Scale is needed to impact greater ecosystem function
Photo of animal impact from high density grazing. A lot of animals are needed to make this kind of impact at scale.
Piggy backing on the blog from last week, Why aren’t more ranchers practicing regenerative agriculture? As I have said before, regenerative agriculture has thus far been dominated by homesteaders and small, family farms. Regenerative agriculture has the potential to positively impact ecosystem function, but it must be done at scale to have meaningful impact.
Imagine ten thousand regenerative farms and ranches spread throughout the United States. Some are as small as 10 acres and others as large as 50,000 acres. I’m thinking market gardeners to big chunks of rangeland managed for livestock. All utilizing the regenerative agriculture principles of soil health. In the most recent survey there are approximately 2.02 million farms in the US. Parker Creek Ranch, my decade plus experiment in regenerative agriculture, lies just South of D’Hanis, Texas in the Seco Valley watershed. It’s a beautiful valley that runs North to South, much like the other valleys in our region. They were formed in the last ice age by glaciers as they retreated. The valley has very distinct ridges and a floor. Parker Creek Ranch is collectively 480 acres or so under our management, and the valley that we reside on is big. Though I can’t tell you the exact size it’s certainly tens of thousands of acres. On either side of our ranch is tilled and irrigated conventional crop production. Two other sides of our ranch are recreational properties specifically managed for wildlife. To be honest one isn’t managed at all. They are both overgrown thickets of mesquite and brush at this point. One is terribly overgrazed by exotic wildlife and the other never grazed at all. I am really proud of the ecosystem services that our land provides, but I would argue that it takes the whole watershed to really make a difference. I am talking about a greater ecosystem that provisions nutrient dense food, enhances biodiversity, has a healthy soil mineral cycle, provides clean air and water, and often left out of the equation are the cultural services for society. This is the same story for every piece of land that I am currently or have ever managed.
The total size of land in the United States is about 2.3 billion acres. About 654 million acres is utilized for grazing livestock and another 127.4 million acres is utilized for growing livestock feed crops . That means 41% of all land in the US contiguous states revolves around livestock. This report titled “Here’s How America Uses Its Land” by Bloomberg news in 2018 has some great maps that really pronounce the land uses in the US. In 2019 there were about 3.3 million of certified organic produce/crops harvested. This is specifically crop and vegetable production. There is little to no data representing livestock at this time. Though I did get a letter and a phone call from the USDA census earlier this year asking about niche livestock production. It seemed to me they were collecting data from small, market farmers. The point of spitting out all of these numbers is that there aren’t many acres under regenerative management. We are the proverbial “drop in the bucket.” To have meaningful impact on our greater ecosystems we must think and manage at a much larger scale than the current.
How do we get more land owners and managers on board? There is a key component of it being market driven by consumers. There is still a lot of consumer education that needs to be done. That agenda will be pushed mostly by brands like Wholesome Meats. Market demand will help drive change on the production side of the equation, but I’m betting it’s mostly educational and shifting paradigms. I recently helped launch a local Grazing Discussion Group, sponsored by the Texas Grazing Lands Coalition. The idea is to educate and engage locals to learn more about regenerative grazing. Some of it will be speakers and classroom type education and others will be pasture walks. These grassroots movements are the key to change.
Questions or comments please feel free to post below or send me an email to: travis@grazinglands.com
,Travis Krause
CEO & Founder at Grazing Lands
