Intensive Agriculture is Degrading Landscapes - Do This Instead
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
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It seems to me there is very little new about regenerative farming, rather a return to the tried and trusted methods we used before “modern” agricultural methods attempted to shortcut nature herself. Crop rotation and under cropping have been practised across the world for centuries. In New Zealand in the 80’s I worked on a dairy farm that practiced mob grazing and arboriculture is a modern term for the common land grazing that died out in the UK after hundreds of years of sustainable husbandry.
I feel the same way. I live in Amish country, and it seems like everyone is rediscovering a new way to farm as the Amish have been since forever. Sure, there's new terms and whatnot but the Amish way is the only way.
Yep this is true - its just been the past 70 years or so that has changed it for the UK and alot of other places.
Yeah, there certainly is a lot of that. I would say the main difference is being able to apply modern science to those "old" practices to quantify and improve their benefits, and take advantage of other technological/scientific advances in machinery(think precision farming) and crop vareities.
Its much of the old, but in many cases improved for efficiency.
For example there are machines that can drill seeds through cover crop residue, something that would not have been possible on large scales in decades past.
Back then you had the land lie fallow until the residue became absorbed enough, which is a time without growth (and thus without economic output but also without active photosynthesis).
Figuring out how rewilding fits together with regenerative agriculture, green infrastructure and circular economy is the key issue. This is the focus of permaculture design which seeks to weave together all these strands.
I reeeally wanted to get it to Permaculture but the video was going to be huge. You’re spot on Tad!
@@LeaveCurious Permaculture is a portmanteau of "Permanent and Culture or Agriculture," as both inform the other, so everything you share is Permaculture; producing food, aligning with, acting as Nature and realizing the harmony and resilience that is produced by inviting and relating in mutual respect with all life.
Observation being the first step. I love your Curiousity!
Me and my family have successfully rewilded nine acres on the plot we own. When we first moved here it was, literally, being farmed for soybeans. The ground was rock hard and wash outs were common. Flooding would happen and then when the sun came out, the ground would crack and dry out within the day. Turns out that running over the soil with a thirty-ton tractor six times a year caused compaction.
The following Spring, we did not allow the farmers to use our plot again (it was agreed to be used by the last landowner). They weren't happy and one actually laughed in my face when I had told him my plan. He stated that me and my children would be dead and gone before we had any trees of any height. I told him he was a moron who knew nothing and told him to come back in a year (he has not come back).
We bought a small tractor and tiller and I proceeded to break up the concrete-like soil on the property. I used the freshly tilled soil to more easily plant a thousand trees that first Spring. I planted many trees native to what would have grown on the lot naturally. I also knew that tilling the soil as I did would unlock the seed vault buried beneath the compacted soil. I wanted native weeds, grasses and trees to be able to grow through. They would break up the soil and that they did nicely.
That first summer saw about twenty percent of the trees die off but the weeds and grasses were coming through great. That fall we planted more native trees and waited until next spring.
Spring came and would you believe that we had little saplings growing up everywhere. I mean everywhere. Each square foot of those nine acres has a tree on it averaging two to three feet in height.
Deer came back. Rabbits made homes right up next to our house. Birds came in from everywhere. There was wildlife again. The sound of birds and frogs and all kinds of noise.
That year saw our trees get to an average of about five feet in height.
The next year our trees grew so fast we didn't know what to think. More and more saplings had taken root. Where we had planted about two thousand trees on the lot, now there are literally millions.
It's been four years now since we went from a dead, barren industrial farmed lot. Now we have trees well over ten feet tall all over the property. Our neighbors have no idea how we did it and the animals love us for it.
Our lot is the only one without a massive nine- or ten-acre block of lawn or soy or corn. Would you believe that our lot is the only one with deer bedding down in it? With hundreds of rabbits running through it?
I can't imagine what the next few years will bring.
Amazing - well done for deciding to do this with your plot. Where are you based? keep me update with how this all goes!
@Off Grid Desert Farming with Paul & Adrienne 2 Great. Water brings water. It is just that simple. It just needs a place to rest until more comes. A sheltered pool will bring all kinds of creatures for you to see. It will only get better.
Such an important topic, I'm really interested in how this plays out over the next few years, more regenerative practices do seem like a win:win from an environmental and food production point of view. It feels like many current practices are effectively taking out greater and greater loans on the land, which isn't going to be sustainable as the debt will have to be paid back at some point.
Yes the whole system needs to be sustainable! Cheers Paul!
Except for the fact that this lower intensity farming results in increased carbon emissions and worsens climate change.
@@Max-nt5zs what are you trying to say? It sounds like you are saying that the more natural processes contribute to a changing climate? It sounds like you might be saying that climate change is a natural result of natural processes? Regenerative grazing was based on the movement of herds of animals in the wild.
@@Max-nt5zs Absolutely false, Max.
Having grown up in an area of intensified agriculture and incidentally not far from the Knepp Estate, I am eager to see what the coming years will look like for regenerative farming in the south of England. Great video as always!
Yeah me too Matthew, I’ve had a similar experience. Be very interesting to see what unfolds! Cheers!
@@LeaveCurious I am looking forward to participating in the actual work of unfolding, unveiling, and uncovering our rightful stewardship through regenerative agriculture and living.
As a citizen of the US I’m curious whether we also suffer from such great food loss or even more based on our large need for food. I would assume all of these methods would also work in the US too.
There are numerous projects like this going on in the states. Look up Greg Judy, as well as, the Savory Institute. Also, Mark Shepard.
Joel salitan is another one
Cover cropping is taking off in the US. From 2012 to 2017, cover cropping has increased fifty percent. 2012 - 10 million acres, 2017 - 15 million acres, 2020 - estimated 20 million acres. Once farmers are convinced that they spend less money on fertilizers and field maintenance, they jump right on board - usually.
Ironically, the further West or East you go in the US, the liberal states, the less eco farming you see...
Yes, and Gabe Brown.
Rob I admire your passion on this important topic. Keeping the conversation alive is a most important step toward re-wilding.
Cheers Mark - the conversation is very much alive!
One thing you missed which bolsters the rewilding argument is that although food production has increased the nutritional content of the food has decreased, more is less.
