How Do We Reform a Broken Food System Through Regenerative Farming With Thomas Locke | Ep
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- In this eye-opening interview, regenerative cattle rancher Thomas Locke shares his unconventional journey and provocative insights on reforming our food system from the ground up. He explains how rebuilding soil health through regenerative grazing can help combat climate change and produce healthier food, even for non-meat-eaters. Locke challenges us to rethink our diets and reshape a broken industrial agriculture model through the power of our consumer choices. Here are some key points of the discussion:
• Thomas explains regenerative agriculture focuses on improving soil health by avoiding chemicals, keeping ground covered, and fostering biodiversity.
• He acknowledges regenerative ag alone cannot feed the world's current meat consumption levels, but believes people need to eat less and better quality meat.
• Thomas details how his cattle are raised more humanely and live much longer than industrial cattle, though the slaughter process is still difficult emotionally.
• He emphasizes the critical importance of rebuilding and regenerating soil, which has been severely depleted, to grow healthy food and combat climate change.
• Thomas advocates for consumers making small changes, like eating less meat or choosing regeneratively grown food, to help reverse destructive patterns in the food system.
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There is no right way to do the wrong thing.😢
You're right. Regenerative farms and ranches increase life. Industrial farms destroy life. On the whole, a plant based diet from industrial farms is far more destructive, and deathly than any regenerative animal enterprise.
It was interesting to hear his perspective as a regenerative farmer. I listened with an open mind - I hope - but clearly regenerative grazing is not the ethical or environmental solution to feeding humans that farmers like Thomas would like us to believe. Better than CAFO, sure. But that's a pretty low bar.
Listen to the part about organic matter in soil again. An increase in 1% organic matter allows one acre of soil to hold an additional 20,000 gallons of water and sequester an additional 10 tons of carbon. Industrial farms (the source of virtually every plant-based concoction, fruits and veg in your grocery store and restaurant) erode topsoil and decrease organic matter. Regenerative farms and ranches increase organic matter (on my farm from 1.5% to 2.5% in one decade). We must eat less meat, that is clear. But the solution is not in just eating plants, but how those plants are grown. The same is true for ranches. We can easily feed the world this way, if we ever choose to do so.
Thanks for responding, Thomas. I will take another listen... I imagine most monocropping is done to feed animals in feed lots, and your regen way is far better for soil and carbon sequestration. But I wonder, do you think that were I to add meat from your ranch to my vegan (mainly wholefood, at least half "organic", whatever that means), I would be helping or hindering the environment?
@@MrRibbett454 It would be helping. By regenerating this piece of land with grazing animals we are building soil and fostering a diverse ecosystem on previously degraded land (as a result of monocropping). It is also important to remember there are no black and white answers to problems with our food system. Any discussion about our food system and relationship with nature must include nuance.
What about regenerative veganic agriculture? This is the solution to ending animal agriculture, sequestering carbon in our 'living soils' and making agriculture systems actually net-zero.
Absolutely! Veganic agriculture that regenerates the soil is the way forward! There are so many ways to regenerate soil that don't involve domesticated livestock, such as using cover crops and chipped branch wood. Regenerating soil is such an important thing, though it's a shame that people seem to think that cows and other livestock are somehow needed to regenerate soil. There are tons of native free-living animals that contribute to soil health. We need to collectively concentrate on land use that is in line with a vegan ethic, that supports rewilding, and that provides us with food while also improving soil quality.
The best point in the entire interview from an animal raising person is that he raises cows to sell because he needs money to live. Cows=money like they have been used/exploited for 10,000 years and they are human dominated. It must be awful for him to take the cows to the slaughterhouse, he seems like he would be a good candidate for a farm animal sanctuary, like Rowdy Girl.
