Gabe Brown discusses how Regenerative Agriculture is a solution to global challenges

my name is gabe brown and i'm a rancher from bismarck north dakota my wife and i have been on this land here since 1983 we purchased it from her parents in 1991 and then what happened we farmed conventionally i learned how to farm from my father-in-law because i was born and raised in town i didn't grow up on a farm or ranch and so i learned the conventional practices tillage and use of fertilizers and pesticides and fungicides monoculture crop production primarily spring wheat oats and barley livestock turned out cattle turned out on pasture in the spring and then taking off the pastures in the fall and fed hay for six months out of the year then what happened to me i i was always very inquisitive and i had been studying about no-till and and so in 1993 i had read enough about no-till that i knew that it'd be important for us to go no-till in order to conserve moisture and time and so i sold all my tillage equipment 100 no-till in 1994 and the farm ground the cropland that we have today has not been tilled since 1993. then what happened to me 1995 came along the day before i was gonna start combining 1200 acres of spring wheat we lost our entire crop in a hail storm so that was pretty financially devastating to young families starting out and it set us back but the bank stuck with us 1996 rolled around we lost 100 of our crop to hail again and i had to figure out boy the banker all of a sudden wasn't going to loan me money i couldn't pay back my loans how am i going to make this farm this ranch productive without buying all these inputs and so i started to experiment diversify the rotation i added crops such as rye and harry vetch winter triticale and hairy vetch started growing peas and because they're a very short season just started to diversify a bit my wife and i took off farm jobs so we could pay the bills and i was fortunate i had a banker who believed in me and and stuck with me 1997 came along and we dried out it was a major drought here in north dakota so we never combined an acre so that was three years of no crop income 1998 came along and we lost 80 percent of our crop to hail so we had four years of basically no crop income and a lot happened though because of the hail and the drought i was starting to see things you know the hail smashed the the grain down on the ground all of a sudden i had armor on the soil because of the no-till and that armor i started to have an earthworm showing up i noticed my soil was more aggregated when it did rain we were infiltrating more water and so that really started me on a 25-yard journey of learning about regenerative agriculture learning how ecosystems function learning about how we can make our farm our ranch more resilient if we focus on working with nature instead of against her yeah that's very interesting and we just took a you know a tour of your place and regenerative agriculture is is not necessarily a new term in the the agriculture world but it's becoming a you know kind of a widespread term you know for the general consumer you know how would you explain regenerative agriculture to a consumer so what i tell people is that regenerative agriculture is a renewal of a food and farming system that focuses on the whole chain from soil health to plant health to animal health and then to human health the nutrient density of the foods that we produce are directly related to the health of the soil how biologically active is that soil you know there's more microorganisms in a teaspoon full of healthy soil than there are people on this planet think about that yet farmers and ranchers don't tend to think about the life in the soil and how important it is in the current production model it's all about commodities it's about yield in grain it's about pounds and livestock we just want to produce more and more and more well there's no attention paid to the nutrient density of those products and unfortunately in the model today farmers and ranchers aren't being paid if they have commodities or products that are higher in nutrient density regenerative agriculture is changing that because it's bridging the gap it's getting the farmer rancher closer to the consumer to the end user and those consumers are willing to pay for that so it's putting more money in the pockets of farmers and ranchers and putting a higher quality product in onto our tables and so you uh had given us an example of that with corn you know when we were on the podcast you said you know corn the market right now is so so far down that you wouldn't even encourage farmers to uh grow corn yep but you've um would you explain how what you've done with corn has really made you resilient to those price yeah so so today for example the current commodity price of corn is around 3.35 cents a bushel well in 1980 it was 3.17 cents a bushel that's 40 years ago and we're we're not being paid anymore for our product yet look what input costs have done they've skyrocketed costs are you know astronomically higher as compared to 40 years ago so what we encourage and what we've done on our operation is to how do we get more value out of those products so instead of just selling it as a commodity to a grain terminal we're adding value in that we grow open pollinated heirloom varieties of corn they're much higher in feed value we can demand a much higher price then and we also do feed that corn to our livestock and it's much higher in nutrients so we get greater production our livestock then for instance our hogs our poultry our eggs we're able to market that to a consumer so we're adding value to the price of corn and there's many other ways you can market to corona we could sell it uh to be rolled for human consumption we can sell it to be made into tortillas you can even make it into bourbon and how how important has the marketing piece been for you guys you