Social Entrepreneurs – The Enchanting Challenge

Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, is fascinating.  Most of the information I will talk about in this post comes from his book. 

Grass-fed cows

The objective of industrial farms is the highest quanity in the least amount of time.  To produce vast quanities of beef, massive resources are injected into the process.  It’s a process that begins at one point (industrial corn) and ends at another point (Double Quarter Pounder with cheese).  You need petroleum and synthetic pesticides to grow the corn (and you occasionally need a military presence somewhere in the world to secure petroleum, and you also occasionally need to fund unfriendly regimes to purchase petroleum).  The corn is processed into industrial feed for the cows.  The cows are injected with hormones and antibiotics to grow faster and also to avoid sicknesses.  They are slaughtered quickly and turned into industrial meat for distribution.  The meat is processed into the food you eat.  In sum, beginning at point A, lots of resources needed along the way, and a finished product at point B.  An assembly line if you will, like any mechanized process.  Efficiency.

From CAFOs we move on to the small farm.  Small grass farms with grass-fed cows are not about quantity, but quality.  And unlike the linear process of industrial farming, grass farms operate in a circle, letting nature do the work.  That’s right, grass farmers use resources from nature for the whole process, not needing any of the things that go into industrial farms (oil, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics).  And as the farmer Michael Pollan interviews in his book says, he’s a grass farmer first and foremost. 

It all starts with grass.  Grass sucks up carbon dioxide and light from the sun, and spits out oxygen.  Of course, this is called Photosynthesis (as you might remember from 7th grade science class).  The cows eat the grass, which provides valuable nutrition, and they grow bigger and stronger.  The cows leave behind seeds and nitrogen for the grass in the form of manure.  The chickens then go through the manure and further spread out seeds and nitrogen.  In the end we are left with healthy and happy chickens and cows. 

But what’s really interesting is that the cows and chickens are not subtracting from the land.  They are making the land healthier.  When the cows take a bite of grass, the grass sheds its roots, in an effort to balance out from its newly shortened blade.  The roots then die out in the soil, and bacteria, fungi, and worms breakdown the roots and turn it into humus, or compost.  After time and rainfall, this process creates more biomass, i.e. more soil.  This makes the ground healthier.  So, in effect, the ground is much healthier after the cows have eaten it than it would have been had the cows never been there. 

But what’s really really interesting is that not only are the cows making the ground healthier, but they are also contributing to biodiversity.  Here’s how.  There are many different species of grass.  And some grasses grow much faster and taller than others.  Since the cows aren’t too picky about what types of grasses they are eating, they equally trim all grasses.  If they didn’t trim all grasses, the tall grass would block out the sun for the short grass, and the short grass would die out.  But the cows keep the tall grass from getting too tall, and the short grasses (like little clovers) can survive.  (Read a BBC article from this week about the negative effects of fast growing plants here).  When comparing a regular field of grass with a field that has cows on it (grazing responsibly), the cow field is much more biologically diverse. 

Many types of grass

So what?  Why does that matter?  Well, essentially, a field that has many different types of grasses can suck up the most solar energy.  And that’s important because the grasses can store the maximum amount of carbon.  Just like trees, grasses store carbon dioxide, but instead, they do it underground in the form of soil humus.  This is infinitely important for combating climate change and for life on Earth in general.  Michael Pollan illustrates the seriousness of this, “if the sixteen million acres now being used to grow corn to feed cows in the US became well-managed pasture, that would remove fourteen billion pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year, the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road,” (P198). 

And as I said before, nature and the animals are doing all the work, and using all their own innate resources and natural processes.  The grass-farmer does not need to buy any chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, or pesticides.  And since the cows are eating grass, and grass is possible because of the sun (which is free and infinite) he doesn’t even need to buy food for the animals!  I talked about how industrial farming is all about efficiency…using all of nature’s resources, feeding the animals while at the same time improving the quality of the land, contributing to biodiversity, and removing pollution from the air.  Getting all your resources for free from what nature provides, thus no need to purchase anything.  How’s that for efficiency?  Even the animals’ waste contributes to the land, instead of polluting it, like in CAFOs. 

Of course, it’s highly unlikely we could ever convert all industrial farming land into responsible pasture, too many people think Big-Macs are just so delicious.  But, our diets, farming, the environment, and ”efficiency” do not have to be competing interests. 

*Joel Salatin of Polyface farms in VA was the basis for Michael Pollan’s research