ASH CLOUD

Ash Sweeting

This is series of conversations discussing global food sustainability with guests who bring a deep understanding of the environmental and cultural challenges facing our society and creative ideas on how to address them.

Subscribe Listen in podnod RSS feed Show website

80 episodes
Updated June 16

Episodes80

Newest first

Apr 24, 2023 · 1 hr 4 min
It’s not rocket science, it’s not that we don’t know what to do, it’s that we haven’t figured out how to incentivise the necessary behavioural change with Britt Groosman – Environmental Defense Fund
We are always going to have emissions from growing food. There is no way agriculture can get to zero emissions. More than any other industry climate change affects agriculture and agriculture effects climate change. Britt Groosman leads efforts to decrease the environmental footprint of food production at the Environmental defense Fund (https://www.edf.org/). The initial focus are the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, the United States, China, India, and Europe. Her team concentrates on understanding where emissions come from, how these emissions affect farmers, rural communities, broader society, and nature, then identifying big leverage points for change. The first big leverage point is methane, especially livestock methane. Britt sees an urgent need to find practical ways of reducing methane emissions in the next 20 year. “We are in a hurry here. We are not going to convince everybody to become vegan in the next five, or 10, or even 20 years, and maybe we don’t need to.” The challenges vary significantly across the different geopolitical landscapes. In India her team is developing partnerships with dairy cooperatives to provide advice and financing to millions of small holder farmers to increase productivity, improve livelihoods, and reduce their methane emissions. Digital technology is being deployed to decouple economic development from climate issues, helping enable India to avoid taking the high emitting pathway to economic development we made in the West. In the United States EDF has brought together and fostered uncomfortable partnerships that include Big Ag, The Farm Bureau, and other environmental groups to negotiate climate policy. This group, The Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance, (https://agclimatealliance.com/) recently published 40 joint recommendations to the Farm Bill. These achievements have been based on a pragmatic approach that listens to their audience and does not try and advocate change without first walking a mile in the other person’s shoes. Technology innovation alone is not a pathway to food sustainability, despite all the current energy, discussion, and investment in innovation. Britt and her team have identified two additional gaps that need to be overcome. Firstly, without political will or the ambition to want to do things differently nothing will change. Despite the US Ministry of Defence identifying climate change as a near and imminent threat almost two decades ago, until quite recently climate change and agriculture were not discussed in the same sentence. Secondly, there is a huge implementation gap. In many cases we know what we need to do but we haven’t figured out how to incentivize the necessary behavioural change. There is no one size fits all solution. “It’s really dangerous to look at just one indicator. Yes, we’re all in about climate, and yes, we can’t have it being to the detriment of other important factors such as community, social cohesion, environmental justice issues, biodiversity issues, etc.” Personally, Britt fees very deeply for the developing counties at sticky end of climate change. Frequently these countries did not create the pollution that is causing current levels of warming. She personally feels we need reduce emissions, invest in adaptation and that western world owes it to the global south to help them. I recently caught up with Britt to hear more about her work, you can listen to the conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Mar 30, 2023 · 43 min
Creating positive climate impact on the vast landmass under beef production with Ruaraidh Petre - Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef
There is arguably more land under the management of people producing beef, sheep, and goats than under any other industry. Having access to all these people and the land they manage provides an opportunity to impact a significant percentage of the world’s land area. Creating the incentives to encourage and reward climate friendly and nature positive livestock management practices is both one of the greatest challenges and largest opportunities to limit global warming. The Global Roundtable on Sustainable Beef (https://grsbeef.org/) has grown to include 24 countries across 12 Roundtables. In 2021 GRSB set three goals, to reduce the net global warming impact of beef by 30% by 2030 on the pathway to climate neutrality, to become a net positive contributor to nature by 2030, and on animal welfare, to Provide cattle with an environment in which they can thrive. GRSB is now adding a fourth goal focusing on the social role of beef production from both the producer side and more broadly across society. Livestock have a key role in the maintenance of landscape, provision of nutrition, employment, religious and cultural events, and social status. This is