Change. It's What's for Dinner.
The following “Local View” oped, written by NFP President Ron ToddMeyer, originally appeared in the June 29, 2021, edition of the Lincoln Journal Star.
The recently introduced policy plan called “America the Beautiful” focuses on mitigating climate change and protecting our land and water. In short, its purpose is to protect our ecosystem for future generations. It is important for us to be discerning in how we interpret the purpose of the proposals in this plan.
Climate scientists have been fundamentally accurate in outlining the effects on our ecosystems of increasing CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. Our planet is warming, and if we are to mitigate the direst consequences, it is clear that all of us must change the way we think, act and live. Therefore, these public policy proposals deserve serious consideration.
My perspective on these proposals comes from working on the land for 40-plus years, farming and raising livestock. Over those years, I came to the realization that the unintended consequences of ‘cheap food’ policies include an industrialized model of farming that damages our land and water quality and contributes to the degradation of our climate.
The reliance on a corn and soybean monoculture that primarily feeds livestock—not people—needs to change. Monoculture farming leads to soil degradation in spite of minimum tillage. Every fall, farmers need to fill ditches where soil has eroded from corn and soybean fields after heavy rains. During the 1980s, the Conservation Reserve Program was implemented to restore and renew highly erodible land by subsidizing farmers to plant perennial native grasses. These grasses hold the soil and water and also sequester carbon.
Over the last 15 years, though, acres devoted to monoculture have actually increased because of grainethanol production. Former CRP acres, as well as land that grew trees used for windbreaks, was torn up to plant more corn and soybeans.
We simply cannot grow enough grain to satisfy current fuel consumption demanded by our use of internal combustion engines. Many studies have indicated that grain ethanol production is a wash concerning the energy produced versus the energy used. The trend is now moving toward all electric vehicles, which would reduce dependence on gasoline and ethanol.
Ruminants, including cattle, goats and sheep are essential to a bio-diverse regenerative agriculture. Ruminants are designed to digest forage, not grains. Buffalo (another ruminant) were, at one time, a critical component of the Great Plains ecosystem.
Raising animals in their natural setting will result in a human diet that contains less meat, but the animals would be healthier and their meat more nutritious and healthier for human consumption. Per capita consumptionof meat in the U.S., according to a 2009 U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization report, is 122 pounds. Much of the world’s people eat less than 50 pounds per year.
Confined animal feeding operations result in concentrated manure in pits and lagoons that emit methane. The effluent from feedlots is pumped on nearby fields in concentrations in excess of what the crops need, so excess nitrates leach into water supplies.
During heavy rains and hurricanes, these manure pits and lagoons further contaminate rivers and streams. A recently released study by the National Academy of Science attributes 18,000 human deaths a year to the contaminated air quality as a consequence of the way livestock is currently raised in the United States.
A better solution, which would help mitigate the negative environmental effects of livestock production, is to disperse livestock over a larger geographical area (land restored to grasslands) where ruminant animals can be raised in a more natural setting. Manure dispersed over a wider acreage becomes effective nutrient support for grassland ecosystems.
We cannot disregard how important uncontaminated water is to the continuation of humankind. The amount of irrigation water being pumped from underground aquifers to raise corn and soybeans would be better utilized to grow food for people instead of feed for animals. Underground aquifers are depleted in the Southern Plains, and the water supply needed to grow fruits and vegetables in California is threatened because of drought and diminishing snowmelt.
Our choice is clear. Either we drastically change our American lifestyle, or we leave future generations with a planet that may be unlivable.
The recently introduced policy plan called “America the Beautiful” focuses on mitigating climate change and protecting our land and water. In short, its purpose is to protect our ecosystem for future generations. It is important for us to be discerning in how we interpret the purpose of the proposals in this plan.
Climate scientists have been fundamentally accurate in outlining the effects on our ecosystems of increasing CO2 and other greenhouse gasses. Our planet is warming, and if we are to mitigate the direst consequences, it is clear that all of us must change the way we think, act and live. Therefore, these public policy proposals deserve serious consideration.
My perspective on these proposals comes from working on the land for 40-plus years, farming and raising livestock. Over those years, I came to the realization that the unintended consequences of ‘cheap food’ policies include an industrialized model of farming that damages our land and water quality and contributes to the degradation of our climate.
The reliance on a corn and soybean monoculture that primarily feeds livestock—not people—needs to change. Monoculture farming leads to soil degradation in spite of minimum tillage. Every fall, farmers need to fill ditches where soil has eroded from corn and soybean fields after heavy rains. During the 1980s, the Conservation Reserve Program was implemented to restore and renew highly erodible land by subsidizing farmers to plant perennial native grasses. These grasses hold the soil and water and also sequester carbon.
Over the last 15 years, though, acres devoted to monoculture have actually increased because of grainethanol production. Former CRP acres, as well as land that grew trees used for windbreaks, was torn up to plant more corn and soybeans.
We simply cannot grow enough grain to satisfy current fuel consumption demanded by our use of internal combustion engines. Many studies have indicated that grain ethanol production is a wash concerning the energy produced versus the energy used. The trend is now moving toward all electric vehicles, which would reduce dependence on gasoline and ethanol.
Ruminants, including cattle, goats and sheep are essential to a bio-diverse regenerative agriculture. Ruminants are designed to digest forage, not grains. Buffalo (another ruminant) were, at one time, a critical component of the Great Plains ecosystem.
Raising animals in their natural setting will result in a human diet that contains less meat, but the animals would be healthier and their meat more nutritious and healthier for human consumption. Per capita consumptionof meat in the U.S., according to a 2009 U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization report, is 122 pounds. Much of the world’s people eat less than 50 pounds per year.
Confined animal feeding operations result in concentrated manure in pits and lagoons that emit methane. The effluent from feedlots is pumped on nearby fields in concentrations in excess of what the crops need, so excess nitrates leach into water supplies.
During heavy rains and hurricanes, these manure pits and lagoons further contaminate rivers and streams. A recently released study by the National Academy of Science attributes 18,000 human deaths a year to the contaminated air quality as a consequence of the way livestock is currently raised in the United States.
A better solution, which would help mitigate the negative environmental effects of livestock production, is to disperse livestock over a larger geographical area (land restored to grasslands) where ruminant animals can be raised in a more natural setting. Manure dispersed over a wider acreage becomes effective nutrient support for grassland ecosystems.
We cannot disregard how important uncontaminated water is to the continuation of humankind. The amount of irrigation water being pumped from underground aquifers to raise corn and soybeans would be better utilized to grow food for people instead of feed for animals. Underground aquifers are depleted in the Southern Plains, and the water supply needed to grow fruits and vegetables in California is threatened because of drought and diminishing snowmelt.
Our choice is clear. Either we drastically change our American lifestyle, or we leave future generations with a planet that may be unlivable.
