Tag Archive for: Holistic Management

Back to Grass: The Market Potential for US Grassfed Beef

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Authors: Donny Benz, Renee Cheung, Rosalie Kissel, Paul McMahon and Erik Norel | Published: April 2017 

Grassfed beef in the U.S. is a fast-growing consumer phenomenon that is starting to attract the attention of more cattle producers and food companies, but there is a lack of coherent information on how the market works. While the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) produces a vast body of data on the conventional beef sector, its data collection and reporting efforts on grassfed beef are spotty. Pockets of information are held by different private sector organizations, but they have rarely been brought together.

This report addresses that gap by providing a comprehensive overview of the U.S. grassfed beef sector, with a focus on market and economic dynamics. It brings together available data on the current state of the sector, identifies barriers to growth and highlights actions that will help propel further expansion. It analyzes consumer demand, supply chains and both domestic and imported grassfed beef production models, all the while comparing grassfed beef with conventional beef to highlight their differences.

The report tries to answer some fundamental questions about the future of the sector. How do we define “grassfed beef”? Does it matter how restrictive this definition is? Is grassfed beef destined to remain a niche, expensive product for the affluent consumer? Or can grassfed beef scale to the point where it displaces a significant portion of the conventional, grain-fed beef system in the U.S.?

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Runoff Reduced, Water Retention Increased by Multi-paddock Grazing

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Author: Kay Ledbetter | Published: March 9, 2017 

Adaptive multi-paddock grazing has been found to be an effective conservation practice on grazing lands for enhancing water conservation and protecting water quality, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research study at Vernon.

The research results were summarized in the article “Evaluating the ranch and watershed scale impacts of using traditional and adaptive multi-paddock grazing on runoff, sediment and nutrient losses in North Texas, USA,” published recently in the Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment journal The full journal article can be found at https://bit.ly/2mCiqdl.

Conducting the AgriLife Research study funded by the Dixon Water Foundation were Dr. Srinivasulu Ale, a geospatial hydrology associate professor; Dr. Richard Teague, rangeland ecology and management scientist, both in Vernon; Dr. Jaehak Jeong, associate professor at Temple; and Dr. Jong-Yoon Park, a postdoctoral researcher at Vernon who is now with the Korea Environment Institute.

The Agricultural Policy/Environmental Extender, or APEX, model was used to evaluate the influence of continuous and multi-paddock, grazing practices on runoff, sediment and nutrient losses at both the ranch- and watershed-scales, Ale said.

“We found grazing management practices do have a significant influence on ecosystem services provided by rangelands,” he said. “Not only did the multi-paddock grazing practice provide several hydrological benefits such as increased soil infiltration, increased water conservation and decreased surface runoff, but also environmental benefits such as water quality improvement.”

Teague said this study was designed to help producers by assessing the hydrologic and water quality impacts of traditional and alternate grazing management practices and identifying best management practices for long-term sustainability of rangelands.

The study quantified runoff, sediment and nutrient losses under traditional continuous and adaptive multi-paddock grazing management practices in the rangeland-dominated Clear Creek Watershed in North Texas, he said.

The APEX model was initially evaluated at the ranch-scale using observed herbaceous plant biomass and daily soil moisture data at four study ranches – two under multi-paddock grazing and one each under light continuous and heavy continuous grazing practices – and the model output was consistent with field data, Teague said.

The model was further evaluated using monthly streamflow, sediment, total nitrogen and total phosphorus data measured at the watershed outlet, Ale said. Both ranch- and watershed-scale results indicated a strong influence of the grazing practice on runoff and water quality.

When the grazing management was changed from the baseline multi-paddock to heavy continuous grazing at one of the study ranches, he said the simulated average annual surface runoff, sediment, total nitrogen and total phosphorus losses from 1980-2013 increased by 148 percent, 142 percent, 144 percent and 158 percent, respectively.