Thank you, Simeon, when the truth is revealed, in yet another dimension, it truly does set us FREE! You made an excellent point! Everything I learn about how Nature actually operates teaches me to trust more deeply in regeneratively farming, and this is going to snowball. Just watch. So fun!
The key for me is the condition of the soil. Whatever improves soil health, preferably in a complex web of interaction, is the optimal outcome. Consistent yields with vastly lower expenses is sustainable for the land and for the farmer/land owner.
Yep 100% well said!
Nutrient quality of the crop produced should be a major consideration. Also the biome of the produce, such as the healthy bacteria that live within the produce and consumed which then support the human biome. I'd be interested to see the science for this too. Lower yields may be justified by a higher nutrient quality with all of the wider ecological benefits , seems a win win. Thanks for your great work, gives great optimism for a sustainable future in worrying times.
Interesting point; I reckon the crop must surely be more nutritious if grown in a regenerative way? Thank you :)
The biggest problem seems to be convincing farmers who have an outsize clout on policy and who's union seems dead set against having any of "their" land used to improve biodiversity. The other thing that could be done is look further at alternative protein production to reduce the number of animals needed to be kept and fed.
Hmmm incentives always help right? Hopefully ELMs will provide that. Oh yeah 100%, protein come in many forms!
@@LeaveCurious ELMs have the potential to be brilliant, but given the current government's track record on anything that improves lives in this country I'm not holding my breath :P
Vertical Farming is crucial for Britain to get food security and not have to rely on other countries for food
A very very good point - I may make a video just on this topic in the future, it’s very intriguing
@@LeaveCurious yes vertical farms are extremely interesting as they could solve a lot of problems in one solution as they are vertical they have a lot more crops per acre meaning there would be a higher yield per acre so it would mean we can grow 90%+ of are own food and they would be a lot more easy to automate with robots and in general it should make the goods cheaper for consumers and it also means we can return more land back to wild countryside but vertical farms should not replace conventional farms completely they should compliment each other but this is only one piece of the puzzle as I have multiple ideas that compliment each other to complete the puzzle
How are farmers supposed to fence without plastic for mob grazing? we need movable fences, and the only other option would be wooden fence panels that are heavy and take a lot of wood. Unfortunately, without more people being willing to work hard, it would be imposible to feed the population with out chemicals. Modern society is so lazy that they would rather sit inside at a desk that is mostly plastic, on a chair that is plastic, and work all day with electronics that are mostly plastic and precious metals, than stand out in a rain storm and watch animals and move them slowly across a large paster having to fend of wild predators. I have goats in the eastern US, and my animals are grazing a neighbors field. We were told by another neighbor next to the field with the goats that 2 coyotes were in his yard in broad day light and tried to kill one of his chickens, we were there at 10:20 to milk the goats. If I lost one of my goats, that would be worth at least $300 dollars, and that does not take into consideration that the goat might be one of my best that I want to use for future breeding. A guard dog is at least $500 for a puppy that would take at least 1 and 1/2 years to train, pulse hundreds of dollars in feed and vet bills. Some rewilding is good, but you must remember that small farmers cannot take the losses that large farmers can take.
Very good point - larger farms can be more flexible with their management, but all farms must be profitable, to be able to make living… sometimes rewilding, regenerative techniques can enable that. This isn’t one brush stroke for all, it’s all about context!
Overgrazing by definition is when a plant is grazed again before being able to recover. It's a function of time rather than number of animals
true, but the number of animals will accelerate this time too
Outstanding video, LC! Fascinating and extremely well put together. You address some vital topics and offer some very intriguing and very doable solutions!! I especially appreciate your addressing the dreadful shameful and very sad problem of food waste. The irony of much of what you've addressed is that obesity in the UK and in the West is at epidemic levels.
Oh yeah food waste needs a dedication video. Thanks for the kind words!
@@LeaveCurious You're the best, LC!! Rewilding the UK has nothing but benefits! I think there is a similar movement in Ireland, is there not?
One way to add millions of trees to the landscape, without taking up a single farm field, is simply to plant more around the perimeters of fields. Look at 4 min 5 secs as a good example. There is 5 trees, but if you look there is a few gaps, enough space for another 4 trees, then there might be nothing for the rest of the length of the field, so that's another 20. 3 mins 59 there is a wall along the field, and a fence, coming down, creating 2 fields, without a single tree (other than the 2 in the field), easily space for 30 trees there. Repeat that for every field perimeter, across the country and it would be in the millions of Oak, Ash, Rowan, etc etc. Whether it be rainy, windy, hot / sunny, I've noticed sheep so often take shelter under any trees or shrub in a field, so really no pasture field should be without some growing in the fields as well.
This is a very good idea!!
Excellent observation and ideas!
Im from Denmark and where I lived the dirt used to be farm land, but it was left alone to regenare, and my dad bought the land. And now some of it is a wild forest while most is tall grassland
Mob grazing is what in Canadian beef farms when i was growing up, the farmers called it rotational grazing. We'd drive up to a friend's big cattle farm from the city, and Dad and us kids would help the farmer and his family, "chase" the cows into the next grazing area having laid down boards over the cattle gates so they could cross.
Great channel and nice level of detail.
Appreciate it that, thank you!
There is one element you cite to making this happen that I feel strongly is a mistake: expecting government to get behind this for funding. Governments are short term gain seekers and this is a long term strategy. I believe public participation and support is the only way forward, which has to take into account funding for the farmer. There are many agritourism models out there, and I imagine smaller farms are more likely to be able to do this, those who are living on the land and not just renting thousands of acres. I am currently working on a model that integrates pick-your-own, site tours, and education - all of which bring in an income and people to the farm to purchase products.
Public participation is everything, its the baseline to all of this - but the reality of the agricultural industry is that it is heavily bolstered by government payments, so if money is present & already available, why not put it into support regenerative farming.... i'd be interested to learn more about your model!
Great video, worked with a professor on a research project on regen agriculture in Iowa, results were promising although not conclusive(not enough data ). Glad you mentioned how many crops go to bioenergy, drives me nuts when people talk about how we need intensive farming to produce enough food when here (Midwest US) literally like half of it goes into our cars and the rest goes into cows or to china.
