These two are so wise because of their collective responsibilities and experiences. Richard has a wonderful holistic view. He constantly evaluates the scale of things and accesses a balance for life. He has a keen mind.
Watching all your videos, may I point one thing out? Both of you are number guys, you do business by statistics and numbers and this makes you both successful... You look into profit, return of invest and productivity just like any other sound entrepreneurs. Both of you are not just idealistic homesteaders, you know how to use metrics and this is a very important message to all out there thinking about starting a "sustainable" ag-bizz: Use numbers and marketing. If you do not like tables, research and numbers, just do not do it...
Wow! Richard what you do in that environment is amazing. I lived in Alaska for a few years and the biggest crop was potatoes. With your knowledge and persistence you would be a huge farmer. In the lower 48
Well done gents for the impact you are making on the more sustainable living all over this wonderfull home we call our planet! I salute you!! Thanks for sharing,excellent content
Richard's explanation of why he pays more attention to the animals is very interesting and objective, but it also shows his personal integrity and value of life.
He's a true farmer. I grew up dairy farming w my family, so I know. If u listen to more of his talks ( Richard's) on his you tube channel, you'll see that he genuinely cares a about his animals. He just also always keeps in mind the financial component, like anyone ( who is going to succeed anyways) who runs theur own business does, & especially a farmer as that has become traditionally a money losing business & he is out to show how a permaculture & regen. Ag farm can be profitable, yet strains his ability to do that by taking on so many other teaching things in effort to help others directly & indirectly by spreading this around the world. I farmed with my family til my 30s, so I know where he's coming from & can see that he is an awfully wonderful guy, & does care.
We were just at the store and we saw a flat of eggs being sold for $7.50 Canadian and my boy suggested that we buy them rather than go to the farm store and pay $9.50/flat. My reply, a stranger was listening in as I was saying this, “I’d rather pay more for eggs that are coming from happy pasture chickens than chickens I know nothing about. Besides, the pasture eggs taste MUCH better.” Having grown up with fresh eggs, I know the taste difference and I would pay more for happy eggs than flavourless ones.
Śūnyatā Eight Respectng how people wish to eat, especially those who wish to do so in a sustainable manor, goes both ways. Richard even said, in the video that accompanies this one in his feed, that a ‘veg farm without animal inputs is unsustainable’. Try educating yourself in the big picture. Curtis even mentioned that he WAS a vegetarian for 16 years, raw for 1 of them and he switched back. Respect goes both ways and you get none of mine, in fact you are typical of an intolerant vegetarian that give the group of you a bad name.
Sunyata Eight You really haven't been paying attention to a few million years of nature, have you? Oh, I forgot, truth is subjective to you folks. Not really a way to counter that type of logic, is there? The only way to fix this is population control, but I bet you aren't gonna have any government telling you how many kids you can have. Let's face it shall we? The human race is screwed. Things go extinct. We are no different. It's just the way nature works. Enjoy everything while you can my friend, and stop bitching about people raising cows and chickens on their personal farms.
Interesting chat, thanks. Richard says you cant grow vegetables without manure. Iain Tolhurst runs a stock free vegetable growing operation in Berkshire, UK. All his soil fertility comes from green manures and wood chip.
Maybe, im no expert & would like to hear Richard's respinse to what your saying, but im thinking issue would be Sustainability, on some sized acreages at least & certain climates, being able to add the compost & get the crops in in spring, is a big deal in his. No time to wait for a month for a green manure crop or to grow one in fall, at least, along with making it profitable. Since he believes in the value of animal foods in our diets ( as do I, per WestonA.Price's work) along with their being no healthy animal-less eco-systems out there, so he may just not be interested in trying to see if its feesable, but I would like to know more of his views on it.
Alan savory says the necessity for animals-large scale is paramount. Example is the US-the bison migrations made for a heartland unparalleled. Agriculture now depends on artificial inputs to match the original fertility. See the Savory Institute.
I just appreciate this video because at 50 I know this kind of labor to make a living is more than I can pull off. A backyard garden and a little aquaponics will feed my family and some neighbors. Thank you for your wisdom.