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Regenerative Agriculture Reaches a Tipping Point

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Author: Chris Kerston | Published: March 15, 2017 

On a beautiful sunny March day in Southern California, a great annual gathering takes place. Marked by the bustle of pedicabs in the streets, tote bags and yoga mats flung over shoulders, and ubiquitous white badges flopping from necklace lanyards over crisp suits and hemp garb all the same, the masses ascend upon the Anaheim Convention Center to convene on the growing movement that is sustainable living. With over 100,000 people, Expo West is the largest natural and organic consumer-packaged-goods trade-show event in the world.

This is my second year in attendance. Last year I was asked to speak on a panel with Andre Leu from IFOAM and Kyle Garner from Organic India Tulsi Tea. The panel focused on soil health and we each talked about how agriculture could and must be “regenerative,” i.e. it must go beyond a zero-sum game. We are already too far out of balance, we cannot simply sustain the current scenarios, we must build equity back into the land base which supports us all, while simultaneously invigorating communities and rebuilding local economies. Journalists and brand managers frantically scribbled notes about this new term, “regenerative,” and asked many questions about the concept of going beyond sustainability. There were probably a half a dozen other presentations last year that I saw where this new concept of a regenerative narrative was presented.

For those of us on the inside, we feel like we’ve been championing for a beyond sustainable mantra for over 10 years, but a tipping point was most certainly reached in the last 12 months. “Regenerative Agriculture” was THE trending topic of this year’s Expo West.

Strong Regenerative Advocates
This year I was asked to speak on behalf of the Savory Institute on a panel called, “Positive Animal Impact; Healing Soil, Regenerating Land, Reversing Climate Change.” I was alongside two great friends, Taylor Collins the CEO and co-founder of EPIC Provisions and Will Harris CEO of White Oak Pastures. The panel was moderated by John Foraker, CEO of Annie’s Homegrown.

I met Taylor about 3 years ago, when their brand was just getting started. They wanted a product that came from truly regenerative meat sources and they wanted the Savory Institute’s help in procuring that. We share very similar core values and an entrepreneurial style, and we quickly became friends. EPIC has grown to become one of the Savory Institute’s biggest supporters.

And I’ve been a fan of Will’s for about 10 years. Prior to my time at Savory, I managed a large diversified ranch and orchard operation in Northern California that I often joke, aspired to be like Will Harris. When I started working with Savory we began talking about him becoming a Savory Hub and his ranch, White Oak Pastures, became accredited last year.

The Savory Institute is all about facilitating the large-scale restoration of the world’s grasslands in ways that are socially and culturally sound as well as economically viable and create net-positive impacts on the land. This is all accomplished through the process of Holistic Management, which is a proactive triple-bottom-line planning process. Our primary tool to accomplish this is through the promotion of regenerative grazing, where domestic livestock are managed in a way the matches nature’s rhythms and cycles. We work with a number of other NGOs, consumer brands, and private landowners to do that, but our primary mechanism for scaling this up globally is through what we call our “Hub Strategy.” When people to come ask us to come into a region, we work with a local leader where we train and equip them to become a center of innovation – a place to churn out master grazers and build a vast cadre of regenerative livestock producers that matches the local context and culture.

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Epic Provisions Co-founder: ‘regenerative agriculture is the next big movement in food’

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Author: Elaine Watson | Published: March 15, 2017

Meat and dairy often get a bad rap on the sustainability front, but not all animal production systems have the same impact on the planet, says EPIC Provisions co-founder Taylor Collins, who reckons that “the next big movement in food is coming in the form of regenerative agriculture,” which he claims is “creating a net positive return on the environment.”

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Why George Monbiot Is Wrong: Grazing Livestock Can Save the World

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Author: L Hunter Lovins | Published: August 19, 2014 

In his recent interview with Allan Savory, the high profile biologist and farmer who argues that properly managing grazing animals can counter climate chaos, George Monbiot reasonably asks for proof. Where I believe he strays into the unreasonable, is in asserting that there is none.

Savory’s argument, which counters popular conceptions, is that more livestock rather than fewer can help save the planet through a concept he calls “holistic management.” In brief, he contends that grazing livestock can reverse desertification and restore carbon to the soil, enhancing its biodiversity and countering climate change. Monbiot claims that this approach doesn’t work and in fact does more harm than good. But his assertions skip over the science and on the ground evidence that say otherwise.