know as in as wearing so many hats as as a farmer and rancher like yourself has to wear now how important has it been to learn the marketing and the branding side of things most farmers and ranchers spend very very little time on marketing they're very good at growing yield or pounds producing pounds but they're very poor business people in the sense they don't market their product when it's come time to sell all they do is haul it to the local grain terminal or haul their livestock to the sale barn what we've done on our ranch is we've tried to eliminate as many of those middle man steps as we can and market directly to consumers right now my my son has developed a business called nourish by nature which is direct market he has 137 different products different cuts of beef lamb pork eggs honey maple syrup that he markets directly to consumers and he has that relationship with the consumers his customers trust him because they know our production protocol they know how we grow and raise things on this ranch we have an open door policy on our ranch anybody can drive on this ranch at any time and look at anything that builds trust with the customers and because of that we do demand higher prices for our products but in our mind they're worth it because they're higher nutrient density and they're giving people that quality eating experience that they desire well i think that's that's really important when you talk about relationships you know to where the consumer you kind of want to know where your food's coming from and i think you build that relationship with the consumer by having that open door policy that's exactly right you know it's almost every day one of our customers will bring their children out and they'll look at the chickens they'll look at the sheep they'll look at the cattle they'll see how we care for those animals and we we tell our customers that the animals raised on brown's ranch have a great life and one bad moment that's it otherwise you know it they're gonna enjoy their life they're not in confinement they're out there they're they're grazing they get moved to a new pasture every day it's a it's a quality a good experience for that animal you know it's a quality life that they have yeah you have a lot going on here when you talk about a multi-faceted farming and ranching operation uh how many enterprises do you have out here so right now on this ranch we have about 17 different enterprises that's not including all the different varieties of grain that we raise i only consider that one enterprise but what that does is that makes us very resilient you know we're resilient to changes fluctuations in markets we're resilient to changes in precipitation to changes in temperature and with that much diversity we're resilient financially because if the price of one grain that we grow is low well we've got all these other enterprises that we can make a profit from the other thing that it does is it enables us by direct marketing to the consumer we're able to set our own prices so we become price makers instead of price takers we don't sell any of these 137 products that we produce for a loss because we know our cost of production and we're going to set our prices above that and and if the quality is there the eating experience is there the consumer will buy yeah that that uh makes me think of i guess my next point is is with regenerative agriculture you know really emerging and becoming more mainstream you know especially with the you know the the big commercialized companies like cargill and things like that where do you see the uh the opportunities in regenerative agriculture for maybe farmers and ranchers that may not have integrated or or really started working on these principles i tell other farmers and ranchers when when they come to our ranch to visit or i go out and and do presentations that regenerative agriculture is the future of agriculture you know two and a half years ago our business understanding eggs signed a contract with general mills for us to teach farmers regenerative agriculture and their reason for doing it is they want a steady supply of high quality grains for their their company well the benefit to the farmer or rancher is that through by using these regenerative practices your farmer ranch becomes very resilient and then you have you're producing that supply of high quality grains that general mills for example wants and i tell farmers and ranchers they're going to demand it they are already demanding it do you want to be left behind and then what you're going to get even lower prices or are you going to move your operation in a direction that can meet their demands and then you can supply them with the quality grains they need and so if uh you know a farmer or rancher even a consumer wants to know more about what kind of what you're doing here at browns ranch what is what is understanding egg so understanding ag my three business partners and i formed a few years back and our goal is one of education we have uh so we will educate clients whether it be farmers ranchers businesses municipalities you know cities government agencies we're hired by a large a vast array of different organizations and people to lead them down the regenerative path you know we'll go out on farms and ranches and we will help that farmer and rancher understand how to move their farmer ranch what practices to do to move it down the regenerative path we're working with cities who are having problems with pollution in their drinking water in their water supplies okay how do we go into the watersheds that supply the water to those cities and educate the farmers and ranchers how to change their practices or businesses that are causing that point source pollution so we work with them we work with businesses such as general mills and many others how do they move their supply chain down regenerative agriculture so understanding ag