Last week we went to Central High School in Kenosha County to present to a Freshmen AP Geography class about Sustainable, Organic, and Regenerative Agriculture.  It was super fun for Paul and I to talk to kids, who are the future of this country, about what is possible with Regenerative Ag.  Something that is catching on in mainstream as a better, healthier way to farm for the environment and for our health.  

After introducing ourselves and talking about who we are and what we do, we gave a background about the history of modern/industrial agriculture.  Starting with "Old MacDonald", who use to do everything and integrated plants, crops, and a variety of animals, to industrialization bringing machinery, pesticides and fertilizers, specialization and "getting bigger" for efficiency.  These were all things that were welcome by overworked farmers and actually did improve the lives and work of farmers at the time.  However, nobody was able to foresee the consequences of these.  Today, we know what these are- for our health and for the environment.  Read about these in slides #16-#17.

We then talked about what Organic farming, Animal Welfare, and additional certifications we pursued, given that organic standards have gotten relaxed (especially when it comes to animal welfare) once Big Ag got into it.  Lastly, we talked about Regenerative Agriculture as a system of principles and practices that is not only "sustainable" but actually increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services.

We talked about the importance of SOIL health.  It ALL starts with healthy soil, something I found interesting and contrasting coming from a nutrition world when Hippocrates said "all disease begins in the gut".  in human health, we have discovered most disease starts with an unhealthy gut.  Similarly, we are now realizing, a healthy environment, and healthy food, starts with healthy soil.

We explained the differences of grass fed vs. grain fed cows for beef and dairy.  There are numerous health benefits of grass fed beef vs. grain fed, which includes less saturated and overall fat and more of the good fats like Omega 3s and CLA's in grass fed beef and dairy.

We touched on the economics of farming, a sad reality of our broken food system that pays more for cheap, processed, and industrialized food than it does for "real food".  It is more profitable for many farmers to grow commodity crops like soy and corn, sell them to the market where they get processed into your packaged food, and sold for very cheap at the store- than it is to grow healthier vegetables or pastured animals.  

Lastly, we provided a number of resources of local and some national organizations that have a wealth of information on these topics, and also some interesting books and documentaries we thought the kids (or anybody!) might like.

At the end, we took in questions... with many very thoughtful and interesting questions coming from the kids.  

We welcome questions from you too! Please leave a comment, emil us, or contact us if you have any questions about anything you read in the presentation, what we do, or anything you'd like to ask us! We are happy to answer as best we can!

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for some more "educational" posts coming in the next few months.

As a mother and a health coach, one of the things you hear and read over and over is about how important breastfeeding your baby is to offer them the best nutrition possible to grow.  The more I studied the subject, I learned “not all mother’s milk is created equal”. If you are eating a lot of "junk" or pesticide-filled foods, this will pass on to your child, as the quality of your milk won’t be as good. I remember when nursing our two babies, trying to eat my best for my babes!
 
Well, the same goes for our cows. Obviously we believe grass-fed is best for cows.  It is their natural diet, and it contains the healthiest fats.  When it comes to milk, organic is best as well since you don’t want the toxins from chemicals and pesticides stored in its fats.
 
We get really excited to see how grass fed, organic milk affects our herd.  It really becomes apparent in the wintertime, shown in the health of our calves.  These little guys and gals are chubby, growing well, active and playful, even with the cold weather we have.  The milk supplies their mothers produce give them optimal health.  While at some farms calves are weaned much earlier, at our farm, the calves happily nurse off their mothers for as long as nine months.   This is a healthy win/win for the calf, the cow, and the consumer. 
 
We always say in our farming…. it all starts with the soil. And the best milk comes from the best grasses, which come from healthy soil. Each year we get better and better at making hay for winter-feeding from our high quality summer grasses.  This quality shows up in the mother's’ milk, and on our meat.
 
Just like in human life milk- this humble drink- is the foundation of our health, so it is for cows. It’s the most important food we receive to begin life, and we are proud of our momma cows’ milk and our very healthy calves!
 
This blog post was a collaboration from Marisa, the health coach and mama, and Paul the farmer.  
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