Richard Teague, a range scientist from Texas A&M University, presented in favour of Savory’s theory at the recent Putting Grasslands to Work conference in London. Teague’s research is finding significant soil carbon sequestration from holistic range management practices.

Soil scientist, Dr Elaine Ingham, a microbiologist and until recently chief scientist at Rodale Institute, described how healthy soil, the underpinning of civilization throughout history, is created in interaction between grazing animals and soil microbiology. Peer-reviewed research from Rodale has shown how regenerative agriculture can sequester more carbon than humans are now emitting. Scientists, as well as dozens of farmers, ranchers and pastoralists from around the world, describe how they are increasing the health of their land, the carrying capacity of it, its biodiversity, and its profitability, all while preserving their culture and traditions.

How much carbon can be sequestered in properly managed grasslands and how fast? We don’t know, but we do know that massive carbon reserves were present in the ten-foot thick black soil of the historic grasslands of the Great Plains of the US. We know that the globe’s grasslands are the second largest store of naturally sequestered carbon after the oceans. They got that way by co-evolving with pre-industrial grazing practices: sufficient herds of native graziers, dense packed by healthy populations of predators.

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The Business Case for Holistic Management

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Author: Alexander Lykins | Published: February 17, 2017 

Allan Savory — Zimbabwean ecologist, farmer, soldier, exile, environmentalist, international consultant and president and co-founder of the Savory Institute — has a world-saving message: The answer is in the soil. In the 1960s, Savory originated the concept of holistic management, which has been popularized by several articles and a TED Talk that has been viewed nearly 4 million times.

Holistic Management is a framework, most commonly applied to grassland management, that when properly practiced has the potential to regenerate damaged land. It focuses on mimicking the evolutionary grazing patterns of cattle to regenerate soils and restore grasslands. This technique has proved effective in hundreds of areas across the globe, one of the most popular being via Operation HOPE, winner of the 2010 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.

In December, Bard MBA student Alexander Lykins sat down with Savory to discuss holistic management, how it can be applied to business and how young entrepreneurs can become involved.

Alexander Lykins: For some of our listeners, holistic management may be a new concept. Could you please give a brief overview?

Allan Savory: It’s an easy way, really, for anyone to manage their business or any management situation more successfully. Management, in any situation, always involves a web of social, environmental and economic complexity. Even managing feeding your family or living in a city involves complexity.

All management actions also need a reason and a context. If you think about that, you’ll realize that the reason is that you want to meet a need or a desire. In the case of policies, the context always has to do with the problem. There’s no other reason why governments develop a policy — it doesn’t matter if the policy is on drugs, terrorism or anything else. Whatever it is, the context is the problem.

When we do that, we take this great web of complexity that we cannot avoid and reduce it to a simple context for our actions. That’s reductionist management. All of us do it — we always have, in all cultures. Unfortunately, reductionist management commonly leads to achieving our actions but also later experiencing unintended consequences. And that’s where we are today.

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How Cattle Can Fight Climate Change

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Author: Alexander Lykins | Published: January 12, 2017

In Nouakchott, a town on the edge of the Sahara in the North African country of Mauritania, lives a woman named Nancy Abeiderrahmane. In 1989 she founded an organization called Tvivski (PDF) (spring in Arabic) to connects local milk producers in Mauritania with the consumers.

Abeiderrahmane created Tiviski out of frustrations over having to rely on expensive powdered European milk. Today Tiviski provides affordable, locally produced milk to Mauritanians. For the thousands of families who produce milk, the dairy provides a livelihood.

In Richard Toll, a small Senegalese town rich with cattle, a veterinarian by the name of Bagoré Bathily had a similar dream. He founded La Laiterie du Berger, French for “the herder’s dairy.”

Despite Senegal’s having nearly 4 million herders, until 2006 almost all of the milk consumed in the country was imported, powdered milk from Europe. Now La Laiterie du Berger produces over 650,000 liters of milk a year, providing a stable income and food supply to nearly 7,000 people.