We generally need to eat less anyway, particularly red meats, sugar and processed carbs. We also have a staggering level of food waste. However, although we can theoretically feed everyone in the country a couple of times over, we don't, as there are issues all along the way from how to get all the fruit and veg into the inner city, how to encourage cash and time poor inner city dwellers buy and cook the fruit and veg (bearing in mind in a single parent family, if mum is on shift then teenagers are just going to go to the chicken shop). We need organisations rescuing food waste at both ends - the stuff that never makes it to the shelves and then also the stuff that is going to go in the bin....but also organisation able to make this food into cheap, nutritious meals readily available to the shift workers and the take-away kids.
Yes we need to address all the levels of food wastage, come up with creative and engaging ways to stop it & also, make it accessible!
Ah yes, let's make the state responsible for everything. Let's make everybody collectively responsible for bad life choices by single mothers who raise kids too lazy to cook.
Ah come on, my mother was left a single parent, and she had to work to keep herself and us 4 kids. Before that we had a spoilt life. It was a shock, very little money, but we always had a good healthy meal waiting, and we would have chores to do too to help alleviate the burden on Mum. She encouraged us to turn areas of the back garden into veg plots for us to tend. We also got part time jobs (when we were teenagers), summer hols fruit picking, paper rounds, p/t shop work, menial jobs that brought in a little money, but it all helped. It made us independent and very grateful for what we had. She never, ever thought of going to the DHSS (dole office whatever it was called) for help, she just got another job or worked two jobs. We built the family up from there and all become successful in our own rights. If you can’t get your grown up kids to take some responsibility, you’re not proper parenting. If this day and age, you can’t batch cook healthy meals in advance for your kids to ding ding (we didn’t have a microwave until I was out at F/T work) you are not properly parenting. Take responsibility for your lives. Get the kids and parents (with gardens) sowing and planting, use a window sill for a few tomatoes, peppers, radishes etc, a few tubs for spuds, runners and carrots etc. ask people to help you on what to grow and when, there’s plenty of e people willing to share their skills. If you expect others to do things like this for you, your kids will think this is the norm when they reach adulthood, they will expect the same, that the state to do it all for them. We need to break this cycle, and fast. Financial help is there for those that have no choice, say you’re incapacitated, you are suddenly left widowed, you have a disability that stops you from working, physical or mental illness etc. it can happen to anyone of us at any time, or from birth/during our lives, support there for a reason not a free for all. If there was little money for coal, Mum would shut off the heating in all rooms bare the bathroom and lounge, and we would all huddle together under a blanket, even the cat sat on our laps and her warmth welcomed. We would share bath water, the eldest bathing first, until the little ones, topping up as we went through. It’s sounds like something out of Dickens, but it wasn’t, it was my mothers way of ensuring we all had a good wholesome upbringing. We had our own bedrooms, but we spent a lot of time together as the TV produced heat, the main/boiler fire was in the lounge and we only needed to light and heat that one room. Summer months were when we had the greatest fun, winters not forever, and nor will these prices hikes. We all want the best for our kids, but expecting the state to look after them is shallow, unless there’s no other way. Schools need to have people who survived hardship to go and talk to kids, make them realise how many of them are much better off than they think, both financially and physically, the opportunities are much better, the emphasis is on a good education, moving through to higher education. In my day is was virtually impossible to go to Uni. Expectations were only for those in high schools, not the comps. That was something I did later in life, when I paid my own way through Uni. I’ve made my life what it is today, a lovely and comfortable one, where I now do anything to reduce my carbon footprint, grow our food, help our neighbours and friends, support people where we can, but without my mothers determination and care, I’m sure things may have been very different. As for regenerative agri, it’s a great principle, and with the right people in charge it could become a restorative strategy to buck this horrible trend of destruction. If everyone thought about their actions a little more, then we wouldn’t have half the issues we have. Everyone knows the planets struggling, but even in an individual scale (and I haven’t got enough time to start on the corporate world), they still see it their right to fly out to their holiday destination, they still want the newest phone; replaced every 2 years, the latest Xbox, the largest car, the biggest house, a take-away instead of a healthy meal, the NHS to put right their reflux as they scoffed too much, popping anti reflux pills instead of looking at their diet, popping a vitamin pill to give them the nutrients they should get form the right food, I could go on and on, but I think if you’ve got sense and a brain you can see the whole picture. If you feed yourself, your kids with crap, they’ll feel crap, if you don’t care about your actions, you’ll end up making everything around you crap, that cycle will keep repeating itself until this world is just a ball of crap….or hopefully, the planet ejects us the only way she knows how….
@@sadqqwwqeq4175 you make good points, I consider myself mildly liberal, and even I scan see that your right. It’s sad that people Often choose to think of their own argument and counter argument over simply listening to people who have different views than themself.
Red meat being bad is a lie. Some people have allergies and can ONLY eat red meat. I started eating MORE meat and i am healthier than ever. Concentrations of sugars is the real evil
Yes, yes, yes. It's important to note that Knepp still produce food - just extremely high welfare meats and now also vegetables and fruit from their regenerative ag farms and market garden. More of this is needed! Lots of small, local farms producing a variety f foods for the economy rather than vast swathes of monoculture that often gets shipping abroad.
Really important and insightful stuff! Thank you! Really good points and hopefully we'll see a lot more of this immediately.
Also all these practices result in really important lessons learned that are immediately applied to places in the developing world where agricultural and pastoral land is completely degraded, destroyed, or devastated, restoring and expanding lands for both food production and dual use (see Sudan, Kenya, Niger, India). These places can then look after their own food security and incomes instead of relying on any surpluses and charity from the developed world (which spends much of its charitable funds buying surplus food for desertified and conflict countries). So trial and error of these practices now is crucial to help reverse worsening developing world crop conditions rather than focusing on our destructive, subsidised, and heavily reliant on migrant labour/modern slavery, western agricultural systems.
And on a simpler note, trees also lower ground temperature with its increasingly harmful effects!
I'd love to see more of this!
Me too!!
