Agriculture as it is practiced by most farmers today is destroying our environment. This thoughtful blogpost from the WSJ challenges the industry to find a better way. While there are many potential solutions, sustainable ag has a very important role to play. The key difference lies in what and how the animals are fed. When livestock feed is imported from other farms in the form of corn-soy blends or hay, unprocessed nutrients are deposited onto the fields with livestock in the form of manure. Soils become overloaded with pollutants like nitrates and phosphates that leak into groundwater and rivers. These crops are typically grown with the aid of synthetic fertilizers but have inefficient fertilizer uptake rates typically using only a third of the fertilizer applied with the remainder at risk for leaking out of soils in the winter when fields are fallow. This type of livestock farming therefore leads to pollution on both the farms that grow the crops and the farms that feed the animals.
In contrast, our pastured livestock program benefits the soil and broader environment by keeping farm runoff water clean and building topsoil. When livestock consume only pasture, no nutrients in excess of what was already present in the pasture are introduced. As a result, soils aren’t over-loaded with nitrates and phosphates. In addition, our pastures are composed of a mix of perennial plants that are not fallowed, keeping soils covered all year with a deep-rooted living plant community that largely prevents erosion and nutrient leakage.