Regenerative Ag Advantages

There are many advantages to farming based on Regenerative Principles.

Recently while at Three Rivers Farm & Garden in Richton (I was there picking up some building supplies) there was a farmer there buying poison for army worms. During his conversation with Lee, he mentioned that the army worms were so bad they were eating his bahia grass up. That is really saying something because they typically go after better grasses like sudan and crabgrass - which we have a lot of on our farm.

After the farmer had left, Lee asked me if I had any issues with army worms on my farm and I said No - have not see any sign of them. He replied back, "You will, everyone has them real bad this year."

Well, I still have not had any of them show up on my farm. Part of the reason is our farming principles. Look at this picture I took of one of our pastures a few morning ago. See all the spider webs in the tops of the grasses?

Those spiders are catching and feeding on moths as well as other insects. And, army worms come from moths.

Disease and insects also tend to attack the weaker plants first and will bypass healthy plants with healthy immune systems.

Guess what, it is no different for humans. Disease's and etc. find it hard to impact humans with healthy immune systems.

So, how do we develop a healthy immune system in our pastures? Basically, it boils down to creating the environment for all the insects to exist.

I once met Dr. Jonathan Lundgren at the Grassfed Exchange Conference. Dr. Lundgren studies insects. One of his statements made was when you spray poison to kill a particular insect (like an army worm) you are also killing ALL INSECT PREDATORS of the army worm. For every bad insect you spray to kill you are also killing 1300 species of good (beneficial) insects.

So, you see, we like spiders as well as other predator insects that trap and feed on insects that want to destroy our forages.

Lets circle back to human health! Diana Rodgers recently shared an article titled "If You Think Kids Are Eating Mostly Junk Food, A New Study Finds You're Right​".

Here is a short excerpt from the article:

Kids and teens in the U.S. get the majority of their calories from ultra-processed foods like frozen pizza, microwavable meals, chips and cookies, a new study has found.

Two-thirds — or 67% — of calories consumed by children and adolescents in 2018 came from ultra-processed foods, a jump from 61% in 1999, according to a peer-reviewed study published in the medical journal JAMA. The research, which analyzed the diets of 33,795 youths ages 2 to 19 across the U.S., noted the "overall poorer nutrient profile" of the ultra-processed foods.

"This is particularly worrisome for children and adolescents because they are at a critical life stage to form dietary habits that can persist into adulthood," says Fang Fang Zhang, the study's senior author and a nutrition and cancer epidemiologist at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and policy. "A diet high in ultra-processed foods may negatively influence children's dietary quality and contribute to adverse health outcomes in the long term.

How can you expect to have a healthy immune system when you are eating unhealthy food? Something to ponder for sure!

You can read the full article here.

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