DEBATE Plant vs Animal Regenerative Farming | Which is better for the environment?

The topic of how to feed upwards of 10 billion people with the least amount of deforestation and pollution is complex and layered. There’s clearly big issues within the standard industrial farming system, and in this conversation four guests get into what they believe is the best way to farm to feed the world, both on a small and large scale. 

Speaking for the regenerative ranching positition is Will Harris and Jason Rowntree.  Will is a fourth-generation cattleman, who tends the same land that his great-grandfather settled in 1866. He uses regenerative farming methods where he was born and raised at White Oak Pastures. Will has been recognized all over the world as a leader in environmental sustainability and is the Beef Director of the American Grassfed Association. 

Jason RownTree is a professor of Animal Science at Michigan State University where he holds the Charles Stewart Mott Distinguished Professorship for Sustainable Agriculture. Rowntree’s research focuses on identifying the metrics and management that reflect ecological improvement in grazing land and other agricultural systems. 

Speaking for the regenerative plant agriculture position is Nicholas Carter and Jimmy Videle. Nicholas is an ecologist and co-founder of plantbaseddata.org, a library of peer-reviewed articles and summaries on the evidence to shift to plant-based diets. His thesis focused on the global estimates of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to animal agriculture, and has since written reports and articles on biodiversity loss and food systems. 

Jimmy Videle is a professional farmer, activist, consultant and researcher. He lives on a small-scale veganic farm in Québec and has been growing his own food and homesteading for over twenty-five years, with experience on eleven organic and permaculture farms around the world.

This episode covers:

• What the best type of agriculture is to feed the world without destroying the planet
• The differences between regenerative ranching vs regenerative plant agriculture
• What they improve on the environmental metrics and if it is scalable
• Regulation and accountability (or lack of) within the regenerative label
• Soil issues, what causes it and how do we fix it?
• Is buying local food a way to reduce your environmental footprint?
• Is there enough land in the US, or globally, to support meat demands if we switched to grass fed/finished beef?
• If it’s unrealistic to expect people to reduce their meat and dairy intake
• Where most methane comes from and If there is such a thing as carbon negative beef
• Allan Savory and his claim that holistic grazing can reverse climate change 

Sponsors:

Branch Basics | Get 15% off all Starter Kits (except the Trial Kit) https://links.branchbasics.com/ellen15

SafeSleeve | Get 10% off your order with code ELLEN10 https://www.safesleevecases.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=podcast&utm_id=EllenPod

Anima Mundi Herbals | enter the code ELLEN20 for 20% off https://glnk.io/nr9jm/ellenfisher

See Nicholas' timestamped references here

WHERE TO FIND WILL HARRIS

https://whiteoakpastures.com

Instagram

WHERE TO FIND NICHOLAS CARTER

plantbaseddata.org

Instagram

WHERE TO FIND JIMMY VIDELE

YouTube

WHERE TO FIND ME

⁠My birth course⁠

⁠My ebooks⁠

⁠Instagram⁠

⁠Watch the podcast