I know I'm brand new here and nobody knows me yet (long time lurker), but I wanted to comment on this as I feel it's an important topic.
While there is a lot of environmental buzzwords going around, it's important to consider that things like 'regenerative agriculture' are largely about people in the agriculture and scientific communities learning more info on animal and pasture management in order to optimize how much money you can make. Just hear me out for one second on this one -- if you're turning away from anything that might seem new or buzzword-ish, just consider, as one example... (It's a lot about learning what info is out there, and not being open to new ideas because there can be ways of doing things that are more profitable than the way a lot of us have been doing certain things for a long time now...)
So, just one example of SO many things that are part of 'regenerative agriculture' ... with the way grass grows -- if you let your animals graze the grass right down low, the grass doesn't have the energy to grow back as quickly once you give it a rest with no grazing pressure. But if you are careful, and managing your grazing carefully (which some people are doing anyways without even knowing it's a method considered 'regenerative'; they're just paying attention, whether or not they know the science behind why it works) -- you can take it down to a level where it's still high enough to be in an active stage of growing. So, with a rest, the grass grows back quicker. Obviously a lot of us know this, but it's surprising sometimes how little people do know, despite the knowledge out there, and despite some people having done this for a long time, driving around looking at people's management practices. (I think it's because we're all so damn busy all the time to learn anything new!)
But, of course, if you let it get tall enough to go to seed, it slows down growing, and then the ability of the grass to regrow AND the nutritional value to the animals can be lessened. So, for example, moving your cows once a year, and supplementing a bunch of hay, isn't going to be 'regenerative' because you're basically screwing over your field's ability to produce as much free grass during the growing season as possible.
Basically, the more you can learn and be open to knowing WHY things work the way they do, the more you can do small things that help you spend less money on inputs that cost $$$, and at the same time you're working to build healthier soils and healthier cows and all that.
That's the thing.. it's not just 'people are raising cows and calling it 'regenerative', it's learning a ton about all the MANY, MANY different ways that these things work, and how you can make them work for you to help you make a profit and put health INTO the land instead of just needing to add inputs (fertilizers, herbicides, etc) all the time. It's not some greenwashing bullshit, although there are probably some fresh-out-of-the-city goofballs capitalizing on parts of it -- what it's SUPPOSED to be is people realizing that many aspects of our current farming systems aren't working all that well and creating healthy fields and land without spending as much on inputs. Some of it is stuff we've known a long time -- use certain cover crop species, manage your pastures effectively, etc, -- but some of it comes from a lot of new research and stuff you might not know yet -- so it's kind of a huge topic to cover. They have teams of scientists working on this stuff all the time, we might as well benefit from it!
(To be continued, I write too much)
While there is a lot of environmental buzzwords going around, it's important to consider that things like 'regenerative agriculture' are largely about people in the agriculture and scientific communities learning more info on animal and pasture management in order to optimize how much money you can make. Just hear me out for one second on this one -- if you're turning away from anything that might seem new or buzzword-ish, just consider, as one example... (It's a lot about learning what info is out there, and not being open to new ideas because there can be ways of doing things that are more profitable than the way a lot of us have been doing certain things for a long time now...)
So, just one example of SO many things that are part of 'regenerative agriculture' ... with the way grass grows -- if you let your animals graze the grass right down low, the grass doesn't have the energy to grow back as quickly once you give it a rest with no grazing pressure. But if you are careful, and managing your grazing carefully (which some people are doing anyways without even knowing it's a method considered 'regenerative'; they're just paying attention, whether or not they know the science behind why it works) -- you can take it down to a level where it's still high enough to be in an active stage of growing. So, with a rest, the grass grows back quicker. Obviously a lot of us know this, but it's surprising sometimes how little people do know, despite the knowledge out there, and despite some people having done this for a long time, driving around looking at people's management practices. (I think it's because we're all so damn busy all the time to learn anything new!)
But, of course, if you let it get tall enough to go to seed, it slows down growing, and then the ability of the grass to regrow AND the nutritional value to the animals can be lessened. So, for example, moving your cows once a year, and supplementing a bunch of hay, isn't going to be 'regenerative' because you're basically screwing over your field's ability to produce as much free grass during the growing season as possible.
Basically, the more you can learn and be open to knowing WHY things work the way they do, the more you can do small things that help you spend less money on inputs that cost $$$, and at the same time you're working to build healthier soils and healthier cows and all that.
That's the thing.. it's not just 'people are raising cows and calling it 'regenerative', it's learning a ton about all the MANY, MANY different ways that these things work, and how you can make them work for you to help you make a profit and put health INTO the land instead of just needing to add inputs (fertilizers, herbicides, etc) all the time. It's not some greenwashing bullshit, although there are probably some fresh-out-of-the-city goofballs capitalizing on parts of it -- what it's SUPPOSED to be is people realizing that many aspects of our current farming systems aren't working all that well and creating healthy fields and land without spending as much on inputs. Some of it is stuff we've known a long time -- use certain cover crop species, manage your pastures effectively, etc, -- but some of it comes from a lot of new research and stuff you might not know yet -- so it's kind of a huge topic to cover. They have teams of scientists working on this stuff all the time, we might as well benefit from it!
(To be continued, I write too much)