'Regen' is livestock farmers' response to veganism
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From the Farm by Victoria Ballantyne
After more than two years without any on-farm meetings in this area, we decided to make the most of our current flexibility and organise a meeting here.
More than 40 people attend our farm walk and social catch-up and the response showed the importance of farmer to farmer interaction.
There has been a push in recent years for people to try a vegan diet in January – “Veganuary”. It’s obviously not something I have any interest in, but perhaps if it draws people’s attention to how their food is produced, then that is a good thing.
A vegan diet is being sold as healthier and better for the planet, when in fact our food and the systems that produce it are complex and interwoven and cannot be narrowed down to this kind of black and white thinking.
The livestock sector have responded with “Regenuary” – eating food produced under regenerative systems.
Those who follow food and farming may have heard the term “regenerative agriculture”, or “regen” to the cool kids. There is some contention around the definition, but in brief it focuses on farming in a way that rather than just being sustainable, actually regenerates soils and biodiversity.
Sitting somewhere between organic, holistic and agroecological. it involves less chemicals, more ground cover, less ploughing and soil disturbance, improved water quality and increased biodiversity with soil health being at the heart of it. It is an approach and philosophy rather than a strict set of rules and management will vary depending on farm type.
Across the world farmers are trying innovative things and getting incredible results. Arable (crop) farms tend to have more degraded soils than livestock farms because of ploughing, chemicals and a lack of dung.
This isn’t a dig at those farmers though - they have farmed to the advice, economics and practicalities of the time. The good news is there is huge potential for them to increase soil organic matter – thereby directly sequestering carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil – making a real difference to climate change.
Due to the way livestock graze, most livestock farms have been doing this job for years and many will already have very high soil organic matter, limiting how much they can add. However, there is still huge potential to improve soil health and microbial diversity through better management
We are long way from a ‘regenerative’ system here, and I’m tentative about going down this path as ‘full regen’ on a farm like ours probably means halving our stocking rate - which also means almost halving our income. We are already a fairly low input farm, relying heavily on grass with minimal chemical use, managed animal health and high soil organic matter so I’m not sure the benefits will outweigh the compromise.
What we are going to do though is start planting trees and hedges. Unfortunately we fall between the cracks in terms of any assistance so we are self-funding a five-year planting plan.
With all the money being thrown around in this space, it is frustrating that simple, small scale projects are overlooked. Last week I ordered over 800 trees and biodegradable guards and we look forward to getting them in the ground.
Victoria and Jason Ballantyne run Clynelish Farm, Brora.