"It's not the Chow. It's the how." That's how Molly Elwood of Elwood's Organic Dog Meat would put it. You realize how speciesist every thing Thomas says is when you can't replace "cow" with "dog." Ditto for commodifying sentient beings. I thought the story of him soothingly convincing his cattle to get onto a trailer to be particularly traitorous. They already would have considered hm to be a friend and he betrays their trust by leading them to their deaths. And he further betrays them by not staying with then until the very end. Is this to assuage his own guilt? And how can he be "sure" that things "suddenly go dark" for these animals unless he does so? He compares this killing to the captive bolt gun used in "No Country For Old Men" but the victims in the film were caught by total surprise and not subjected to being transported to a slaughter house where they could smell blood and death. Thomas also talks about increasing diversity on his farm, but it is not truly biodiverse and he makes no mention of peacefully coexisting with predators which, I have no doubt, are most unwelcome on his "ecosystem." Also missing is the carrion effect that occurs when the bodies of animals return to the earth where they lived and died. It's kinda sad that episodes such as this and others where guests are apologists for junk science using animals are making Switch4Good an increasingly less safe space for vegans. Wonder if I can rescind my vote for Switch4Good as The Best Vegan Podcast as it appears it no longer qualifies? If ruminants are somehow "essential" to regenerative farming, than this could be accomplished with a sanctuary model. But they aren't. Would like to see a follow up episode about veganic farming, which is organic farming totally devoid of animal product input.
If you edited your post and took out blind idealism and incorrect assumptions about the farm, it would be two or three sentences long. I know how hard it is to take the life of an animal, and I empathize with your perspective. I'm glad you have an outlet as an adult to choose a diet that aligns with your ethics. Since you appear to be fairly self righteous, I would also make sure your diet is not contributing to the destruction of ecosystems, loss of topsoil and the release of carbon into the atmosphere, which are hallmarks of industrial plant production. We live in a diverse world, and our agricultural systems should reflect that.
@@tlocke1982 Veganism is not a diet. It is an ethical position and a social justice issue. The definition, according to the Vegan Society is as follows: "Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude - as far as is possible and practicable - all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose."
Vegans make up but a small percentage of the population and every day we are faced with the arduous task of navigating a society where the suffering of and violence towards animals is ubiquitous and normalized. Some, like co-host Alexandra Paul, have witnessed this violence first hand while others of us have viewed footage most won't watch because they're afraid it will "ruin their dinner." Switch4Good was a place we could go for health information without being triggered. But not any more.
I didn't vote for Switch4Good as The Best Health Podcast or The Best Plant Based/Forward/Predominate Podcast. I voted for Switch4Good as The Best Vegan Podcast and, as such, I feel it more than inappropriate that it is a platform for apologists for junk science using animals and those who commodify and kill animals.
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@@debbiewall2160 You might be missing the (rather important) point that regenerative farms and ranches increase life. Industrial farms destroy life. On the whole, a plant based diet from industrial farms is far more destructive, and deathly than any regenerative animal enterprise. Industrial farms - the places that grow the vegetables you more than likely eat on a regular basis (correct me if you only source from regenerative farms) kill everything on a piece of land but that one crop. Regenerative farms foster life. It takes a little nuance to see this, and I would encourage you to look harder. Sorry for triggering you.
@@tlocke1982 Thank-you for your thughful reply. Yes, I'm quite aware of industrial vs "regenerative" (subject to definition) of all kinds of farming. And I agree 100% with you that people have to drastically cut their meat consumption if extensive animal agriculture were to become the norm. (We also need to drastically reduce our human population pressure . . . but that's for another podcast.) But, as vegans, we recognize we don't need to eat any meat at all.
Here is a story about Impossible Foods purchasing a cattle ranch and transitioning it to a sanctuary/farm to grow crops for their plant-based meats. I perused the article for their farming methods and, while they did not use the word "regenerative," they do say, "Impossible Ranch is a living and breathing educational resource where our commitments to giving back to the planet and supporting animal welfare are front-and-center." Here is the link to their page if you wish to explore further: impossiblefoods.com/media/news-releases/impossible-foods-unveils-impossible-ranch
There are other organizations who are assisting farmers to transition from growing animals to growing plants. I will leave you with two, the latter of which is an initiative of a former Texas cattle rancher who, at the behest of his wife, became vegan and turned their property into a sanctuary.
thetransfarmationproject.org/
rancheradvocacy.org/
I very much understand the merits of what you are doing . . . but it is still not vegan. I took action when Switch4Good asked their listeners to vote for them as "The Best Vegan Podcast." Had I known they were gong to produce non-vegan content, I would not have done so. That's not to say it's a bad podcast. It's just not vegan. Imagine helping your fave steakhouse earn the title of "Best Restaurant" and then the next time you went there the menu was entirely . . . . wait for it . . . vegan. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! . . . etc.. I made myself laugh.