Urban Farmer Curtis Stone I think they have to. We have to make them Feed the World. But i am very intrested in your view, could you please explain your view of the studies, that say most production on the world happens on small farms without maschines?
They can maybe produce most of the vegitables but they can not produce the bread. you still need grain production which can not be done on a market garden scale
What is the egg price you can get in your area? On our local market in Berlin we have an organic chicken farm that sells the egg 70c a piece. I wonder at what egg/broiler price ration eggs will become more economical?
My question! My question! Thank you so much for choosing one of my questions!! You just made my day!! Dear Curtis, you and Richard are between my favorite youtubers!! When I knew you were going to meet him, it was bittersweet. I was thrilled by the event itself, but incredibly sad that I wouldn't be able to make it. So, when you read my question to Richard I almost felt I was in Ridgedale too!! And I loved the answer! I can't thank you enough! And about the second question, the intention was to make you guys laugh... hope it worked!😉😅
There are layer breed chickens specifically grown to lay eggs and then there are meat chicken breed that grow faster and the sole purpose is to seek them for meat.
Chickens have to be around 6 months old before they start laying. Chickens bred to be solely meat birds, grow very fast and are slaughtered before they are old enough to start laying eggs. If you have a dual purpose bird, which is good for meat and eggs, you will have eggs to gather from those birds, but people raising birds just for meat aren't going to be using those types of birds.
Wow 3000 euro for cow, you can buy a 600kg Grass fed cow from a farmer in NZ for 600 euro then pay 300 euro to get it butchered, food prices must be through the roof over there
Of course you can grow vegetables without animal manure. It's called stock-free farming, or veganic farming. There's also vegan permaculture. stockfreeorganic.net
Lol, Richard not looking at him, so annoyed. From a European perspective, his crossed arms posture isn’t doing him ant favors. Most of the interview Curtis sat with his arms crossed.
Ha! I'm not used to this video dialogue. We aimed to talk to the camera, although naturally you tend to turn and talk to each other at times. I think you are probably overthinking things!
That would be a good discussion to have. To explicitly separate the useful from the unhelpful. As Curtis said in that video I cited, there are so many people who do counter-productive things due to so-called Permaculture/or at least Permaculture according to Mollison.
Wow- what a biased statement-"You cant grow vegetables without animal manure." We just just compost, wood-chips and Back to Eden method. It works great and no animal by-products needed. Some farmers need to wake up. Hes only raising birds for profit and doesn't see the big picture- the impact on our environment. Too bad.
Hey Curtis, I'd like to know what you think of this statement i ran into that doesn't agree with your statement. It's basically saying there IS enough nitrogen. At the moment I don't understand why it wouldn't work on scale, since the process of manure is physically speaking not even as eco-efficient. (source: www.worldwatch.org/node/4060). Enough Nitrogen To Go Around? In addition to looking at raw yields, the University of Michigan scientists also examined the common concern that there aren't enough available sources of non-synthetic nitrogen-compost, manure, and plant residues-in the world to support large-scale organic farming. For instance, in his book Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production, Vaclav Smil argues that roughly two-thirds of the world's food harvest depends on the Haber-Bosch process, the technique developed in the early 20th century to synthesize ammonia fertilizer from fossil fuels. (Smil admits that he largely ignored the contribution of nitrogen-fixing crops and assumed that some of them, like soybeans, are net users of nitrogen, although he himself points out that on average half of all the fertilizer applied globally is wasted and not taken up by plants.) Most critics of organic farming as a means to feed the world focus on how much manure-and how much related pastureland and how many head of livestock-would be needed to fertilize the world's organic farms. "The issue of nitrogen is different in different regions," says Don Lotter, an agricultural consultant who has published widely on organic farming and nutrient requirements. "But lots more nitrogen comes in as green manure than animal manure." Looking at 77 studies from the temperate areas and tropics, the Michigan team found that greater use of nitrogen-fixing crops in the world's major agricultural regions could result in 58 million metric tons more nitrogen than the amount of synthetic nitrogen currently used every year. Research at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania showed that red clover used as a winter cover in an oat/wheat-corn-soy rotation, with no additional fertilizer inputs, achieved yields comparable to those in conventional control fields. Even in arid and semi-arid tropical regions like East Africa, where water availability is limited between periods of crop production, drought-resistant green manures such as pigeon peas or groundnuts could be used to fix nitrogen. In Washington state, organic wheat growers have matched their non-organic neighbor's wheat yields using the same field pea rotation for nitrogen. In Kenya, farmers using leguminous tree crops have doubled or tripled corn yields as well as suppressing certain stubborn weeds and generating additional animal fodder. The Michigan results imply that no additional land area is required to obtain enough biologically available nitrogen, even without including the potential for intercropping (several crops grown in the same field at the same time), rotation of livestock with annual crops, and inoculation of soil with Azobacter, Azospirillum, and other free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
I would say that in nature there are animals in all ecosystems. It is biased to remove animals. Properly managed, animals are beneficial to the ecosystem. A prime example is the grain producing prairies of North America sustained massive herds of Bison, the soil contained way more organic matter and it all went downhill with the removal of the animals to produce grains.