especially relevant in many arid and lower income countries where livestock frequently is a cornerstone of food production and rural economies. When the precursor to the GRSB first met in Denver in 2010 many people at the meeting had never sat in a room together. The meeting included a number of fairly beefy security guards because Ruaraidh was concerned things may get heated. It was a question of trust. As people continued to meet over the next 10-12 years and got to know each other trust was built, especially as people realized they all wanted to head in the same direction, and they could actually learn from each other. Methane emission is something that the industry has the ability to limit. Breeding companies are currently looking into using genetics to limit methane emission, improved grazing management also has a big role to play. I recently caught up with Ruaraidh to hear more about his work. You can listen to his conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Mar 22, 2023 · 32 min
Rewriting the traditional dogma on metabolic disease with Lance Baumgard, Iowa State University
When Lance Baumgard first started working with the Arizona dairy industry, he quickly noticed the existing dogma around metabolic disease, inflammatory disease, and animal productivity didn’t stack up. Questioning why the aggressive attempts to treat metabolic disease over the previous 30 years had led to no reduction in disease incidence he concluded that the industry could be focusing on the symptoms rather than the cause. Cellular health is key to maintaining productivity and profitability in agricultural systems. When Lance began leveraging cross species scientific data and adjusted his focus to infectious disease and the resulting inflammation, things started to make much more sense. The energetic demands of managing inflammation and all forms of inflammatory disease frequently contribute to the snowballing negative impact these diseases have on our farm animals, pets, and ourselves. Early diagnosis of immune activation and the resulting inflammation is critical. Failure to do so has significant animal welfare, environmental, productivity, and farm profitability impacts. I recently caught up with Lance to hear more about his work. You can listen to his conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Feb 27, 2023 · 1 hr 3 min
Agriculture is not just about food security, it’s about national and regional security with Air Vice Marshal (retired) John Blackburn, former Deputy Chief of the Royal Australian Air Force
The concern is not just climate change itself but how climate change relates to other parts of our society. Our current political and societal system is not able to deal with the complex interactions between all the issues. Population growth, climate change, the pandemic, economic crisis, energy transition, supply chain disruption, and the conflict in Eastern Europe are all being dealt with reactively and as components, with security implications for our country and our region. Many current solutions being discussed amongst the agricultural community are at the tactical level, focusing on what a farmer should do without looking at the risks to agriculture as a function. Then outside this is another layer that includes climate, water, energy, cyber, national infrastructure, sea trade, and the economy. These all need to be addressed on a national and regional level. The projected climate impact on food, water, and fishery security for the 260 million Indonesians to Australia’s north will likely result in political instability and mass migration. A coherent food and climate security policy needs to also consider the regional impacts of climate change. While technology certainly has a role to play the most important issue is cultural change. John found the most successful technology adoption required a combination of top-down design combined with allowing the younger generations to experiment with emerging technologies, and vitally, all the technology effectively communicating with all other parts of the system. John has adapted thinking that looks at what makes a military force resilient to identify key characteristics and attributes that make a resilient society. Number one is what the military call shared situational awareness, this is understanding the risks and having an honest conversation about where we are now. The second is teaming, these problems will not be solved by an industry group, scientists, or community action, they will require broad and sustained collaboration. The third and final is preparedness and mobilization, so how do we prepare for the reality that we are likely to miss the 1.5C mark and how do we mobilize our society to manage the short-term impacts and develop long term solutions. I recently caught up with John to hear more about his work. You can listen to his conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Jan 30, 2023 · 1 hr 9 min
Can a strategy of cheap food ever be wrong with Mary Shelman
