If you knew me any time between the ages of 13 and 23ish, you probably recall a bleeding-heart vegetarian who would rant about how raising animals for meat was destroying the environment. When asked why I was a vegetarian, my first answer was probably something like "because I love animals" or "because I want to save the environment". Nowadays, I'm a big proponent of eating local, pasture-raised animals. Why? Because I want to help heal our planet.
In order to fully fledge out this reasoning, I need to back up and explain a bit about permaculture. Permaculture (or "permanent agriculture"), in its simplest definition, is the practice of developing agricultural ecosystems which are self-sufficient and sustainable long term. It's a way of looking at the ecosystems that occur in nature, and then applying them to farming. Permaculture uses high biodiversity and holistic designs to create a sustainable food web.
A lot of people consider permaculture farms "messy", as lots of species are planted together rather than in separate rows. Permaculture gardens focus on companion planting, or planting species together that are mutually beneficial to one another. A classic native american example of this is "the three sisters"; corn, beans, and squash. All three plants benefit one another. The corn is used as a structure for the beans to climb up, the beans fix nitrogen into the soil, and the large squash leaves block sunlight from hitting the soil, preventing weed growth and moisture loss. Now apply the three sisters concept to an entire farm.
Companion planting is usually the first example people use to explain permaculture, but there is so much more to it. There are 12 permaculture principles, and the exact wording varies depending on who you're talking to, but the principles that immediately come to mind when I think about permaculture are:
-observe and interact
-catch and store energy (I like to think of this as following the solar cascade)
-integrate, don't segregate
-use and value diversity
-implement small and slow solutions
-work within closed loops
Overall, permaculture is a response to our modern industrial agriculture (monocropping, or planting rows and rows of the same plant), which is completely stripping the land of its nutrients. If you don't already understand how this type of agriculture is leading to destruction of the planet, here is a brief summary. Permaculture uses imaginative design and redesign initiatives to eliminate the need for chemical inputs for our soil. We can use restorative agriculture to improve soil fertility, not strip the soil of its nutrients.
Improving the soil, or as some say, "building soil", involves the use of pasture-raised animals and regenerative grazing practices (I'm finally getting to the animals). Yes, we've all heard about how overgrazing or poorly managed grazing can contribute to the desertification of areas around the US, but again, those are poorly managed. The land is destroyed in cases where farmers (usually) have a low density of cattle on a large area of land for a long period of time. Regenerative grazing, or the method that creates healthy soil and animals, quickly rotates animals through different landscapes so that they only spend a week or two on one piece of land. What happens then? Lots of good stuff.
-The grasses have time to rest in between rotations, so they grow tall, which means they get a deep root system. When the cattle come through, they eat down the grass to within a foot of the ground, but not all the way down to the ground, so their roots stay deep (when grass is eaten down all the way, the roots start to die back). This matters because plants have the ability to transfer atmospheric carbon into the soil. So, the taller the grass and the deeper the root, the more carbon-pumping. Many permaculture advocates get excited about the ability for regenerative grazing to reclaim carbon out of the atmosphere and back into the earth from which it came. Ever hear of climate change?
-The cattle provide nitrogen to the soil via their urine and manure. As they walk around, they turn up parts of the ground and allow rainwater to move those recently deposited nutrients into the soil. I like this quote by Ben Falk: "Think of grazing animals as an enormous living rotovator spewing soil-enhancing nutrients behind them; that’s the action of a massive animal herd if allowed to move through, not loaf upon, a patch of ground." Fertilizer! Animals are a part of a sustainable agricultural ecology within a permaculture perspective. The example I gave was just referring to the role of ruminants on agriculture. I could go into detail for every farm animal and explain exactly what they contribute to a permaculture-based farm, but Beth and Shawn Dougherty have done such a beautiful job in this podcast, so I'll just let you listen to them at some point. When you eliminate animals from the farming picture, you eliminate natural fertilizers and soil building.
It's not just the fact that vegetarianism misses out on soil building and carbon sequestration. The common vegetarian diet lends itself to supporting systems that are detrimental to our land. If you're not eating meat, you have to get protein elsewhere. Take tofu, for example. The other day I was walking through the grocery store and saw a sign "Eat Soy! Save the Planet!". What could be further from the truth? Soy and corn, which make up the majority of the american vegetarian diet, are some of the biggest monocrops in the US. Same thing with grains - thousands of acres of JUST grains... which we just learned is the downfall of soil fertility and our entire food system. Just for kicks, see if you can find a grain or soy or corn product in your grocery store that does not come from a large, monocropped, perhaps industrial farm. Think about the deforestation that has occurred in the last few decades to make room for more grain, soy, or corn fields. If we're really concerned about saving animals' lives, we should probably start there. I recall eating a lot of nuts for protein as a vegetarian, but again, I never did my research to find out where the nuts are coming from. Just because I might find "organic nuts" doesn't mean they are produced in a sustainable system. For all those years I was a vegetarian, thinking I was saving the planet, I was actually just contributing to large food corporations that are decimating our soil biology.
At this time, I've found myself comfortable with eating animals who were raised locally, given a biologically appropriate life, and a peaceful death. Looking back, I feel as though my environmental efforts as a vegetarian were misinformed. There was a period of time recently in which ethically I knew I should eat meat, but emotionally and physically it was really difficult. It's been a gradual transition, but I now feel as though I have my place in the ecology of food systems better figured out. I haven't even touched upon the nutritional downsides of vegetarianism (I'll leave that to my collection of Paleo books, ask if you'd like recommendations), but I will say that I've seen major leaps and bounds in my physical and mental health after becoming more acquainted with the ecology of my food and transitioning meat into the works. The younger, chubbier, nutrient-deficient, vegetarian Renee would be wagging her finger and crying for the death of all the animals I've consumed, but I think it's possible to love and respect animals, honor their life and death, and continue to cycle their energy though the food web. For the betterment of the planet.
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