@@philippe9604 In the studies referenced here tho, they didn't mention comparing to farms using manure or manure/bedding composts. Wondering if it has benefits besides from nitrogen. The "animals" there, pooping, are earthworms, so not poop free/plant only as some think, but yes, I do wonder what Richards response to all the info presented in this thread would be. Even if still not his ideal ( wants animals anyways, wants to copy nature, & resulting composts is symbiotically used on his gardens & trees) would he have to recant the " not possible" statement ? If anyone has heard him comment on subject somewhere, i'd like to know... .
Major respect to these hard-working farmers, but I have a big gripe about terminology. I'm sorry but 'Regenerative AG' is a lie. I cannot stand the term in reference to pasturing animals. Animals at *any* scale are a loss of potential biomass and 'restoration'. Its like calling olive oil 'heart healthy'. Sure against lard it is. But not compared to not eating oil in the first place. Just because they can find a market for chicken meat and they push them around in tractors does not make it 'regenerative'. These systems likely use MORE land/space/resources than high-intensity factory farming. How many broilers is he getting per Acre Year.? And at what cost in dollars and labor hours. I'm not talking just paying workers to move them. I'm talking all aspects of that enterprise down to the fence staple, He is obviously supplementing these animals in winter. What is that cost and how much land? If we can get his data, I bet high-intensity factory farming of broilers will use much less land/energy because its at a massive scale. Does this mean you can call factory farming 'Regenerative' instead because it uses less land than Perkins does? Sure chicken scat can slowly build soil, Does it do it faster than natural growth or reforestation no way. Just because you can make money doing a thing does not make it 'regenerative', or 'healing' the earth. Its the opposite. Regeneration in a pure sense would be letting as much of the land as possible return its natural state, Forest? Brushlands? This would likely sequester More carbon, increase biodiversity and do it without the methane production and inefficiencies. This regenerative ag thing is BullS**T. Show me it uses less land per calorie produced. 7 Acres is a tremendous amount of land. Look what curtis can get out of 1/20th of that much space. 60,000lbs of eggs still sounds like a stretch. But even if he is being truthful in this number. You are going to get roughly 650 Calories PER POUND of eggs. How much feed are they buying to give them? What is the caloric input needed to supplement these eggs? I bet when you subtract all of the human-energy, truck energy, feed energy. These eggs are negative output calories, Because they are stealing energy from some factory/mono crop feed stock. There is nothing Regenerative about this. Profit making does not make it environmentally friendly.
