How We Define Regenerative Farming
New buzzwords have wiggled their way beyond just the vernacular of Gen Z teenagers, and deep into the world of agriculture and food. However, in the case of food production, the trending words are often fueled by marketing schemes, rather than truth held up by science.
Today the buzzword I aim to unpack is “regenerative”. It’s a a word we are building our farm brand around, and it sounds really nice! Hell of a lot better than “grown on a concrete feed lot, pumped full of antibiotics that you’re now eating in your burger”.
But what does a better food system actually look like? What does regenerative mean, and has it already become an overused and misunderstood term for food producers to slap on their logo and claim some sort of superior farming prowess?
I am not an expert, and am learning every single day, but here’s a breakdown of what regenerative farming means to Old North Acres.
We believe regenerative farming means intensively moving our ruminants and other animals to new pasture in an effort to improve the health of soil, grow robust perennial forage that thrives in our local climate, and protect & enliven the other species of flora and fauna that co-exist within a farm’s ecosystem.
We believe that it is possible to grow nutritious and delicious meat that comes from animals who lived happy lives with minimal stress. In our model of “ethical meat” raising, our animals are able to live out their natural tendencies, which is in stark contrast to the the industrial farming model.
We believe fiercely in the importance of biodiversity amongst livestock. Protecting and breeding different breeds of livestock helps produce disease-resistant, hardy animals that can thrive in a changing climate.
Here’s a breakdown of what we do everyday in practice to farm regeneratively:
Improving the health of soil and plants:
Prior to the feedlot era of cattle production, cattle and other grazing animals (think sheep and buffalo) were constantly moving. This natural pattern of movement was because herds were on the move to avoid being eaten by predators, and also because of animals’ incredible wisdom to know what types of forage they need nutritionally, and to keep moving until they find it. In today’s farming world, we keep animals confined on one farm rather than roaming the Wild West. Many farmers stopped moving animals around to different pastures and instead let them free graze around the farm (or in many cases, confined them indoors). This method is much easier for the farmer. However, free grazing tyipcally results in cattle and livestock overgrazing the forage on their farms. With no one to stop them, they’ll often eat grass down to the dirt, as well as sleep and poop in the same areas and degrade the forage there. Over time, overgrazing horribly damages root systems, compacts soil (which leads to flooding), and leads to a shortage of available food for the herd. This forces the farmer to buy hay or grain more often.
To avoid all this, we rotationally graze, where we move our animals nearly every day in the Spring, Summer and Fall and one or two times a week in the Winter. We use portable electric fencing that protects them, and keeps them in an enclosed pasture. After a day, it’s time to move them to freshies! The motto we try to follow with the amount of grass they’re eating is: “trample 1/3, eat 1/3, leave 1/3”. By moving the animals off that grass, it gives the plants time to rest, recover and re-grow! The soil also gets the benefit of having just been pooped on and turned up by the animals. Their phosphorus, nitrogen and calcium rich manure enriches the soil and promotes healthy growth of organic matter. In the summertime, when parasites can be an issue for ruminants, moving on from pasture quickly helps keep pesky parasite counts low, and animal guts healthy.
We are incredibly lucky to farm on land that is owned by other regenerative farmers. Crow Fly Farms is managed by Jake Puckett, an Accredited Professional through the Savory Institute. Jake conducts Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) studies on this land, and many other farms around the country to measure which regenerative farms are truly healing land.
Minimal Inputs
In our farming model, minimal inputs means providing our animals with the highest quality supplementation, and avoiding all interventions that are potentially harmful for animals, humans or the environment. For our chickens and pigs, who rely on grain to survive (that’s right, there’s no such thing as “grass fed” chickens and pigs!) we feed organic, soy free, non-GMO grain in addition to the grass, bugs and grubs that our animals forage every day. We believe that feeding organic grain is the only method for boycotting the conventional system that douses crops in Glyphosate and other harmful chemicals. There is room for massive improvement in the grain world, but putting our money where our mouth is by supporting organic, non-GMO producers is a non-negotiable for a truly regenerative farm.
When it comes to medication, we believe firmly that our local veterinarians are experts. We lean on their advice and know that years of medical school gave them a leg up on our own knowledge from Dr. Google.
We have never administered antibiotics of any kind to our animals, and don’t see the need to since they don’t live in close quarters, and are constantly in fresh air. Animals raised in close confinement (called CAFO’s) are pumped full of antibiotics to keep them alive. Disease runs so rampant in CAFO’s, that veterinarians are on staff to constantly medicate sick animals in order to keep them alive long enough to get to slaughter.
Increasing Food Access For Local Consumers
A large part of our regenerative approach is minimizing the carbon footprint that comes with so many meat producers that ship nationwide to grocery stores or directly to consumers. I understand wholeheartedly their desire to get their product onto dinner plates across the country, but I have a hard time reconciling the fuel, energy and money involved in shipping nationwide.
The carbon footprint of food shipment is a deeply-rooted problem in the fruit and vegetable industry as well. Think of the fruit you likely bought at your grocery store this week. Let’s say it was bananas. Those banana were likely grown in Central or South America. Let’s say: Ecuador (one of the world’s biggest exporters of bananas). The bananas you and I both enjoyed with our breakfast this week were picked by a worker last Friday, put on a truck on Saturday and driven to the Quito, Ecuador airport. On Saturday they were flown 3,000+ miles to Las Angeles where they were sorted and loaded onto Semi-Trucks. On Sunday they were driven to every corner of the US and put on the shelves of your favorite grocery store, next to the asparagus that made its way from Peru, and the avocados from Mexico. On Monday you bought the bunch of nanners, and today they’re on your kitchen counter! Woof, what a journey. Because we are so accustomed to eating the exact food we want, when we want it, rather than seasonally, food producers have adapted to ship food thousands of miles, year round for our convenience.
While there’s no easy solution for the Banana-Dilemma (and nearly every other bit of produce we consume from October-May), we believe fiercely in controlling what we can! Access to year-round local, regenerative meat is our way of providing nutritionally dense food for our community.
Finally, we believe that regenerative farming only works when it benefits communities of people, as well as animals. Since we have found ourselves deeper and deeper into rural America, we are continually reminded that communities an hour away from Whole Foods deserve access to the same quality of food as their urban counterparts, if we have any hope for an equitable food system. We have partnered with a small local brewery that has a farm store attached to it, and wholesale our meat from there. Wholesaling means less profit for us, but increasing access for local customers by providing food in an establishment they know and trust is worth it to us!
The Takeaway
There are SO MANY other topics I could hit on that fall under the regenerative umbrella, but I am mainly just thankful you made it this far! So I’ll stop here.
In short, we’re trying our darnedest to mitigate harm done to animals, soil, the earth and consumers; and maximize our production of high quality food.
I urge you to reach back out if anything in this post feels confusing, or even contradictory to what you’ve read or heard about when it comes to farming. There’s a staggering amount of misinformation out there. Undeniably, there’s also still a lot we don’t know!
Together, as a collective of humans who love eating, may we be open-minded about a better future of farming and food for all. I trust that our farm’s meaning of regenerative will morph over time as we learn and grow, and I’m so thankful you’re here for that journey!
