Do you want to be a part of the greatest movement of modern history? It's called Regenerative Agriculture!

Do you want to be a part of the greatest movement of modern history? Doesn’t that sound exciting? Let me tell you about it. It’s called Regenerative Agriculture! What in the world does that mean? Let me tell you about the global problem first.

I’m sure you’ve heard about this “global warming” phrase recently. What does that even mean? I’m not sure the so called “experts” even know exactly what it means. Here’s what the scientists and weather professionals are saying they’re seeing. The atmosphere is getting warmer, the oceans are rising, there is more violent weather, and there are increased droughts. They think it’s mostly because we are burning fossil fuels and the atmosphere has too much carbon dioxide in it not letting the heat of the sun reflect off earth back into space to cool off the earth. I used to believe what they said until I became a farmer. Now, I’m not so sure they know what they are talking about. Burning fossil fuels might be a small part of our problem… but even then, carbon dioxide is plant food. If we get rid of carbon dioxide, won’t plants suffer?

There are huge issues glaring us in the face that make way more sense than invisible gasses. We don’t see these issues because we have been so disconnected from agriculture. I think the main problem is how we have been eating!!! What! No! You’re crazy! But am I? Let me explain…

Let’s look at the first issue, the atmosphere is getting warmer. It’s hard to believe some invisible gas in the air is making it hot, but it’s easy to believe what I can touch and feel that is hot. Have you ever burned your feet on concrete in the summer sun and jumped in the grass to cool off? Think about that. We had a week and a half of amazing weather in the middle of July recently. It was 75F in the middle of the day in July on the farm because of all the rain and overcast sky. This is unheard of in East Texas in July! Me and my dad went to a junkyard to look for parts to fix one of our vehicles on one of those cool days. When we walked into that junkyard, it was hot. The farm was cool. The farm was covered with plants. The junkyard was bare dirt with tons of cars.

Have you ever used your steak thermometer to measure what is going on with the ground? I have! I measured the ground on a 96F day. The pasture in deep grass was 90F. My no till garden bed covered in mulch but no plants was 100F. The bare mineral soil where the lawnmower keeps the ground bare was 126F! Think about that!

Our atmosphere is getting warmer because we till 313 million acres in the United States. We rip all the plants off the ground in April, May, and June on 313 million acres in the United States and around 70% of that land is being used to grow grain fed to livestock in confinement. Factory farming beef, pork, and chicken.

All that dirt cheap meat at the store is denuding million of acres of farmland and making it hot! And society is causing it because they are eating that meat… Only about 10% of that land is tilled for vegetables we directly eat, and the other 20% is used for gas and oils that we use in our cars or cook with. Isn’t that crazy!

Let’s look at the next one… the oceans are rising. The scientists say it is because ice is melting in the arctic due to the atmosphere getting warmer. I don’t think they have ever watched ice melt in a glass of water… the water never overflows because water expands when it freezes and contracts when it thaws! Have you ever been to the Mississippi River or the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana or Texas? It’s so muddy you can’t see you finger 1 inch under the water! Is that normal? I thought it was until I was fishing in a dead end bayou in south Louisiana. I could see the fish at the bottom of the bayou 6 feet under! I paddled out to where the bayou met with a bayou flowing past a cane field… it was crazy! There was a dividing line of crystal clear water into muddy water. Then we were camping at Buccaneer State Park just east of the Mississippi River… the Gulf of Mexico had clear water there! What? The ocean is rising because we are dumping dirt in it from the 313 million acres of tilled farmland in the United States… and 70% of that is because of our inhumane fecal factory farming meat that people prize because it’s so cheap! We cause the oceans to rise based on what we eat. Look at these pictures of the Mississippi River Delta I took of a display I saw at the Tennessee Aquarium we went to this past summer. Look at how much dirt we have dumped in the ocean over 25 years! It’s nearly been 50 years since 1976… I wonder what a 2024 picture looks like?

What about this violent weather? Do you know that farmers make clouds? I didn’t realize it until I went to make my no-till garden bed. I’m not a no never tillage guy even though I give it such a hard time. It is a valuable tool, but it can very easily be destructive. I tilled up the ground to get rid of the grass so I could mulch the ground and not have weeds where I’m trying to grow vegetables for you. What I noticed was the dirt was damp when I tilled it, within a few hours it was dry, the next day it was dusty. I went, “Huh, I just made a cloud!” All the other ground covered with plants was still damp.