Come'on man, ouch! Not anti-capitalist in the least! Small business owner just like yourself. I believe capitalism is one of our greatest tools to build society. I just want honesty in this space, This is the short/medium term future of food here. You can make a bunch of money doing all manner of things that create problems down-stream. I don't fault these farmers for trying to make a living however they can. Perkins is in a crazy harsh climate, The communities around this farm have probably eaten an animal heavy diet for untold generations. Perkins is trying his best to provide local food. And do it in a way he/they define as the most responsible. Awareness and a drive for responsibility is something that benefits everyone. Regenerative AG is a buzzword or phrase, like "farm to table". Its grappled by people looking to feel they are increasing they're a responsibility to the world/animals/health whatever. These terms need clear definitions and honesty. Look at what you can do with you're book Curtis, (which I own) You lay out all the steps to setup successful market gardens and they can easily be modified to require low or perhaps no outside input. And also no animal inputs. The high-intensity aspect of your work combined the use of urbanized land means that you are reducing the need for new/virgin lands to be claimed for crop production. You are directly increasing the efficiencies of already used land. I would call what you are doing MUCH more regenerative. You are directly reducing the outside need for lands to be used for the same crops. Bravo! Going out into the country, Preventing 3 or 30 acres of land from returning to its basil ecosystem (hopefully forest) Because you are running animals all over it at a great expense of human input. Only to feed a fraction of the people you would otherwise with higher intensity factory production cannot be called regenerative. Which literally means 'to restore' To restore what?
The term 'permaculture' is also very misleading. This sort of scale farming is not sustainable, nor the materials used... But the very term 'permaculture' was a misleading term since its coining by Mollison and co.
It's a revealing point that the phrase 'time is money' does to people's thinking. As with any ideology, Capitalism is a filter that distorts an individual's ability to see things as they are and to treat others with due respect.
These two are so wise because of their collective responsibilities and experiences. Richard has a wonderful holistic view. He constantly evaluates the scale of things and accesses a balance for life. He has a keen mind.
Thank you for the answer! You two on one screen.... Can't get enough of that! All the best to you.
Watching all your videos, may I point one thing out? Both of you are number guys, you do business by statistics and numbers and this makes you both successful... You look into profit, return of invest and productivity just like any other sound entrepreneurs. Both of you are not just idealistic homesteaders, you know how to use metrics and this is a very important message to all out there thinking about starting a "sustainable" ag-bizz: Use numbers and marketing. If you do not like tables, research and numbers, just do not do it...
Non farmer, but grew up appreciating the process. You do it very well!
Wow! Richard what you do in that environment is amazing. I lived in Alaska for a few years and the biggest crop was potatoes. With your knowledge and persistence you would be a huge farmer. In the lower 48
You / Richard and JM are so good for this space, please continue to produce great useful content
Thank you. We will.
I watch Richard's channel all the time. Great info, Curtis. Thanks for sharing!
Well done gents for the impact you are making on the more sustainable living all over this wonderfull home we call our planet! I salute you!! Thanks for sharing,excellent content
Richard's explanation of why he pays more attention to the animals is very interesting and objective, but it also shows his personal integrity and value of life.
Joan Smith, quite the opposite I thought. It's all about profit.
He's a true farmer. I grew up dairy farming w my family, so I know. If u listen to more of his talks ( Richard's) on his you tube channel, you'll see that he genuinely cares a about his animals. He just also always keeps in mind the financial component, like anyone ( who is going to succeed anyways) who runs theur own business does, & especially a farmer as that has become traditionally a money losing business & he is out to show how a permaculture & regen. Ag farm can be profitable, yet strains his ability to do that by taking on so many other teaching things in effort to help others directly & indirectly by spreading this around the world. I farmed with my family til my 30s, so I know where he's coming from & can see that he is an awfully wonderful guy, & does care.
Farmer Godfathers in my opinion
Pure talent, knowledge and gift you both are thank you so much for sharing, please keep it coming! 😊💖
We were just at the store and we saw a flat of eggs being sold for $7.50 Canadian and my boy suggested that we buy them rather than go to the farm store and pay $9.50/flat. My reply, a stranger was listening in as I was saying this, “I’d rather pay more for eggs that are coming from happy pasture chickens than chickens I know nothing about. Besides, the pasture eggs taste MUCH better.”
Having grown up with fresh eggs, I know the taste difference and I would pay more for happy eggs than flavourless ones.
