Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
For sure, the cow and the deer can easily co-exist. On our farm, there is plenty of wild-life co-existing with our small herd of five mother cows. There are deer, elk, boars, fox, voles, fox, the occasional lynx, a huge number of birds including flocks of geese, and cranes.
By and large there is a far too simplistic debate about the role of livestock in our food and agriculture systems.
While some might praise regenerative agriculture as a new advent, the techniques are older than the U.S. itself.
The imperative is not to stop farming, but to phase out fossil fuels very quickly. Cavalier polemics that cast primary responsibility for our predicament elsewhere are a dangerous diversion.
For both Claire and her husband, shepherding in the mountains is a lifestyle choice rather than a career. They endeavour to live this vocation in a manner that respects and upholds ancient traditions that are being lost in modern society, bridging a path between the old and new.
We’re back on Shane Casey’s farm in the Burren, Ireland, where it’s nearly time for the reverse transhumance cattle drive – or ‘winterage’ as it’s known locally.
It’s a source of satisfaction to Jacqueline that she and her family are very much present in the fields around the village where they live.
One reason she wanted to become a farmer was to see animals in the pastures.
Methane has a role to play in sustainable farming. We cannot let the debate around methane emissions cloud the broader benefits of farming with ruminants…
The single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth is to stop thinking there’s a single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, or that bang for your buck metrics of this kind are helpful in formulating how best to live.
What is the value of a life? What is the consequence of a death? Is there a right way to kill? What is the best way to live?
While there are many environmental and ethical reasons to criticize industrial forms of livestock production, there are no valid reasons to shun the rearing of livestock in general.
How are we going to feed an increasingly hungry planet, without crippling the life support systems on which we depend? It’s an existentially important question, the solution to which will require action on a myriad of fronts.