In Keffi, Nigeria, a dairy farm with a similar mission of improving development through local agriculture is even more impressive. Nagari Integrated Dairy farm was founded by Alhaji Abdullahi Adamu, a former governor, in 1982. In contrast to the previous two farms, Nagari is reported to be one of the largest single integrated dairy farms in Africa, boasting over 37,000 cattle on nearly 3,000 acres. However, Nagari has a similar vision for their organization, in which indigenous ownership, equity and sustainability are key components.

All three dairies have improved food security in their local areas and created economic opportunities for thousands of citizens. All of these dairies cite sustainability within their supply chain as a priority, and all have taken steps to work towards and measure their goals. The good news is agricultural businesses such as these are increasing in sub-Saharan Africa, as locals become invested in combating food insecurity and international funds from companies such as Danone arrive to support these efforts.

These dairies have, however, a less obvious opportunity to take advantage of: the opportunity to help the planet. They have access to tens of thousands of acres of land. All that they need to implement true sustainability is to recognize that the secret to reversing the impact of climate change lies in the soil. A style of grazing, holistic management, uses grazing animals to repair soil health, increase carrying capacity, sequester carbon in the soil, increase its fertility and capacity to retain moisture.

All of these features can hold back deserts and roll back climate change.

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Respected Environmentalist on the Side of the Livestock

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Author: Stephen Cadogan | January 5, 2017 

A respected environmentalist has hit back against the demonisation of beef.

In 2003, Allan Savory won the Banksia award for the person doing the most for the environment on a global scale.

In 2010, the Savory Institute’s sister organisation, the Africa Centre for Holistic Management, won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge for working to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

Now, the Savory Institute is one of 11 finalists in Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Earth Challenge to award scalable and sustainable ways of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

At the recent World Meat Congress in Uruguay, Allan Savory offered more than 700 meat industry leaders from 36 countries hope for their industry, which has been battered by public opinion.

“With livestock out of feedlots, and back on the land, properly managed,” he said, “we have the opportunity to regenerate deteriorating environments and to impact climate change significantly.”

It’s a welcome piece of encouraging news after so many scientists have targeted ruminant livestock as key contributors to global warming, due to their gaseous emissions.

Savory says agriculture has been a major cause of climate change not because of cattle but because the rise of modern, industrial agriculture destroyed soil life and rendered soils far less capable of storing carbon.

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Holistic Management Stewardship Video

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Author: Ann Adams | Published: November 27, 2016

Our friends at the Western Landowner’s Alliance recently shared a video about Holistic Management practitioners Jack and Tuda Crews of the Ute Creek Cattle Company and the great stewardship of their ranch. Because of improved grazing practices and other land management techniques, they have seen an increase in bird species from 17 to 100 species. They have also seen other wildlife habitat improvement as they have allowed greater recovery for their grasses.

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Mitigating Climate Change on the Farm

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Author:Ellen Vessels | Published: Fall 2016

Rosie Burroughs is worried about the pines. Each time she drives from her family’s dairy to their pack station in the Minarets, she notices more and more dead trees, the lush green landscape withering into a brown, twiggy boneyard. The Forest Service tells her the pines have been wiped out by a beetle that would normally die off in the cold season, but because the winters have been so mild, the beetle has proliferated, meaning devastation for the trees.

This is disconcerting not only for the forest, but also because the snow melt in the Sierra Nevada Mountains is a major source of California’s water. An ecological imbalance in the Sierras could portend disaster for the entire state.

Burroughs has noticed other changes too, at her family’s farms and at her neighbors’. Warm winters are confusing the plants, which bud and bloom out of season. Farmers who purchase water face skyrocketing prices. Others neighbors have had their water cut off before their crops could ripen.

For the agriculture industry, the effects of climate change have become undeniable, especially in the drought-prone state of California. Farmers, whose livelihoods are utterly dependent upon the cycles of nature, are on the front lines of the battle, taking the first and hardest blows. So while others may anxiously await for yet undiscovered technologies to thwart climate change, organic farmers are already adapting. Better yet, they are creating solutions that we can use immediately.

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