Śūnyatā Eight 'Happy/Pasture/Locally raised is not equal to sustainable', - why not?
Śūnyatā Eight Respectng how people wish to eat, especially those who wish to do so in a sustainable manor, goes both ways. Richard even said, in the video that accompanies this one in his feed, that a ‘veg farm without animal inputs is unsustainable’. Try educating yourself in the big picture. Curtis even mentioned that he WAS a vegetarian for 16 years, raw for 1 of them and he switched back.
Respect goes both ways and you get none of mine, in fact you are typical of an intolerant vegetarian that give the group of you a bad name.
Śūnyatā Eight FYI, you are TOXIC!! 😂
I'm willing to bet that the imported eggs were of much lower quality than locally purchased eggs.
Sunyata Eight You really haven't been paying attention to a few million years of nature, have you? Oh, I forgot, truth is subjective to you folks. Not really a way to counter that type of logic, is there? The only way to fix this is population control, but I bet you aren't gonna have any government telling you how many kids you can have. Let's face it shall we? The human race is screwed. Things go extinct. We are no different. It's just the way nature works. Enjoy everything while you can my friend, and stop bitching about people raising cows and chickens on their personal farms.
You are both an inspiration. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
I love Curtis shock when Richard said he hadn’t really eaten chicken before his 20’s
Interesting chat, thanks. Richard says you cant grow vegetables without manure. Iain Tolhurst runs a stock free vegetable growing operation in Berkshire, UK. All his soil fertility comes from green manures and wood chip.
I did an internship there!
Exactly! Actually we are off to a soil course there on 3rd November! very excited. I wish more people would realise you don't need to use animals.
Maybe, im no expert & would like to hear Richard's respinse to what your saying, but im thinking issue would be Sustainability, on some sized acreages at least & certain climates, being able to add the compost & get the crops in in spring, is a big deal in his. No time to wait for a month for a green manure crop or to grow one in fall, at least, along with making it profitable. Since he believes in the value of animal foods in our diets ( as do I, per WestonA.Price's work) along with their being no healthy animal-less eco-systems out there, so he may just not be interested in trying to see if its feesable, but I would like to know more of his views on it.
Alan savory says the necessity for animals-large scale is paramount. Example is the US-the bison migrations made for a heartland unparalleled. Agriculture now depends on artificial inputs to match the original fertility. See the Savory Institute.
So much hands on wisdom. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you! What a genius interview(conversation!)
I just appreciate this video because at 50 I know this kind of labor to make a living is more than I can pull off. A backyard garden and a little aquaponics will feed my family and some neighbors. Thank you for your wisdom.
Don’t sell yourself short. I am now 57 easily running a market garden. Charles Dowding I believe is even older.
Awesome conversation!!
Beautiful conversation
Small farms can feed the world!
This is a subject that I’m going to cover in a video soon. I think my conclusion will shock many people.
Small farms can feed the world, but......
Urban Farmer Curtis Stone I think they have to. We have to make them Feed the World. But i am very intrested in your view, could you please explain your view of the studies, that say most production on the world happens on small farms without maschines?
They can maybe produce most of the vegitables but they can not produce the bread. you still need grain production which can not be done on a market garden scale
There's an appropriate place for both small and large farms. It's not an either/or question..
2nd questions answer's inspire to others farmer 👍☺ for student .
Thanks to share this knowledge to many other people
Outstanding overview. Thank you both.
Lmu8
Very informative, great detail on what works, what doesn't work & where to improve.
these videos are great! thanks for posting!!
You're right! have fun in sweden!
Thank you very much.
Thank you for great insights as we are trying figure out how to make a living on 12 acres
Very informative, love the talk.
Funny, that's the earliest you've posted a video for us guys over here😃
That’s why I started doing it. Being there, I realized that I should post at a time that’s it’s day time in both places on the same day.
Incredible info Richard!
3 mins in, beautiful work
What is the egg price you can get in your area? On our local market in Berlin we have an organic chicken farm that sells the egg 70c a piece. I wonder at what egg/broiler price ration eggs will become more economical?
this was very informative. thanks
Keep doing what you do! You have one of my favorite channels!