Lovely!!!! Agree with you, 100%: I love the capacity of regenerative design in farming and gardens, and agriculture and Permaculture to evolve abundance, beauty and food forests of glorious real, tasty, healthy foods! I am moving to Scotland to heal the roots of generational trauma, and the soil and resilience in communities through Regenerative living, and farming, and communities that share their wealth of fun, food and feeling good. Love, Aloha, Claire
Oh yeah cool! Regenerative living is the true answer! Cheers :)
Are there "food deserts" in the UK as well? In Nebraska where I live there are a couple of spots and I am talking to local politicians to implement a system in one of these as a test to see if it could help alleviate some. The sad part is there are so many regulations that its almost illegal to grow, harvest and eat your own food and cattle let alone sell it.
Edit for context: the system is similar to the food forest and help alleviate droughts.
I love your enthusiasm and positive energy. Thank you for the good work.
This needs to get famous
that it does!
The problem with the biofuel thing is you need something to replace biofuel with a great replacement for biofuel would be Hydrogen as it can easily replace biofuel
Starting to plan my garden planting for next year, any good source recommendations for garden biodiversity?
Awesome! Well there’s quite a few things you can do - but a good book is, I think it’s called wilding your garden - it’s by the butterfly brothers, Joel Ashton, very good book
@@LeaveCurious Thanks, I shall give it a read!
You can easily find food plants, of annuals and perennials for a food forest, and research companion plants to get some ideas online for herbs and vegetables that love each other, and offer pest control and other benefits.
Such a good brief and accurate overview of how regen/agroecological methods can be adopted! One thing you missed is that you said tannins reduce methane in cows, but it's worth mentioning that the methane argument against cattle isn't valid unless they're fed a high amount of concentrated feed. Any methane produced by cattle is just taken back into the ground as C02 12 years later via the carbon cycle through the grass growth. Essentially, it equals out which is such good news!
I look forward to more videos!
Excellent, amigo.
So thankful to see a wise man talking on TH-cam. I hope and pray that God will help the farmers to hear this and to act.
Feel so fortunate that your work with Mossy Earth led me this way.
God bless you, brother. Thank you for the work. Keep it up.
Peace
Ah thank you very much - I appreciate the kind words.
I'm certain we will start to see more positive changes.
Really great, let these concepts become the major agriculture policy of the government today. I would add a program for food cultivated without artificial fertilizers and pesticides. This food should be used specifically in hospitals, universities and homes for the old. Contact all bee farming organisations for more support to realise your concepts.
Great video, but I feel like such a vital topic needs to be tied to some of the other important issues regarding food. The two main ones that come to mind in the UK are the impact of animal ag on climate change and food poverty.
Systems like Knepp and mob grazing might be good for local ecology, but livestock are still massive methane emitters and it has been widely shown by science that we need to drastically reduce our reliance on meat and transition to more plant-based diets. In addition, if we stopped all industrial animal ag and only produced meat through Knepp-like systems or mob grazing, meat would become a very expensive commodity which only the rich in this country could afford. This just perpetuates food poverty and classism.
Expanding on food poverty, I feel like it would have been useful to tie further the methods we produce food with how this could impact food poverty and food distribution. We currently produce A LOT of food and yet millions are dependent on food banks. Figures from the Trussell Trust estimates 2.17 million people used a foodbank in 2021, and this is only going to increase with the cost of living crisis. So, whilst switching away from industrially-produced food in monocropping systems is vital for ecology, unless we change the systems of food distribution, this is only going to further increase food poverty in this country, as ultimately less food will be produced. How can we suggest this to the millions that are already struggling to feed their families? Switching to different food systems needs to go hand-in-hand with changing how we distribute food, how we value our farmers, and ultimately this will revolve around changing away from a profit-driven system (capitalism).
Once again, good video, but I feel like food is a very important and nuanced topic. Would be great to see a follow-up video maybe addressing some of these points!
You’re spot on - it needs a video series to cover the topic in the detail it requires or even a full doc! In this vid I wanted to focus on regenerative agriculture vs intensive agriculture. Cheers!
These are really important points and for me we need to look to de centralising the food system….. local growing of seasonal veg with local distribution networks is much more cost effective way of producing nutritious foods that everyone can access. Another valuable aspect of this is the CSA model. I belong to my local CSA and it is a great way of growing veg and very simple to replicate plus is a great way to connect with the land and the food you eat. There’s many ways to approach our food growing problems, let’s get cracking!
Ah yes, profit bad, let's go for communism. What could possibly go wrong?
@@yossarian3464 capitalism is intrinsically linked with the climate and ecological crisis as well as massive social injustice . We can’t solve the climate crisis whilst still pandering to capitalism. And by the way there are other solutions than Marxist-Leninist communism, do some reading.
@@solarpunkalana Yes, I recall the Aral Sea ecological disaster being one of the defining moments of capitalism. Oh, wait, it was under the Soviets. Oh well, there's always the Great Leap Forward to boast about. Thanks for telling me to read a book, though.
Great video👍🏴
Since the 2nd world war the spend of the consumer on food has fallen from over 50% of wages to less than 10% of wages so I agree we can rewild but production will lower and prices should rise which is good as less waste will then occur
George Monbiot needs to watch this video
I would love it if he did.
@@LeaveCurious he won't like it, that's for sure
Have you heard of virtual fencing? Could be a big boost for rotational grazing.
Hmm I have actually, isn't it quite expensive?
@@LeaveCurious High initial cost, low cost to upkeep. It works well in areas where barbed wire fencing is used such as the Western US because the cost of materials and labor for installation and maintenance of barbed wire is a large yearly expense. Not sure if it could work in the UK.
Hi, I am really interested in what I can do in my garden in order to help
I'm actually creating a video series on patreon all about this! - but the easiest thing you can do, is to not cut the whole lawn, - cut yourself paths that you can walk through
You are doing an amazing job, spreading some of the best agricultural methods that can be applied within so many places not (just) the UK.
Maybe you could talk about Hat forests in another video or having coppicing trees for leaf hay or just to feed livestock on the pastures.
Appreciate it thank you - I will be making more videos getting into each topic in more depth.
Not wanting to be too personal but in a country where so many people are over weight and so much food is thrown away surely we can do this and be slimmer healthier and happier ..
Not too personal at all - overproduction, overconsumption is the problem - I need to work on the latter!