has about 20 consultants working for us right now all over north america we're on over 17 million acres right now across north america and expanding rapidly all the time and then besides understanding ag we formed a 501 c 3 nonprofit called soil health academy and soil health academy is a focused on education how do we educate anyone from consumers to farmers and ranchers to businesses cities how do we educate them as to the importance of regenerative agriculture and we're focused on doing that through various means we do three-day on-site trainings on farms and ranches we do trainings for businesses for municipalities and for consumers train the consumer teach the consumer educate them as to you can edit that word try train right we don't train consumers we teach consumers as to the importance of how and where they source the food that they feed themselves and their families and i think uh you know it's important to well for the consumer or even legislators to talk about you know how regenerative agriculture can answer you know world problems like climate change pollution yeah um even even when you're talking about covet you know how how does regenerative agriculture affect you know covid you know you were telling me a little bit about yeah so i often get asked why regenerative agriculture and what does regenerative agriculture bring to the table so to speak so i tell people it doesn't matter where your interest lies if your concern is with climate change nothing can take more carbon out of the atmosphere and put it into the soils and store it there like regenerative agriculture can if your interest lies in water quality and quantity regenerative agriculture can address those means because we can keep the nutrients on the farm on the ranch where it should be by using these practices so we can heal the water cycle if your concern is human health and we discuss covid those unfortunately who are succumbing to cobalt many have compromised immune systems those with healthy immune systems covet is like just a bad cold well the immune system is in your our bodies is directly related to the food we eat that's directly dependent on the health of the soil regenerative agriculture has the ability to produce food that's much higher in nutrient density thus helping our gut microbiome thus helping to build our immunity so i tell people no matter where you're at where your concerns are regenerative agriculture has the ability to bring people together and i say let's focus on the 80 percent of the things we agree on and the other 20 will sort themselves out you know i think everyone around the world can come together and realize that regenerative agriculture is an answer it's part of the solution it's not agriculture is not part of the problem it's part of the solution i should add one segment to that another thing that regenerative agriculture can do is it can increase farm and ranch profitability and it can revitalize our communities because we're putting more money back onto the into the farms down to the ranches and that then will be spent in the local communities yeah a lot of people don't really tie all those things together but that's that's a very important point and so i guess to finish it up um what would be one piece of advice that you'd have for you know aspiring or even young farmers and ranchers that are you know kind of the future generations like what would you what would you tell them yeah so for 25 plus years on our ranch we ran an internship program we had interns come every summer and spend the summer and learn these regenerative practices and i always told those young people i said never ever stop learning you know one of the things about me i'm approaching 60 years of age and every day to me i learned something new you know i try and educate myself on something new even if it's something that i'm not particularly interested in you have to keep learning and so i tell these young people go spend times on regenerative farms and ranches learn how to run a business and then the other thing i tell them too many young people they want to go buy land and become a farmer become a rancher don't do that right away you need to build your confidence and your business first as your business grows you know you can accumulate cash then you can go buy your dream farmer ranch make your operation portable start small find out where your interest really lies find out what you're good at find out what the demand is for and then produce to supply that demand and you'll be very profitable yeah i think that's that's a that's a great piece of advice a lot of young people want to jump in you know they want to go to the bank get financing and they're they're kind of um they burden themselves with debt and don't do that you know my son is 32 years old and he's never borrowed a penny hey you know we operate on a cash basis if we don't have the cash we're just not going to buy it it's really not needed and you know look at the society today has become a society of want they want more and more and more and they're borrowing money to do that and they're highly leveraged and then what happens you have any hiccup in your income stream all of a sudden you're in financial trouble that's not the way to be resilient yeah and i think there's probably a lot of farmers and ranchers out there that be willing to mentor you know these young people but i think that there's still that gap there of like how do they find that person yep and and one of the things that that we pride ourselves in is how do we match those people up how do we take a a farmer rancher who's experienced in regenerative ag and match them up with young people and what we're finding one of the real joys of regenerative agriculture is i can literally pick up the phone and call a regenerative farmer or rancher in any country all over the world certainly in all 50 states in the united states and they're willing