No way! Jeb - your here!
i wonder how would you offset the excess water? loop house/ greenhouse??
Fantastic!
it was very usfull thanks
I love the animal attitude. 👍
That surprise at 9:43! haha
Hi thank you
Thank u
What about cut flowers? I have read those sell well but I don't see it discussed. Is this considered a different business?
Also interested
That's real service
Very helpful thank you
My question! My question! Thank you so much for choosing one of my questions!!
You just made my day!!
Dear Curtis, you and Richard are between my favorite youtubers!! When I knew you were going to meet him, it was bittersweet. I was thrilled by the event itself, but incredibly sad that I wouldn't be able to make it.
So, when you read my question to Richard I almost felt I was in Ridgedale too!! And I loved the answer!
I can't thank you enough!
And about the second question, the intention was to make you guys laugh... hope it worked!😉😅
Where in Sweden is this?
I live in Sweden too.
I am from Morocco 21 years old I want to work there
Thank ..
Love the added value. 7k eggs a week. Great way to kill cover crops. Kudos
No chicken until your twenty’s!!! That blows my mind.
Nice video
Awesome
Very nice farm, presently am working in Arabian poultry farm in Dubai please let me know if you need a worker because am interested
So I don't need to pick eggs from the chickens you raise for meat ؟ I don't get this part why are they so much different on the daily bases ?
bintlooda I believe they don't live long enough to start producing eggs.
There are layer breed chickens specifically grown to lay eggs and then there are meat chicken breed that grow faster and the sole purpose is to seek them for meat.
Chickens have to be around 6 months old before they start laying. Chickens bred to be solely meat birds, grow very fast and are slaughtered before they are old enough to start laying eggs. If you have a dual purpose bird, which is good for meat and eggs, you will have eggs to gather from those birds, but people raising birds just for meat aren't going to be using those types of birds.
What's that green fence product? Thanks
It's a windbreak net.
Rich is a geezer
Watch and do ..next year the second year of sars-covid
1:28 Sylvester!
Also AFRICA DONT FORGET USS
Multy layer farming will give more benifit
Bro, I thought you were done with youtube
Nope. Still posting, just mostly posting to fromthefield.farm.
🏅🏅🏅🏅
When you gonna visit Poland Curtis? :P
When someone invites me who is serious about doing something. I only go where I’m invited.
My "farm" looks like garbage this year, so many different things around to focus on instead of farm :(
led, you could focus on growing a few tomato plants really well. quality over quantity i always say.
How big is Your farm?
Did experiment of 1000 plants under sky year ago, 80% went bad because of unusual wet year, tomatoes only in tunnels for me.
Wow 3000 euro for cow, you can buy a 600kg Grass fed cow from a farmer in NZ for 600 euro then pay 300 euro to get it butchered, food prices must be through the roof over there
His chickens lived a better life than mine..skunk keeps wiping mine out... need to build more secuirty.
Aye! First! Never happens lol
I'm curious as to why a satanist would be interested at all in agriculture.
Of course you can grow vegetables without animal manure. It's called stock-free farming, or veganic farming. There's also vegan permaculture. stockfreeorganic.net
26:50
Lol, Richard not looking at him, so annoyed. From a European perspective, his crossed arms posture isn’t doing him ant favors. Most of the interview Curtis sat with his arms crossed.
Richard is looking at the camera mostly and also, crossing your arms in North America is not a sign of disrespect.
You’re over analyzing it. Good grief.
I give a fruit.
Just me? He never looks at Curtis. WTH is up with that? Really strange.
Ha! I'm not used to this video dialogue. We aimed to talk to the camera, although naturally you tend to turn and talk to each other at times. I think you are probably overthinking things!
Hi Richard, would you give a response to Curtis' recent video on the myths of permaculture - what permaculture got wrong?
Guys, I asked Richard to look at the camera. That's often how we shoot videos.