I would recommend you to read The Forgiveness of Nature 'the story of grass' by Graham Harvey
Thanks for the suggestion Stuart, I’ll check it out 👍
i think ist always worth mentioning, that Industrial ag might be winning in context of yield per acre but not in nutritional value. europes soil being depleted to the brink of collapse. also, even nowadays the world ist primarily fed by smallscale ag, not industrial style ag. thanks for the video
Yes this is another key point, thank you!
So glad you say that animals are an important part of this change so many people now want to do away with animals all together they are definitely needed to make all this work I agree with what you are saying but my worry is there are less and less farmers coming in to the industry every year that has been one of the reasons why bigger and bigger machines have come into use and the new schemes to pay farmers to re wild the land and not grow anything will just encourage older ones to retire and give up just hope there will be enough left to grow enough food for us to eat.
Our planet evolved with animals eating plants so yes they are very important - stay positive!
The deficiency of land for wilderness is the first environmental problem in the world, as for me, and agriculture is the first enemy of nature because it is the largest land “eater”. I am an agronomist but I acknowledge this bitter truth. There are 2 strategies of land management: land sparing and land sharing. Scientific researches show that land sparing provides much more biodiversity. So, it means that it had better when small land plots of intensive agriculture provide larger yield and give more area for really wild ecosystems than when we have most of lands in seminatural/semicultural state (land sharing). In my opinion the solution of the problem lies not in changes of agricultural technologies at all. The solution is: correct demographic policy in Third world countries, responsible consumption and food biotechnologies which don’t need large area. Regenerative agriculture as a part of land sharing can be considered only as a temporary tool.
The other benefits from regenerative grazing are that soils are far more productive, more resilient, and grasses don't need water because they survive alone, also that livestock is healthier because of microbiota in that food and also to parasites because they stop their life cycle, so there are a lot of savings. In regenerative agriculture, the savings are even more, because every cycle that passes, the more inputs are needed, with this within the second year there will be more and more savings and even if we are not counting inflation. And also the food is healthier and tasty, because fungus and all that are the ones that make available nutrients for the plants, so this are also savings in also and better life.
Awesome! Thanks for adding this!
There were a few things I found interesting about your phrasing in the video. While regenerative agriculture can reduce the crop amount in the short term, it's more sustainable both for the planet AND the individual farm. Having multiple kinds of crops can protect against a bad season in one crop, making the farm more resilient. Similarly, you can save money by using natural methods of fertilising (cow manure as they eat a cover-crop), nitrogen-fixing (again, cover crop) and even pest control (introducing pest-predators like chickens at certain points during the growth where they can't eat the crops). While a permacultural/regenerative agriculture farm can be more complex to set up and manage, it's far cheaper and more resilient in the long term
Brilliant stuff, spot on :)
Another point about regenerative agriculture like that at knepp is it allows areas that are set aside for nature to have an income from food production as they are able to cull excess animals.
Also -
Could you occasionally do longer videos as well as these ones? I love how you condense immensely complex topics into small videos but I would love to see a longer (20+ minutes) video explaining issues more broadly
Thats a good point Jack & longer videos is something I definitely want to do, I just need to find the right topics, video formats, they'd be like mini docs.
We’re practicing agroforestry and Silvopasture on 430 acres of Scottish upland using mob grazing pigs with some pretty fantastic results!
That's brilliant David, how are you monitoring the effects or just seeing it unfold?
My background is in environmental science, conservation, habitat restoration as well as farming so I’m able to identify a lot of it myself but we also have an ecologist, peatland restoration manager and forester who survey the site as part of a wider selection of sites to monitor the restoration. The project was originally a big science experiment around enhanced weathering, I’ll try and dig out the ted talk
th-cam.com/video/60e6u_1TEIs/w-d-xo.html
Interesting that rewilding would bother some people, yet the constant "development" and house constructions don't bother anyone. The population (at least in my country) is not increasing, so why on earth do we need more houses built on fertile soil? It's bollocks!
Is this grazing not known as rotational grazing
yes i believe so Sean, it seems to have numerous names.
What's a "long recovering phase"? what's the rotation rate?
A fascinating video. Congrats.
Are you aware of something similar happening over here in Germany? Or put it differently, are you aware of someone pushing the issue at stake the way you are doing?
Thank you for another brilliant and informative video.
Lower yields means higher food prices, which isnt going to cause famine in the western world, but it doesnt just effect our food price.
One of the biggest problems for farmers is being locked in to dependency on agrochemicals through contracts and a system that rewards yield over nutritional quality, and because it can take several years to switch over to regenerative processes during which income takes a nosedive (even with incentives), plus there is a very steep learning curve with lots of trial and error as there is no one size fits all approach to regenerative farming.
Yep these are the challenges - but they're better than the alternative, long-term challenges we'll face if intensive practices are kept up.
You can do an awful lot of things, the issue you have is chasing the money will always diminish the results as it has historically for hundreds of years..
oh yeah you're not wrong - thes hope that ELMS will provide incentives to put nature first, but let's see
This is a great topic you covered well! We definitely need to use these tactics all around the world to help our ecosystems thrive and ensure that we continue to regenerate our soil for future generations.
Thank you and yes we do!!
Great video 👍
Cheers :)
My understanding is that England is about 80% over its carrying capacity for humans. The rest of the UK is well beneath, due to the Irish famine (also affected Northern Ireland) and the Highland Clearances - both genocides wrought by the English.
I am ashamed to be English in the present day. (My avatar is a picture from Miworth, in BC, in Canada, near where I live now.)
I hope that the techniques you promote here will be able to raise up the human carrying capacity of England's farm and garden land, but I suspect the English will still need to be net importers of food from Scotland, Wales, NI, and overseas.
What do you think of the concept of minimum tillage, where the plough is in some instances dispensed with (in early experiments by someone (Ed Faulkner) I'd call more a novelist than a farmer in the US, this was replaced by sole use of a disk harrow; the mouldboard plough only used immediately after itself to bring back up e.g. ploughed-down clover to plant potatoes) and in some instances used less often than typical? edit: didn't get to that part before commenting!
Is there a way Rewilding could produce Electricity
Hmmmmm something to think about
It’s definitely the way to go
Yeah its gotta be widespread!