When a delegate stood up and said to the audience “I just can’t understand why a strategy of cheap food could ever be wrong,” at a 1995 Common Agricultural Policy conference no one questioned the wisdom of this statement. Almost 30 years later, this and other well ingrained paradigms are being re-evaluated. The big questions are whether cheap food is sufficiently valued by our society and how much does cheap food drive increased food waste. Current USDA estimates are that between 30-40% of food is wasted. This is a radicle change from only one generation ago where all table scraps and leftovers that were not eaten where either fed to pigs, chickens or even the household pets. Mary Shelman’s insight and thinking on our food and agricultural systems stems as much from her time leading the Agribusiness Program at Harvard Business School and leading the development and implementation of Ireland’s nations food sustainability programme, Origin Green, as it does from growing up in rural Kentucky and spending time with local farmers. We all know the challenges that have emerged around the urban rural divide. What is less discussed in the generational challenges and opportunities facing our societies around food and agriculture. Around 70% of young people today suffer from climate anxiety. Bringing young people into the conversation and leveraging their passions and concerns must become a key component of any food sustainability program. I recently caught up with Mary to hear more about her work. You can listen to his conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Nov 7, 2022 · 36 min
Hydrogen warfare in the rumen - the source of livestock methane emissions with Sharon Huws, Queens University, Belfast
There’s a battle going on in the rumen of all cattle over hydrogen. When the methanogens are winning, livestock methane emissions rise, and milk and meat production decrease. When the acetogens win, milk and meat production increase, and methane emissions decline. The best opportunity available to limit the climate impact of our food systems and provide highly nutritious food to the world’s population is to resolve this hydrogen war within our cattle and sheep. Professor Sharon Huws is a rumen microbiologist at Queens University Belfast who is leading global research teams working to develop solutions that benefit the climate and farmers. “If you can shift the biochemistry a little so that some of that the hydrogen is shuttled to energy, that will also reduce methanogenesis because there will be less hydrogen available.” Sharon said. Sharon and her team are using Omics technologies to improve their understanding of the rumen microbiome. These are the same technologies that have revolutionised cancer treatments over recent years. The plan is to identify microbes that can act as a hydrogen sink, microbes that capture the available hydrogen before the methanogens. They are then looking at identifying the most effective microbes that could then be made into probiotics or direct fed microbials. The team is not starting from scratch as nature has given them a head start. There is a lot to learn from termites, wallabies, and kangaroos. They all produce very little methane because they have reductive acetogens that act as a hydrogen sink, capturing the hydrogen and converting it to energy. Methane emissions account for 5-15% of energy consumed by cattle and sheep. Winning the rumen hydrogen war will provide an economic benefit to farmers by increasing productivity and reducing feed costs, at the same time as mitigating the climate impact. This creates the vital win-win for farmers and the climate that is necessary for widespread adoption of new technologies. Sharon is optimistic that her research will provide an additive benefit by improving the performance of other livestock methane reducing technologies such as 3NOP and Asparagopsis. These technologies have shown efficacy reducing methane but do not improve productivity, leading to the conundrum of who is going to pay for them. I recently caught up with Sharon to hear more about her work. You can listen to our conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Oct 28, 2022 · 52 min
The good, the bad, and the ugly of food processing! Nutrient density and the relationships between food production systems, human health, and the health of our microbiome with Anneline Padayachee, University of Queensland
High tech production systems can produce highly nutrient dense foods. Food processing is a technology, it’s an enabler. It’s the formulations that are usually the conundrum. Every component in food has an important role to play. There are thousands of biologically active compounds above and beyond the few dozen essential nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. These all work together to impact our health. We are only starting to scratch the surface on understanding how these all work together. A huge part of this is the interconnections between our heath and our microbiome. Whenever we eat, we are feeding both ourselves and our microbiome. Dr Anneline Padayachee is a nutrition scientist at the University of Queensland who has been studying the relationships between the nutrient density of our diets, our farming systems, our health, and the health of our microbiome. Her work focuses on not just understanding these relationships but also linking the cultural, emotional, and political aspects of what we eat to human behaviour. The role of nutrient density in our food has been ignored for centuries. The first three food revolutions, from the ancient Egyptians to the Industrial revolution and the green revolution of the mid 20th century all focused on providing cheap and abundant food made from ever cheaper ingredients. This has resulted in the massive acceleration of in chronic health diseases such as diabetes, cholesterol, and heart disease. We are now entering food revolution 4.0 which is nutrition and health innovation where health must be the focus of product development. Nutrient density in food is absolutely essential. This is irrespective of whether the foods are eaten straight off farm or processed using emerging technologies. I recently caught up with Anneline to hear more about her work. You can listen to his conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Oct 21, 2022 · 47 min
