Hi All,

I just finished my interview with Seth Itzkan and Karl Thidemann, the Co-founders of Soil4Climate, and it has left me with more questions than answers. As most of you know, I am a real supporter of plant based diets, both for our health and that of the planet, yet at the same time, I am aware of the benefits that regenerative agriculture can have in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and putting it into the soil. Soil4Climate, is a  nonprofit organization that advocates for soil restoration as a climate solution. They promote regenerative land management practices as a way to capture atmospheric carbon and they work collaboratively with other climate organizations. However, they also promote eating more meat (of course only healthy, grass-fed animals) as a means to support their work, and they believe that eating meat is healthy. The meat from cattle that eat only grass contains two to three times the amount of conjugated linoleic acids (CLAs) as compared to factory farmed cows that are fed grain, even if the grain is organic! Also keep in mind that most grain being fed to animals is GMO grain and contains pesticides, herbicides and antibiotics. Grass-fed beef has also been found to have a healthier ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids, and it often contains higher levels of antioxidants like vitamin E and A.  So…., if you are going to eat meat, make sure it is grass-fed!!

Personally, I am still more comfortable with the health benefits of a whole plant based diet, but this interview affirmed the benefits of regenerative agriculture, and the need to not only reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, but the need to remove carbon from the atmosphere, and this could do it! We need to tackle global warming from all sides! Therefore, it is up to all of us to find balance in our own personal decisions, and to be open to ideas that at first might go against our grain (no pun intended!)  What we all do agree on, is that the factory farmed model that is playing out in our industrial agricultural system is not working, and it needs to end!! We need to replenish our soil and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, and the grazing of animals is one way to do that!! If you go to their website, you can see examples of barren land that has been restored through managed grazing, and you can see the other organizations (that I admire,) that are working with them. It is quite impressive and gives me hope!

If you missed out interview, you can listen to it here.