Uk population density: 281/km^2
Acres/km^2: 240
Acres/person available 240/281:0.85
Acres needed to support 1 person:1.5
The UK litterally can not grow enough food for everyone. It doesn't matter what you do.
What about if we ate less?
@@LeaveCurious You're confusing me for someone who is retarded. That figure isn't based on consumption, but need. Now if you wanted to eat exclusively calorie dense carbohydrates, then yes, you could do with significantly less. But I don't think switching to an all potato diet is really the answer.
What about if we were far less reliant on land to produce our food eg: hydroponics for starters? Alternative food production mthods may not solve or replace the current production methods dependency but moving quickly to such alternatives seems like a good place to start.
@@Angela-ud8lm hydroponics are fantastic. Their yield is per acre is much higher than conventional agriculture, and it uses significantly less water. A massive amount of less water tbh, but only specific plants grow well in hydroponic set ups, as I'm sure you are aware. Calorie dense staple crops are still not viable in hydroponic operations. Which is really a moot point because I'm not commenting on a video about hydroponics, and we might as well argue about whether we build solar powered aeroponic facilities in underground aquifers in the sahara dessert. You can't grow enough food in the UK to feed the people living in the UK. That still stands.
@@Yourmomma568
Combine that with vertical farming and a small plot of land can literally feed an entire nation while using a lot, lot less fertiliser and potentially zero pesticide (if done correctly) . Of course the currents downside of vertical farming is high cost, high energy usage (which is currently the biggest problems with out polluting energy sectors ) and limited number of suitable crops .
Excellent videos 🌱🌼👍
Thank you very much!
read Dirt To Soil by Gabe Brown
Check out George Monbiot's book regenesis for more on changing our agricultural system for the better.
I am also thinking about buying some land and rewilding it.
Nice, let me know how it goes!
@@LeaveCurious I will. I have a mini forest in Sweden. Here I have birch, scots pine and norwegian spruce. Scots pines are over 120 years old. Am also testing sequoia (giant and coastal). I make videos on my channel.
I mean, the real problem for food production is that farmers can make more money selling their land to condominium developers in one transaction than multiple generations farming that land combined
Yep this is also a factor, we do need more homes, but theres always a cost. I think theres needs to be more of a holistic approach from the top down to find answers.
Step #1 Restore old and build new hedgerows, farmers should agree on a maximum field size and any oversize fields divided by adding hedgerows.
This is a great idea!
This is all well and good but the current government policy is to essentially pay farmers off and leave their land to go wild. This helps no one. Farming is a very risky business and farmers make very narrow margins so to expect them to take on new initiatives there needs to be at least a solid proof of concepts in place that they can see working that they can see reasonably being able to be applied to their situation, without that there is no chance because if you get it wrong the farm just goes bankrupt very quickly. Farmers are reasonable people who care about the land as it's their livelihood, many have already implemented many environmental initiatives but you can't expect them to just do random stuff with no idea if it is even feasible. Remember if yields fall food prices go up here but more importantly somewhere in the world people starve.
well thats not quite the policy - the government is rolling out ELMS, public money for public goods including rewilding, but many many other environmental/ecosystem services. I understand its becoming harder and harder to make a living, but there must be thoughts long term. Regenerative methods provide that long-term stability for all. There's currently lots of evidence to suggest that regenerative agriculture is successful and it's pretty stark to show that intensive is unsuccessful. It needs time, but it has to happen. ultimately there's no alternative
@@LeaveCurious Many farms already practice regenerative methods such as plowing in straw rather than cutting and bailing as it reduces the amount of costly fertilisers needed. Throwing public money away on rewinding projects is a scandal quite frankly and only increases the pressure on land still in use to provide higher yields. The current best farming practices in use reduce the amounts of fertiliser needed by up to 60% and improve soil biome. This is being done without government intervention. Farmers in my area are sick and tired of disjointed government policy that changes every few years. Farming policy needs multi decade consistency so farms can plan properly not the current flip flop politics.
4:06
Nice video friends
Soz, relentless mass immigration means there are too many mouths to feed in the UK. We need all the food we can get now.
All the more reason to find sustainable ways to feed everyone.
As long as we can harvest the wild meat and not waste it on introduced predators we might just get by. As long as the human population does not increase madly like it is currently. By the way, as with every thing "new" it has been done before and in the case of agriculture, it was the way it was done for centuries.
Predators should play a role in the UK landscape too, but i agree, not our livestock, but our abundance of wild herbivores.
permaculture is the solution.
It is - I really want to get into that!
#SaveSoil
#savesoil
👍😊
Hey Linda!
🌲
Culling deer is actually a " Natural Practice" humans that hunt are natural.
I guess so, although its not quite the same as Lynx/wolf hunting a deer
@@LeaveCurious your falling into the trap of human nature separation, don't you think that's partly what got us into this mess in the first place? Humans are natural and it's our nature to use technology, there for technology is natural. But like the rest of nature there are healthy and unhealthy actions. The UK is overrun with deer to the point that they are a very unhealthy population, culling by skilled human hunters on the whole does them a great service.
@@guineapigfarmer6064 I’m not saying that the culling of deer by humans is a bad thing, it’s a necessity due to the absence of Lynx, Wolf, Bears… I believe that these systems would function much better if those animals were doing some of the work instead of humans. One cannot deny that humans are different to all other species on Earth, not to create a divide, or separation between us and the natural world, but it’s evident that we are different. I think being aware of this difference is the fundamental first step in solving the climate/environment issues we face today as many of them are caused by humans.
@@LeaveCurious thank you, as An off grid small scale regenerative Farmer. That controls small pests and knows a number of game keeps. I'm aware of the value of hunting deer and wild boar. What is reasoning in feeling that large game do a better job of managing large pray animals? Thanks
I am a supporter of rewilding but generally I don’t see an upside for this at all. These methods of organic farming use more land to produce the same yield and while I think you can successfully argue that as long as you are rewilding it’s not necessarily going to result in further habitat destruction, it does increase carbon emissions of farming and further climate change. Rewilding is an important long term goal but for the time being I think it should be put aside in situations where it will increase carbon emissions.
Rewilding, in this instance regen agriculture, will capture carbon given enough time.