Humanities original recyclers, how small interventions can have big impact with Anthony Carrigan - Kyeema Foundation
One or two healthy chickens can significantly improve the health and prosperity of marginalized communities. Poultry recycle food scraps and garden waste, forage insects and worms to produce eggs which provide much needed protein and income. The Kyeema Foundation (https://kyeemafoundation.org/) is working with some of the world’s poorest communities to protect household poultry from disease. Kyeema started out vaccinating village chickens across Africa and the Pacific to protect them from disease. They have more recently expanded into restoring coral reefs and mangroves to revitalise local fisheries. Small holder farmers provide food to around 80% of the world’s population. It is only through developing a deep understanding of these communities and leveraging local expertise, traditions, and capacity that Kyeema can work to improve food and nutrition security for some of the poorest communities. There are more than 608 million family farms around the world, occupying between 70 and 80 percent of the world's farmland and producing around 80 percent of the world's food in value terms. Around 70 percent of all farms, operating on just 7 percent of all agricultural land, are less than one hectare, while another 14 percent of farms, controlling 4 percent of the land, are between one and two hectares, and another 10 percent of all farms, with 6 percent of the land, are between two and five hectares. https://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/1395127/icode/ I recently caught up with Anthony to hear how he and his team are improving the reliance and health of their communities through sustainable local protein production. You can hear our conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Oct 10, 2022 · 38 min
Healthy Cells, Healthy Mind, the impacts of diet and lifestyle on our brains with Liz Head, UC Irvine
Food, movement, social engagements, play, and stress. These are all key drivers of how well our brain’s function and how cognitive function declines with age. It’s also the same for our dogs and cats. At a cellular level its largely about maintaining mitochondrial function, managing inflammation, and managing oxidative stress. What that means for the less technical of us is that exercise, social function, cognitive training, and a good diet are hitting multiple pathways in your brain to help it in 1000 different ways. To maintain cellular health in our brains we must feed our mitochondria and help our bodies manage inflammation. Dr Liz Head is a Neuroscientist who has been studying dementia, Alzheimer’s, and cognitive decline in dogs and humans. Her research began assessing brain aging in dogs as a model for human Alzheimer’s. This has expanded to examining how diet, behaviour, and inflammatory disease impact the activity of the brain’s mitochondria. Liz is at UC Irvine where she her team is examining various molecular pathways engaged in the aging and Alzheimer disease process to identify interventions that may improve cognition. I recently caught up with Liz to hear more about her work. You can listen to his conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 22, 2022 · 55 min
Livestock antibiotics, the soils microbiome, and climate change with Dr Carl Wepking - University of Wisconsin - Madison
The effects of antibiotic use in livestock are far greater than the human health impacts of antimicrobial resistance. It is estimated that 90% of the antibiotics given to livestock end up in the soil. Despite these antibiotics no longer being detectable in manure they still significantly impact the soil microbiome. Research shows that these antibiotics reduce the ability of the soil to capture and store carbon, and the ability of soil to respond to increased temperatures. Livestock manure and the soil are breeding grounds for antibiotic resistant microbes increasing the potential impact on human health. Dr Carl Wepking is a soil microbial ecologist who has been studying the effects of livestock antibiotics use on the soil microbiome. His research has focused on how livestock antibiotics reduce soil microbial activity, decrease microbes’ ability to adapt to high temperatures, and decrease the soil’s ability to sequester carbon. He also found that the effects of livestock antibiotics on the soil microbiome did not require detectable levels of antibiotics in manure. Carl is at the University of Wisconsin- Madison where he is running the Grasslands 2.0 program that aims to develop sustainable livestock farming systems. I recently caught up with Carl to hear more about his work. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 22, 2022 · 44 min
Prof Richard Eckard talks - agriculture and climate change, carbon accounting, economics, policy, and farmers.
