Monday 20.06.22
I have seen a few things on social media lately, both for and against, livestock production and consumption.
I am not a vegan. I love eating meat.
I am not a monster. I love animals.
I eat meat because I like it, because it is healthy for me, and I know all the negative stories aren’t true.
I believe some people do not eat meat because they don’t like the idea of eating a cute animal that was once alive.
I believe there are a lot of people who do not eat meat because they have been led to believe meat is bad for them, for the environment and that the animal has a horrible life filled with torture followed by a slow painful death.
I find that both sad and outrageous.
It is sad that there is such a divide between consumers living in such a different world to where their food comes from that they have no idea what the reality is, what the general reality is.
It is so sad that there are kids growing up believing that farting cows are creating global warming and that they should only eat the lettuce from the grocery store that has either been sprayed who knows how many times both during and after it was grown in either a fake environment or soil that is regularly ploughed and sprayed, killing the divers biological life that is needed to fix and maintain our soils to keep feeding us.
Most farmers love their animals. They work with those animals everyday.
If they don’t love those animals, they don’t make any money to feed and educate their family.
Yes, there are a few sad stories of producers that knowingly do the wrong thing. There are “those people” in all careers. With such a huge disconnection between consumers and producers it only takes one or two of those awful stories to tarnish the image of every good farmer out there.
Now while I give the poor lettuce farmer a hard time, there are producers who have opened their mind and their schedule to learn a whole new side of farming and the amazing array of life they are really working with, and the different management practices that can help build better soil, plants and livestock. A lot of farmer just don’t even know there is any other way to farm, or that their soil is alive.
Back to the actual topic though… did you know that grass fed beef is very healthy for you?
Did you know that livestock can be extremely beneficial to the land?
Did you know that its not the cow, but the how?
Before we decided who owned what bit of land and put fences up everywhere, predators would keep prey animals moving, the prey animal being forced not to stay in one place too long in order to protect itself and its herd.
With this regular movement, the animals would just eat the grass in front of it as it walked along, or stop for a short time grazing in an area before moving off.
This regular movement helped prevent grasses being grazed too short or too hard, and given plenty of rest time to recover and regrow.
When plants are growing, they are taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, photosynthesising and creating sugars, which about 30% of these sugars they spew out their roots to “trade” with biology in the soil for nutrients. The soil can use this to help build humus / stable carbon in the soil which is important for water holding capacity, nutrient capacity and soil structure.
Coming back to where we are now with our fences and the ability to pick and choose (in most scenarios) what stock we put where (not including kangaroos etc.), we have to be mindful of the affect our management decisions have on our soil, plants and livestock.
Both under-grazing and over-grazing can lead to plants not photosynthesising. This is generally by either constantly having its solar panels chewed off and losing its energy reserves, meaning it eventually just can’t grow back anymore (over-grazing), or by being able to become old and lignified after running its life course – so becoming dead and eventually hollow ground cover that can shade out new growth and starve soil microbes (over-grazing).
Both paths here lead to a decline in soil health, decline in desirable plant species, and a decline in stock health.
Well managed grazing can keep plants growing in a vegetative stage, even stimulating more growth with hormones found in their saliva. We can even use the livestock as a tool to get nutrient cycling going with nutrients being eaten by the stock, being cycled through the animal and deposited back to the ground with extra biology to go with it.
Moving stock from healthier paddocks to poorer paddocks can even help boost the health of the new paddock, being a machine free, natural way to slowly but surely keep things moving in the right direction.
This moving of the livestock also keeps the animal happy, with a regular fresh plate of food on offer for them, the animals get very used to the company of humans and the expectation of fresh paddocks fairly regularly. This can become a very low stress operation for all living beings.
An environment like this also can also lead to a lower rate of intestinal worms and other infections and disease in animals, meaning lower vet and drug assistance to make animals healthy.
This all sounds like a win to me.
There are poor examples out there of animal management. I am not keen on intense or straight feedlotting either. There is not benefit to the soil, no plants, and not a healthy environment for the animal.
Different feedlot operate differently. Some may have animals there for a much shorter time, meaning less stress or risk of disease of gut issues. Every scenario can be different and I do not know enough about all the operations to comment much on the animal side of it.
The point I would like to make in this post, or the thought to leave you with, is that animals have been around for a long time. On farm management practices have the biggest impact on the health of the soil, plants, animals and our own health.
Get educated about what you are eating, where your food is grown, how your food is grown – be plants or meat, and use your shopping to push the demand of food that is grown and bred in a healthy and sustainable way.
Happy shopping
Jess xx