Learning from the Master

We joined other farmers at the Grass-Fed Beef Conference in Latham, NY, this past weekend attending workshops led by experts and sharing knowledge and experience with other new and innovative farmers who aren't afraid to challenge the rules set by modern agriculture.  We spent some time discussing how “conventional“ agriculture isn’t conventional at all – organic, pasture-based agriculture is how humans have grown food for 10,000 years and it is alarming how quickly that accumulated knowledge has been lost. What we now term “conventional agriculture” has only become the standard in the last 50 or 60 years.  The resurgence of the small, diversified family farm has spawned an interest and a need to delve into the history books to figure out how to rehabilitate our land.  By and large, the answer is to attempt to mimic nature – for example, feeding only grass to ruminants and mob grazing more like the native bison.  Proper use of these more natural livestock management practices will improve the health and quality of life for the animals and consequently yield healthier cheeses and meats.  Though these techniques require zero chemical inputs, they are a bit more labor intensive.

Celebrity farmer, Joel Salatin, was the featured speaker at this event.  You may recognize his name from “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “Food, Inc.”   His solutions to some of the more perplexing problems on the farm are so simple and obvious they make you slap your forehead and shout Eureka!  As Albert Einstein said “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”