@@LeaveCurious perhaps. But this kind of low intensity agriculture uses much more carbon than traditional methods. Organic farming like this has lower yields and requires more space to grow the same amount of crop. As a result more fuel is needed for farm vehicles. It’s also more energy inefficient to store than non-organic food etc. etc. when you add on top of that this kind of interspersed wild space you’re talking probably at least double the land to grow the same amount of crop. On top of that it’s going to be more challenging and inefficient to harvest. I’m far from an expert on this subject but I’d like to see some real data that proves that isn’t even worse for the environment than regular organic farming is. Finally just a quick thought experiment: let’s say in a square acre a farmer can grow 1 ton of crop a year with high yield non organic methods and then say that farmer can grow 1 ton of crop on 2 acres organic farming and then finally 1 ton on 4 acres organic rewilded farming. So you’d end up with 2 acres of rewilding and 2 acres of agriculture. If instead the farmer stuck with high intensity farming he could rewild 3 acres and still grow the same amount of crop and use less carbon.
The problems is this type of agriculture is less productive than conventional agriculture. I think technologies like vertical farming and GMO will be better at producing enough food while minimising land usage .
Yes it is, but hopefully if the waste issue is tackled & as you say we embrace vertical farming etc, surely we can make it work. But it won’t happen overnight. Permaculture will also be huge
100% untrue that this kind of farming is less productive. it has been proven to be more productive, actually. Permaculture Food forests are 7-layers of foods, designed over time and space, in mutually beneficial relationships, so far more productive, and the only issue is getting more people to care about growing food and producing food locally, because ending local culture and food growing - that is where we were steered away from our sanity!
@@claireandersongrahamkeller2744
Every study that I've seen showed such method actually far less productive than conventional farms so I don' know where you get that "proven more productive" notion from. The idea that everyone can grow their own food is romantic concept but not really that practical when you consider that more and more of of the world population is getting urbanised.
@@remliqa So many people are passionate for regen farming now; not urbanizing. "Proven" by my own 258-acre Regenerative Farming Community Design over 4 years - transforming dead soil to vibrant living soil and beauty, my own designs, and research proved the power of regen Ag....and a friend also proved in Denmark that organic food is highly more productive, and does not kill the earth, soil and our health. Hello! Reality is mutually beneficial, as is regenerative farming. Conventional is based on extraction, destruction and poison, so I hope you can join in reality, and enjoy our true potential when united in this reality of ever-expanding good.
@@claireandersongrahamkeller2744
So many things wrong in your post.
Firstly , the fact is the world is still trending towards urbanisation with more and more people living in cities and towns.
Secondly , while regenerative farming do helps the soil recover. It still have not been proven to be more productive than conventional farming. In fact all studies seem to point o the opposite.
Thirdly, conventional isn't farming is threats to our health in any way. Sure it can be argued that they are not sustainable in the long run, are intensive in use or water and energy while can bad for the planet ( not managing pesticide and fertiliser eg), but nowhere is their downside have anything to do with consumer health.
you are Dreaming .
As much as I want this to happen, it is in fact already happen and it’s growing. There’s no alternative for the future.
@@LeaveCurious you are wishing for Millions of Humans to Die , IMHO .
Jimmy claims that this channel is "dreaming", yet Jimmy is clearly the one who's asleep. Curious...
You quote "mob grazing ", this is nothing new and was always known as strip grazing.
Another name for it!
Vertical farming is a solution, being increasingly researched and experimented with, as seen on Click.
BS
Feel free to elaborate
I want my meat ! I’m not a bloody vegan !
Lmao the power you guys have to sniff out videos like these is amazing
Regenerative grazing still ensures meat …
Chill man we ain't gonna take away your meat.
That's not the goal at all, meat is important. However hunting and keeping livestock has to be reorganized.
I can't say I agree with this video's premise. Regenerative agriculture is no solution in comparison to widespread adoption of a plant-based diet.
Plant-based diets require far less land(even after accounting for the fact cattle use land that plants can't be grown on). Emissions from animal-based foods are also far higher than from plant-based foods. Global warming matters because reducing the rate of desertification is very important for global food security. Rewilding animal grazing lands can have all of the benefits of regenerative ag without requiring the vast emissions animal ag is responsible for. The scientific case for regenerative agriculture is sadly very weak, and plant based foods seem to have the best efficacy at ensuring both environmental conservation AND producing enough food for consumption. On top of that are the added benefits of reducing land usage to return land to native habitats, and reducing deforestation which is primarily driven by beef and dairy demand.
Plant-based diets only require 1/8th the land that omnivorous diets require(Figure 2)
www.elementascience.org/articles/10.12952/journal.elementa.000116/
"Most strikingly, impacts of the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes"
science.sciencemag.org/content/360/6392/987
Animal ag produces more emissions than all transportation combined
"To put these total annual emissions from European animal farming into context they represent.....more than the annual emissions from all cars and vans in the EU-28 in 2018 (655.9 Mt CO2eq)30"
storage.googleapis.com/planet4-eu-unit-stateless/2020/09/20200922-Greenpeace-report-Farming-for-Failure.pdf
“ A shift in eating habits towards the increase of the direct consumption of plant foods seems to be a desirable objective in this perspective. Owing to their lighter impact, confirmed also by our study, vegetarian and vegan diets could play an important role in preserving environmental resources and in reducing hunger and malnutrition in poorer nations “
www.nature.com/articles/1602522
Animal agriculture is the single biggest contributor to methane emissions(figure 1)
www.globalmethane.org/documents/gmi-mitigation-factsheet.pdf
"91 percent of the increment of the cleared area has been converted to cattle ranching." Page 9, lines 15-16
documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/758171468768828889/pdf/277150PAPER0wbwp0no1022.pdf
We definitely need to switch to a plant based diet and thank you for the references.
I LOVE THIS. Combine these ideas with other permaculture/ rewilding methods all over the world and i bet in 50 years we will all be talking about how we need to produce more CO2 for our massive habitat-mimicing-farms
That be a nice place to be...
