Farm Program in Need of Serious Revisions to Integrate Soil Regeneration Practices Unfortunately, one major hurdle that needs to be overcome before US farmers can more readily switch over to these regenerative principles is the government farm program, which subsidizes the growing of certain crops. At present, the farm program is strictly geared to monoculture production. Ive come to the realization that we need to educate the consumers and the consumers need to drive the change through their purchasing dollars, Gabe says. Let me tell you of this movement... My son and I started [a grass-fed beef] business in March, and we have zero advertising dollars. Weve just been going to local farmers markets. We already have over 650 repeat customers. We cant keep up with the demand right now. That goes to show you that if thats happening in a rural state such as North Dakota, whats happening in more urban areas? ...I tell the farmers and ranchers I talk to that carbon drives profitability of an operation. We have to start thinking of our farms and ranches as ecosystems and these ecosystems are driven by carbon. The more biomass you produce and the more diversity, the more carbon. Obviously, trees are a little bit scarce here in the Northern Plains. But for the average gardener, theres usually some type of tree removal service that has wood chips available in most communities that you can get and add to that garden. If youre adding carbon, youre going to increase the fungal component and youre going to increase the mycorrhizal fungi [that] secrete glomalin, which starts the formation of soil particles. ...Theres a great book by Dr. David Montgomery called Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations. Dr. Montgomery talks about how all the civilizations such as the Incas and the Romans, their rise and fall occurred because of the degradation of their soil resource. I had the opportunity to visit one on one with Dr. Montgomery this past year. I asked him, How long do we have as a nation before this occurs to us? And without blinking an eye, he said, Less than 50 years. He said, We cannot continue on this path of degrading our resources like we have.... [N]o-till is a piece; cover-cropping is a piece; diversity is a piece; and livestock integration is a piece. We have to bring all of these things together. articles.mercola/sites/articles/archive/2014/12/14/regenerative-land-management.aspx
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 07:28:40 +0000
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