sina McCullough, Beyond Labels: A Doctor and a Farmer Conquer Food Confusion One Bite at a Time is available for preorder now.
Watch on YouTube or find it in your favorite Pod-catcher