Maybe, I didn't have time to watch it, but sounds like a good idea. We actually share a lot of criticisms of the Permaculture 'movement'
That would be a good discussion to have. To explicitly separate the useful from the unhelpful. As Curtis said in that video I cited, there are so many people who do counter-productive things due to so-called Permaculture/or at least Permaculture according to Mollison.
Wow- what a biased statement-"You cant grow vegetables without animal manure." We just just compost, wood-chips and Back to Eden method. It works great and no animal by-products needed. Some farmers need to wake up. Hes only raising birds for profit and doesn't see the big picture- the impact on our environment. Too bad.
You can't on scale unless your conventional.
Hey Curtis, I'd like to know what you think of this statement i ran into that doesn't agree with your statement. It's basically saying there IS enough nitrogen. At the moment I don't understand why it wouldn't work on scale, since the process of manure is physically speaking not even as eco-efficient. (source: www.worldwatch.org/node/4060).
Enough Nitrogen To Go Around?
In addition to looking at raw yields, the University of Michigan scientists also examined the common concern that there aren't enough available sources of non-synthetic nitrogen-compost, manure, and plant residues-in the world to support large-scale organic farming. For instance, in his book Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Transformation of World Food Production, Vaclav Smil argues that roughly two-thirds of the world's food harvest depends on the Haber-Bosch process, the technique developed in the early 20th century to synthesize ammonia fertilizer from fossil fuels. (Smil admits that he largely ignored the contribution of nitrogen-fixing crops and assumed that some of them, like soybeans, are net users of nitrogen, although he himself points out that on average half of all the fertilizer applied globally is wasted and not taken up by plants.) Most critics of organic farming as a means to feed the world focus on how much manure-and how much related pastureland and how many head of livestock-would be needed to fertilize the world's organic farms. "The issue of nitrogen is different in different regions," says Don Lotter, an agricultural consultant who has published widely on organic farming and nutrient requirements. "But lots more nitrogen comes in as green manure than animal manure."
Looking at 77 studies from the temperate areas and tropics, the Michigan team found that greater use of nitrogen-fixing crops in the world's major agricultural regions could result in 58 million metric tons more nitrogen than the amount of synthetic nitrogen currently used every year. Research at the Rodale Institute in Pennsylvania showed that red clover used as a winter cover in an oat/wheat-corn-soy rotation, with no additional fertilizer inputs, achieved yields comparable to those in conventional control fields. Even in arid and semi-arid tropical regions like East Africa, where water availability is limited between periods of crop production, drought-resistant green manures such as pigeon peas or groundnuts could be used to fix nitrogen. In Washington state, organic wheat growers have matched their non-organic neighbor's wheat yields using the same field pea rotation for nitrogen. In Kenya, farmers using leguminous tree crops have doubled or tripled corn yields as well as suppressing certain stubborn weeds and generating additional animal fodder.
The Michigan results imply that no additional land area is required to obtain enough biologically available nitrogen, even without including the potential for intercropping (several crops grown in the same field at the same time), rotation of livestock with annual crops, and inoculation of soil with Azobacter, Azospirillum, and other free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria.
By the way, an illustration of this would be the Terra farm in Luxemburg. I believe they only use compost?
I would say that in nature there are animals in all ecosystems. It is biased to remove animals. Properly managed, animals are beneficial to the ecosystem. A prime example is the grain producing prairies of North America sustained massive herds of Bison, the soil contained way more organic matter and it all went downhill with the removal of the animals to produce grains.
@@philippe9604 In the studies referenced here tho, they didn't mention comparing to farms using manure or manure/bedding composts. Wondering if it has benefits besides from nitrogen. The "animals" there, pooping, are earthworms, so not poop free/plant only as some think, but yes, I do wonder what Richards response to all the info presented in this thread would be. Even if still not his ideal ( wants animals anyways, wants to copy nature, & resulting composts is symbiotically used on his gardens & trees) would he have to recant the " not possible" statement ? If anyone has heard him comment on subject somewhere, i'd like to know... .
Major respect to these hard-working farmers, but I have a big gripe about terminology.