to share their experiences you know so often in commoditized industrialized production model it's a me me me and i'm not going to share my secrets with you that's not how it is in regenerative agriculture we know that our success as a society as a whole depends on us sharing information and so how do we bring the next generation along and i'll use this as an example so often in production agriculture you know you can drive east to here through the i states iowa indiana illinois and and look at the corn belts and you see thousands upon thousands of acres with no livestock only corn and soybeans but yet most farms have those odd acres those areas that could raise some livestock well why not offer that to a young person to hey come on to my place integrate some livestock we can grow some cover crops on the cropland which will benefit my crops and then you can graze those with your livestock help that young person get started mentor them along it's a win-win situation for both people and i think it's it's on behalf of you know my generation needs to take it upon ourselves to allow the next generation that opportunity yeah so another question would be do you think regenerative agriculture can feed the world well that's a question i often get asked and i use our ranch as an example and you compare it to neighboring farms ranches around here most farmers produce only a small handful you know maybe two or three different cash crops like corn and soybeans or or corn and spring wheat and and that's where all their revenue streams is that's all they do they produce that on an acre of land well on our ranch i'm still growing those crops we grow a wide variety of different cash crops from corn to peas to barley to oats to rye winter triticale whole bunch different cash crops so i'm growing that on an acre of land but then on top of that we run our beef cattle and our sheep and our hogs and our land hands and our broilers and we got honey we're doing all these stacked enterprises i'm producing a much much greater quantity of food per acre than under the industrial model and then we often get asked yeah but you're doing pastured proteins you'll never produce enough meat products to feed the world well look at the large number of acres out there where there's no livestock on and i often tell people imagine what your farm was centuries ago you know pre-european settlement well it's it was large herds of bison and elk being pushed by the predators moving across the prairie and there was deer and there was rabbits and all these other species we've removed the animals from the landscape that's not healthy for the land so they could not only grow their corn and beans but you can add these other multiple revenue streams and if you truly want to be resilient price wise you need to have multiple revenue streams that makes you very resilient and that's that's that's a big key i think with you know the volatility in the markets is that resiliency piece and i and i think that it's a message that you know the farmers and ranchers really need to hear yeah and so many times i hear well gabe you live near bismarck so you can sell your product you know in bismarck we can't do that we live further away well a lot of our product is shipped all over the united states with today's infrastructure it's very easy to do that you just have to have the proper packaging you know there we have customers in california and florida who buy our product and it's as easy as us boxing it up taking it to a large courier they ship it it's there within two days you know that that to me is just people looking for excuses why they can't do things there's no reason you can't build your customer base now i would prefer to sell everything locally and that's one of our goals we want to sell in the local community in order to cut down on all the fuel usage fossil fuel usage but but maybe i shouldn't be saying that to an energy program but but it's true you know but there's no excuse to not be able to market yeah and i i think that's a really important piece is you know trying to get trying to re train or teach um these these local restaurants and these local grocery stores you know to really encourage and reach out to the the farmers and ranchers saying hey we want to get your product first because we know that it's benefiting our community yeah and and that that's a great point um we've lost this mindset we think of food as just something food is food is food well there's a huge difference in nutrient density and quality of products and the more you can source what you consume from farmers and ranchers that use regenerative practices the healthier it's going to be for you and your children and we need to start looking at that and it's going to revitalize the local economies and that's that's very important so if somebody wants to go and you know just get more information on you your ranch your operations uh is facebook the best place to go your website yeah like where do you sit where do you sit so our son's business nourished by nature is the direct marketing business they can certainly go on nourish by nature u and look at that they can go to understandingag.com and find out a lot more about regenerative practices or they can go to soilhealthacademy.org and find out about the nonprofit and the educational things we are doing to move regenerative ag forward well gabe thank you for inviting us out to the brown ranch and we'll be looking forward to you know staying in contact i know you got some some friends in different states that ironically boise kind of where i live well hopefully i'll be able to see you out there that that'd be great i look forward to it it was a pleasure hosting you today

Channel: US Energy

Views: 292,294

Keywords: Regenerative Agriculture, Agriculture, Carbon Summit

Id: TLwsn8snsMc

Length: 28min 12sec (1692 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 13 2021