Meat from Regenerative Agriculture – The Next Big Food Trend

Our soils are going bust, it’s a fact. The FAO say we have only 60 global harvests left and water security could fail on a global scale by 2050. (1) (2) (3)

The more obvious outcome of this degradation of the worlds soils will be an increase in food prices followed by mass human migration as large areas of the worlds agricultural lands become desertified to the point they can no longer produce food. This symptom is already well underway.

If this wasn’t bad enough when soil degrades it loses Carbon into the atmosphere accelerating the greenhouse effect. On carbon degraded soil, the cooling benefits gained from a well vegetated, transpiring soil surface are exchanged for the global heating impacts of a hot dry radiator like soil surface over billions of hectares increasing the likelihood of life-threatening hydrological events such as wildfire, drought, huge storms and floods. (4)

This is serious folks, and the time to act is now.

But an unlikely saviour in this scenario is good nutrition. While the fanatical vegans and carnivores are arguing in the back streets of Facebook and Twitter, the more objective among us has realised that the decline in human health has more to do with the dramatic drop of nutrient density in our foods. Coupled with the steep increase in industrial farming and processing methods this has an enormous impact on our health whether you’re; vegan, vegetarian, fruitarian, paleo or full-blown carnivore. (5)

Science is moving fast in the world of both nutrition and soil health and what is becoming evident is that we know only a fraction of the true whole picture. Nutrition science is in its infancy so to base a diet on even credible science (6) will leave us flip-flopping our eating habits in a way that won’t benefit our health.

What we can be sure of is that our ancestors didn’t start getting the diseases that plague our modern society until agriculture got into full swing. The process of taking a plough to the soil and reducing our diet to less nutrient-dense foods was a big step backwards in evolution.

The first mistake was killing the life in the soils and lacing plants with chemicals to respond to the various pests and other symptoms of a damaged soil and food web.

The second was encouraging people to swap nutrient dense foods prepared in traditional ways for cheap, convenient and processed filler foods that contain high levels of anti-nutrients and toxins. (7)

It’s all about how plants achieve their nutrition.

In a healthy soil that hasn’t been ploughed, fertilised or sprayed with pesticides there is a near-miraculous process where plants can access the full range of 42-72 nutrients they require for disease resistance and optimal health.  If we eat plants grown on these functional soils we too benefit from the full spectrum of nutrients along with some rather helpful phytochemicals too. (8)

The bacteria and fungi in the living soil are able to solubilize minerals from the rock structures that are not in a form the plant can easily take up. In order to access these nutrients, the plants release liquid carbon exudates (yummy sugars) into the root zone to attract these microorganisms.

These bacteria and fungi in turn then attract the attention of predator microorganisms who eat them releasing the nutrients held in the biomass of their bodies in a plant available form, right next to the roots so there is no waste, no leaching onto rivers. It’s an inexhaustible supply supplied by water, CO2 and sunlight.

In a healthy soil and food web, everyone gets what they need to thrive and carbon is taken out of the atmosphere and locked safely underground.

When the soil food web is disrupted, as is the case in most agricultural soils especially those used for plant production, the ‘microbial bridge’ breaks down and the plants can no longer easily access the nutrients in anything other than a plant available ‘soluble’ form.

Soluble nutrients leach from soils very easily causing havoc in our rivers and seas. The remaining soluble nutrients soon get used up quickly, leaving the farmer no choice but to feed his plants using chemical fertilisers that are fossil fuel based and require vast amounts of energy to produce.

The result is food – plants or meat produced from grain-fed animals – that only reflects the tiny spectrum of limited nutrients applied by the farmer to the crop.

The ‘sick’ crop or animal is then plagued with a range of diseases and pests which have to be treated with yet more harmful pesticides or medications all of which further kill the soil and end up in your gut harming your own health-promoting microbes too. (9)

No wonder we’re all sick!

If we eat meat then our choice is easier. If we choose 100% grass-fed organic meats we know the animals have been reared on soils more likely to have a functional soil food web and therefore a wider range of nutrients. (10)

Even better is grass-fed meat from farms using holistic planned grazing and other regenerative methods. These soils, plants and animals are the superheroes of nutrition; the meat from these systems are likely to be a powerhouse of health and healing nutrients. (11)

Regardless of our eating preferences, we need to join forces and demand production methods that regenerate soils and ecosystems not degrade them. It’s a simple way of securing our future on this planet and dramatically improving our health.

To learn more you can join the Wildervore Approach or become a member on Primal Meats to get access to a free course covering the subject.

1 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/only-60-years-of-farming-left-if-soil-degradation-continues/

2 https://www.ecowatch.com/global-water-access-quality-2549813548.html

3 http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/283255/icode/

4 http://www.globalcoolingearth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Regenerate-Earth-Paper-Walter-Jehne.pdf

5 http://amazingcarbon.com/JONES-LightFarmingFINAL(2018).pdf

6 https://chriskresser.com/why-you-should-be-skeptical-of-the-latest-nutrition-headlines-part-1/

7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_VC4Ya6i1I

8 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27160996

9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-29376-9

10 https://www.primalmeats.co.uk/grass-fed-meat-does-it-really-matter/

11 https://www.amazingcarbon.com/PDF/JONES-NewFrontiersInAg(Sept13).pdf

https://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/blog/healthy-soil-is-crucial

https://www.amazingcarbon.com/PDF/JONES-RecogniseRelateInnovate.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46537053_Soil_degradation_as_a_reason_for_inadequate_human_nutrition