Why this farmer moves his cows every day

Faced with the effects of climate change, in Montana, some farmers are turning towards organic or regenerative practices, a form of farming that includes thing like crop rotation, and using fewer pesticides. It’s a switch from conventional farming, which usually involves mono crops, heavy use of pesticides, and genetically modifies seeds, producing thehighestt yield. A technique that has led to soil erosion. Nationally, farmers are turning towards regenerative farming which builds the topsoil, meaning it is better for the land and the environment.

A new county initiative in Colorado aims to support regenerative agriculture projects on farms as a way to take carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil in an effort to combat climate change. Restaurants donate 1 percent of their profits to the Restore Colorado initiative in Boulder County. The McCauley Family Farm is one of the first to sign on to this initiative and plan to plant more trees on their grazing land. While it can take years to see any benefits, organizers are looking to scale the initiative to be statewide.

Symbrosia, a clean-tech startup in Hawaii, is taking seaweed from the ocean and turning it into a powder that can be used to feed livestock to reduce the amount of methane they produce — a key contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. The company worked with an organic farm in Upstate New York to test the product and found that sheep given a high dosage of the supplement had up to 70 percent reduction in methane emission. Creating the powder takes weeks and a lot of steps, but the startup is hopeful the product can become a mass-produced commodity.

Thanks to a microloan from a local nonprofit and a willingness to try a new approach, a ranching operation in Colorado has begun introducing regenerative agriculture practices in the form of carbon capture. Using "portable electric fences to keep their cattle moving," the farmers have been able to produce healthier soil which has promoted better grass growth. Although the practice has not caught on across the industry, "regenerative agriculture is considered an important climate solution."

Drastic solutions to climate change tend not to pan out (like trying to get everyone to stop eating meat), but careful adaptation is making real progress. In California, many smaller-scale farms are trying out new methods of adapting to the new realities of climate change, including not tilling the land so that nutrients build up and the soil strengthens. This article covers a range of approaches that farmers take to protect their livelihood and conserve their resources.

As the agriculture industry faces crop and profit loss due to catastrophic weather events, many farmers and ranchers are being catalysts for conversations with politicians, scientists, and environmental groups about how to combat the effects of climate change. Throughout the United States, key stakeholders in the food supply chain have formed working groups to discuss climate change and how their industry can work together to improve soil health and sequester carbon. While there are some who are not supportive of these efforts, there is a growing consensus around the importance of having these discussions.

Because the upfront costs of transitioning a farm to be certified organic can be burdensome to farmers amidst a growing demand for organic food, large companies like Kashi and Land O'Lakes are creating a number of initiatives to help ease the process. Techniques include no-interest advances for expensive initial supplies, fair trade premiums that go to local community work, and soil health initiatives for suppliers. The companies even implement a complex data tracking system to gather information on yield and profitability, which can then be used to inform future sustainable practice transitions.

One tactic for combatting climate change has to do with soil health. Soil can withdraw and store carbon from the atmosphere—at a higher rate when covered by manure—and also supports long-term soil sustainability and saves farmers money. Because agriculture already consumes much of the world's surface, proponents of carbon farming envision a world where large swathes of land act as a carbon sink. Potential drawbacks and things left to explore include how to produce compost without creating more energy than it saves and how to use cows effectively when they also contribute much of the carbon in the atmosphere.

Grasslands are important players in carbon sequestration. In the U.S. and Kenya some farmers are switching to regenerative grazing. For some this entails concentrating herds of cows and resting paddocks for long periods of time, and for others it means reseeding native grasses. This all forms part of a larger global network to restore grasslands.

Quinn Organic Research Center sits at the hub of innovations slowly transforming farming culture away from industrial agriculture toward organic and regenerative strategies. Countering the decades-old "get big or get out" thinking about farming in Montana, the Quinn operation conducts small-scale experiments to develop new markets based on tactics that decrease soil erosion, improve biodiversity, and capture carbon. These climate-change-ready operations have seen many setbacks. But they've also been embraced by more locals and helped Big Sandy enjoy a subtle but real rejuvenation.