Then I got to thinking about that 313 million of acres of tilled farmland in the United States. Have you ever watched these storm chasers chasing these tornadoes? Nearly every video they have of a tornado is over a tilled field. They say tornadoes and hail form with cumulonimbus clouds. Remember I said farmers make clouds. Those farmers till up the ground to dry it out and heat it up so that they can plant corn and soy for livestock fed in confinement. They tell you this and boast about how they are able to grow these crops earlier out of their normal seasons. The trouble is, they don’t listen to nature waging war against them that they are destroying the earth. The farmer is over there singing away in his air conditioned cubicle tractor ripping up the ground all while the the sun is heating it up. The moisture is evaporating… you can’t see it until it gets high enough in the air and is forming cumulonimbus clouds.

Then that moisture condenses way up in the sky and turns into ice and comes raining back down as hail stones destroying all of our stuff and destroying the cool season neighbor farmer’s crop of wheat. Then there goes all our tax money as crop insurance to the wheat farmer’s failed crop.

Year after year we do this and never stop and listen to the earth around us. You think I’m full of it? Look up the tornado maps from the NOAA. The majority of tornadoes happen in April, May, and June, right over our tilled farmland at the time we are tilling. Then after the nasty thunderstorms, the water washes all of our soil organic matter to the ocean and we have no moisture left to grow plants. Now we have our increased droughts.

The farmers are all complaining about being victims of the weather when they won’t listen to the weather complaining about their farming. 70% of their detrimental farming practices are conducted to grow grain for livestock fed in confinement so you can have cheap meat at the store. Is it really cheap? Think about all the tax dollars that go to government crop insurance and disaster relief from tornadoes. Think about all the coastal erosion efforts from rising sea levels. I’m not against assistance from the government, but how we choose to eat can minimize our environmental disasters and keep money in our pockets.

So what is the solution? What is this Regenerative Agriculture? Is this new? Regenerative Agriculture is not new… it’s the most ancient form of farming. It’s farming in sync with nature. You study how nature works and how it thrives without any human inputs, and you design your farming practices around how nature works. Plants are the essence of life. Without plants transforming sunlight into useful biomass, we wouldn’t have food, clothes, or shelter. Nowhere in nature do you find animals in confinement, nowhere do you find mass tillage events, nowhere do you find plants growing out of their seasons. God designed animals to be plant pruners. Regenerative Agriculture is all about rotational grazing plants with animals to make meat, NOT penning them up in fully automated stinky manure pits, ripping up the ground to grow warm season crops out of season with massive machines, and hauling them all their food.

Regenerative Agriculture is about keeping the ground covered with plants all the time to eliminate erosion, keep the soil temperature cool, and increasing the organic matter of the soil. Did you know that 1% increase in organic matter in the soil will hold 25,000 gallons of water per acre? My first soil test showed we had 1.6% organic matter in the pasture on our farm… now we have 1.9% on the 6 acres I’ve been planting cover crops for winter pasture.

That’s a 0.3% increase in a year between soil tests. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but we can hold 7,500 more gallons of water per acre on the land. That’s 45,000 gallons of water on the 6 acres of pasture I have been planting to cover crops for winter pasture for our grass finished beef. That makes us more drought and flood resistant. I’m excited to make that happen across the rest of our 20 acres of grass!

They say America’s soil used to be 12 to 18% organic matter. Now they’re anywhere from 2 to 6%. That means we’ve lost the ability to hold 275,000 gallons of water per acre. That means 86 trillion gallons of water are going to the ocean rather than held on land… no wonder the ocean is rising… and we’re having more droughts. Regenerative Agriculture turns the land into a cool, nutrient dense sponge that soaks up the rain, creates stable weather patterns, and creates nutrient dense food from healthy farming practices.

I am very particular about what I feed my animals to make sure “behind the scenes” my animals are being environmentally responsible. Any farmers feeding root crops to their animals are not regenerative farmers. Root crops have to totally denude the ground to be harvested. Peanuts are root crops… sugar beets are root crops… Anyone supplementing “grass fed beef” with beet pulp isn’t regenerative. Anyone feeding chickens and pigs peanuts are not regenerative. Animals should not be eating root crops just purely from an environmental health standpoint. Our beef rotationally graze our pastures and I plant cover crops for winter pasture to not feed much hay. I make sure that my chicken and pig feed is made of all crops that can be grown with Non-GMO and No-Till practices so that they are truly regenerative and environmentally responsible.

So the next time you’re hungry, don’t go to the store and buy that earth killing food. Click right here and sign up for our regenerative monthly meat bundles and get quality meat delivered to your door every month so that you can do your part in helping save the world… one bite at a time😉