As someone who is active in this field, I'd point out that options ref cover cropping are v much reduced if one can't apply herbicides. There are trade offs all through; Q of balance
The title is the wrong way around. It should read; "We can produce food and still re-wild Britain." Domestic food production (self sufficiency) is the more important of the two.
I see what you’re saying, both are as important in long term!
For an excellent example of a real world farmer successfully using this process at scale is Gabe Brown. Brown's ranch farms and ranches cattle on about 5,000 acres (2,023 Hectares) in exactly this way. Their results have been astonishing. From wildlife numbers skyrocketing to soil carbon levels rapidly climbing... It really is the solution.
I'll check that out - seems like a no brainer to me
Great video, thank you. I think regenerative farming would be a big step in the right direction. It would benefit soil fertility and keep it from eroding. Which is really important to secure the future. I do share the concern mentioned in another comment that too much meat takes a big toll on the earth. I would like to raise another topic which is sustainable foraging in addition to sustainable agriculture to augment the diet. Berries, nuts, mushrooms, leaves, herbs... can be collected. Adding wild food to the diet was common practice in past generations. It would leave more space for wilderness and it is actually healthier than a standard diet alone. I don't know if you've covered this before (I haven't had a chance to catch up on all your videos yet) but I'd love to see a video on that. Thanks for everything you do and keep on raising awareness.
I really want to make some videos on foraging Nicole, as you say it’s a fun and great way to keep a healthy diet. But yes I think less meat would certainly be a good thing!
Foraging is not sustainable for a population of 8 billion unfortunately
@@Max-nt5zs I think so too but we might learn to leave a little bit of nature extra to forage sustainably. This would give us some food (and medicine) and leave more space for wild plants and animals at the same time. This would be more nature, and thus biodiversity, than agriculture for food alone.
@@LeaveCurious Sunny Savage has amazing videos on foraging and wild food and invasive foods recipes. She is a genius, and is on Maui, Hawaii!
I like to see how far the uk can come with rewinding it’s a amazing idea that the uk is doing
Me too, there’s a lot more still to be done!
I am sure if everyone starts blowing all at once sure we will improve the rewinding😂
As you say, there are infrastructure problems that arise when changing to regenerative grazing, such as water access.
But they are likely offset by not longer needing other infrastructure like feedlots, grain storage, winter housing, calving and lambing sheds etc etc etc
Yes, many more challenges will come up, but none more terrible that the current challenges of intensive unsustainable management!
Doing a huge amount of research into permaculture and regenerative farming at the moment. Great video Rob, it CAN be done!
It certainly can Oli!! Any good sources of info for permaculture?
@@LeaveCurious I've been getting info from all over the place (videos and the odd article) - once you get down the TH-cam rabbit hole on this stuff, it's hard to stop! 😂 You've probably come across everything in this little list, but...
Channels:
th-cam.com/users/TheWeedyGarden
th-cam.com/users/ShawnJamesMySelfReliance
th-cam.com/users/ShawnJames1
th-cam.com/users/MossyBottom
th-cam.com/users/CharlesDowding1nodig
th-cam.com/users/JustinRhodesVlog
th-cam.com/users/SchoolofPermaculture
th-cam.com/users/PermaPasturesFarm21
th-cam.com/users/HuwRichards
th-cam.com/users/GeoffLawtonOnline
Very specific videos that I found useful:
th-cam.com/video/xFqecEtdGZ0/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/BuYGS5pLRZg/w-d-xo.html
I HIGHLY recommend watching a documentary called 'Kiss the Ground' too. It's on Netflix at the moment and gives some amazing insight and inspiration.
There's also an amazing place here in Norfolk called Wild Ken Hill. They're doing a lot to adjust the way agriculture can be done to work alongside nature (they've also introduced beavers over the last few years which is just awesome!): wildkenhill.co.uk
I hope you find some of this useful! If you're ever up this way (Norwich), give me a shout - we'll grab a pint and chat about it more 😆 Until then, keep doing what you're doing - love the content and looking forward to seeing more from you on the Mossy Earth channel too 🙌
So you mentioned a drop in yields for the farmer, how significant of a drop is it and if everyone switched to regenerative farming would there still be a surplus of food and food waste or would we actually need more food?
Another question I had was how productivity and hours of farming are effected by regenerative crop farming such as the tree farming method with rows of fruit in the middle of crops. Would the rows affect the productivity of harvest negatively because navigating the landscape with a big tractor or harvester becomes harder without damaging the fruit/trees or is it a negligible factor in time productivity?
Those are just a couple of questions that come to my mind after watching this video but a majority of my immediate ones were answered by you, ex: crop yield
I have read that trees in lines across fields of wheat etc increases yield and decreases the need for pesticides because pest eating insects and birds live in the lines of trees. That’s why it’s a good idea to use this method of farming.
good questions - i think often the answers will be down to the land, climate & whats being grown - i hope to visit some soon to get some case studies.
such a logical and simple method!
Knepp runs a stocking rate of 0.4 livestock units per hectare. A similar lowland farm would probably be at 2lu/ha.
Another topic that is really interesting to learn about is how degraded areas can be healed. Alan Watson Featherstone in Scotland successfully regenerated areas in Scotland. This might be something that can be applied easily to GB. I just participated in a webinar with him yesterday and it was really inspiring. And it seems to me that his approach is particulary good and very valuable to learn from.
Oh yea treesforlife have done brilliant work in Scotland, always have time to listen to Alan!
Alan is a great thinker and champion. In the Highlands, his initiatives would actually increase the value of the degraded landscape much more than simply restoring it.
hi leave curious I'm a big fan of your content and I've been wondering what you're thoughts on bringing the eropean lion back are ps keep doing what you're doing
Hey Kim :) ooo to where? The UK? I mean I’d love to see it, but we’re a little way off - certainly some parts of mainland Europe could see bigger apex predators
Well I'm not actually Kim I'm sharing a account . but I was thinking the best place for a reintroduction would be Portugal or greece
great video. It's not really within the purview of this video, or maybe even your channel, but agrivoltaics are another great new thing farmers are trying out.
Cool! Just googled that one! Looks awesome! Do you know where this is happening?
@@LeaveCurious pretty much everything i know about agrivoltaics, i learned from Just Have A Think. th-cam.com/video/2ue53mBUtNY/w-d-xo.html