I'm sorry but 'Regenerative AG' is a lie. I cannot stand the term in reference to pasturing animals. Animals at *any* scale are a loss of potential biomass and 'restoration'. Its like calling olive oil 'heart healthy'. Sure against lard it is. But not compared to not eating oil in the first place. Just because they can find a market for chicken meat and they push them around in tractors does not make it 'regenerative'. These systems likely use MORE land/space/resources than high-intensity factory farming. How many broilers is he getting per Acre Year.? And at what cost in dollars and labor hours. I'm not talking just paying workers to move them. I'm talking all aspects of that enterprise down to the fence staple, He is obviously supplementing these animals in winter. What is that cost and how much land?
If we can get his data, I bet high-intensity factory farming of broilers will use much less land/energy because its at a massive scale. Does this mean you can call factory farming 'Regenerative' instead because it uses less land than Perkins does? Sure chicken scat can slowly build soil, Does it do it faster than natural growth or reforestation no way. Just because you can make money doing a thing does not make it 'regenerative', or 'healing' the earth. Its the opposite.
Regeneration in a pure sense would be letting as much of the land as possible return its natural state, Forest? Brushlands? This would likely sequester More carbon, increase biodiversity and do it without the methane production and inefficiencies. This regenerative ag thing is BullS**T. Show me it uses less land per calorie produced.
7 Acres is a tremendous amount of land. Look what curtis can get out of 1/20th of that much space. 60,000lbs of eggs still sounds like a stretch. But even if he is being truthful in this number. You are going to get roughly 650 Calories PER POUND of eggs. How much feed are they buying to give them? What is the caloric input needed to supplement these eggs? I bet when you subtract all of the human-energy, truck energy, feed energy. These eggs are negative output calories, Because they are stealing energy from some factory/mono crop feed stock. There is nothing Regenerative about this. Profit making does not make it environmentally friendly.
Oh man, a vegan and an anti-capitalist in one. Didn’t know people could get so silly. All the power to ya man.
Come'on man, ouch!
Not anti-capitalist in the least! Small business owner just like yourself. I believe capitalism is one of our greatest tools to build society. I just want honesty in this space, This is the short/medium term future of food here. You can make a bunch of money doing all manner of things that create problems down-stream. I don't fault these farmers for trying to make a living however they can. Perkins is in a crazy harsh climate, The communities around this farm have probably eaten an animal heavy diet for untold generations. Perkins is trying his best to provide local food. And do it in a way he/they define as the most responsible. Awareness and a drive for responsibility is something that benefits everyone.
Regenerative AG is a buzzword or phrase, like "farm to table". Its grappled by people looking to feel they are increasing they're a responsibility to the world/animals/health whatever. These terms need clear definitions and honesty.
Look at what you can do with you're book Curtis, (which I own) You lay out all the steps to setup successful market gardens and they can easily be modified to require low or perhaps no outside input. And also no animal inputs. The high-intensity aspect of your work combined the use of urbanized land means that you are reducing the need for new/virgin lands to be claimed for crop production. You are directly increasing the efficiencies of already used land. I would call what you are doing MUCH more regenerative. You are directly reducing the outside need for lands to be used for the same crops. Bravo!
Going out into the country, Preventing 3 or 30 acres of land from returning to its basil ecosystem (hopefully forest) Because you are running animals all over it at a great expense of human input. Only to feed a fraction of the people you would otherwise with higher intensity factory production cannot be called regenerative. Which literally means 'to restore' To restore what?
The term 'permaculture' is also very misleading. This sort of scale farming is not sustainable, nor the materials used... But the very term 'permaculture' was a misleading term since its coining by Mollison and co.
PS - animal husbandry on a small scale is good though, in a way that outside inputs aren't necessary.
It's a revealing point that the phrase 'time is money' does to people's thinking. As with any ideology, Capitalism is a filter that distorts an individual's ability to see things as they are and to treat others with due respect.
You should have asked him how long he has before he'll be forced to convert to Islam.
Stopped watching after a few minutes.
Making money with killing animals....that's nothing I wanna see😤