Agriculture impacts climate change and climate change impacts agriculture. Dr Richard Eckard from the University of Melbourne has spent the last 20 years working on better understanding these interactions. In conversation, with Ash Sweeting, Richard discusses how today, changes in management practices can reduce livestock emissions by 10-15% and the potential for new products in development to reduce emissions by over 50%. Critical to enabling farmers to benefit from reduced emissions are the open source carbon accounting tools his team has developed, are maintaining, and deploying across industry. Richard also explores the nuances between emission reduction credit can be traded daily and a carbon sequestration credit can be traded once and then need to be maintained once it has been sold. Interviewed by Ash Sweeting Send us Fan Mail
Sep 22, 2022 · 36 min
Livestock methane, collaboration, existing research, and student energy with Prof. Joe McFadden - Cornell University
Joe McFadden Discusses – Collaboration, the value of existing research, innovative ways of leveraging the energy and passion of students to get the most of Cornell’s new respiratory chambers. Livestock sustainability is a much more complex issue than inhibiting methane production. Holistic solutions are needed that also maintain nutrient digestibility, reduce nitrogen pollution, maintain efficiency, are scalable across different production environments in the developed and developing world and are acceptable to the public. After coming to Cornell University in 2017 solving these critical issues have become the core focus of Prof. Joe McFadden. Cornell is building new climate-controlled respiration chambers, unique to the Unites States, to accelerate their research on livestock methane emissions. Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, Joe’s team is building on research conducted over the last 50 years. His team is planning on using the new chambers to test compounds with proven in vitro methane inhibition data in live animals to determine how they work in North American production systems and other environments across the world. Joe understand we have to invest in people first and foremost to really drive solutions. A key part of his plans are transitioning to a problems-based approach to sustainability where he is leading efforts across universities, states, and internationally to improve collaboration. To accelerate the approval process for feed additives he is collaborating with an environmental NGO and the FDA to develop new approval methodologies and he has developed a new program to educate both students and the public simultaneously. I recently caught up with Joe to hear more about his work. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 22, 2022 · 1 hr 1 min
Food quality, human health, farming systems and how closely these are connected, with Eric Jackson - Bionutrient Food Association
We don’t understand what it is we are eating! Our health is directly connected to the soil health in which our food is grown. Research is showing that the nutrient composition of foods can vary over 100 times between two identical looking food items. A tomato is not a tomato and an apple is not an apple. The research is showing that the greatest determinant of nutrient density is cover cropping as part of the system. Livestock productions systems also greatly influence the nutrient composition of meat wth the quality and variability of pasture leading to an increase in nutrient density. Eric Jackson is the Board Chair at the Bionutrient Food Association where they are studying nutrient density variability in foods and investigating what are the drivers of this variability. He is bringing the medical and agricultural communities into the same room to tackle both food sustainability and the huge burden metabolic disease is having on our societies. I recently caught up with Eric to discuss the connections between human health, soil health, the health of the environment, and how intimately they are linked. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 22, 2022 · 50 min
Sustainable farming is all about people with Anastasia Volkova - Regrow
Anastasia Volkova discusses sustainable farming, incentives for behavioural change, and the importance of understanding the farming system when implementing regenerative agriculture. When it comes to sustainable food production, we are all responsible. The world forced farming to be this way because we wanted to support growth that is not sustainable. Regrow is the infrastructure for decision support and incentive exchange in sustainable agriculture. Regrow is working with farmers and food supply chains across over 200 million acres in 45 countries to reduce the climate impact of agriculture and improve yield resistance. I recently caught up with Anastasia Volkova, Regrow CEO and Co-Founder, to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and myths in transforming global food systems. Her deep understanding of their markets, customers, and the science guides how Regrow creates value across the whole supply chain. She explores the nuances around regenerative agriculture, which is a huge opportunity but must be applied in context. She also discussed the potential perils of limiting the sustainability conversation to carbon and overly simplifying the system. Anastasia dispels the myths that farmers are unwilling to share their data, declaring all that is needed is the right incentive. In this conversation we explore how realistic is cheap food and the why the current impact on the global food system due to the war in Ukraine should not be a surprise to those following history. You can listen to our conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 22, 2022 · 45 min
Building a new city and food system from scratch with Ray Moule - NEOM
With $500 billion how would you design a completely new city and food system from scratch, to feed and house 3 million residents? The city of NEOM is being built on the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia. There are no legacy systems to deal with, no existing infrastructure that needs considering and maintaining. The city is literally rising out of the desert and you have an open book when it comes to planning sustainable food production and linking that with sustainable energy and water use. Funded by the Saudi Sovereign Wealth with an aim of 100% renewable energy and no ultilzation of ground water the project aims to be the city of the future. Ray Moule is leading agricultural development for NEOM. His team is planning a food system to feed the cities predicted 3 million residents and 5 million visitors. Their plans include research needs, what new technologies will improve the sustainability of the food system, how to sustainably source water and nutrients for agriculture, creating circular economies, and how food systems are linked to health. He also has to balance what food to grow locally and what food to import. With an average annual rainfall of 15-20 mm (less than 1 inch) and temperatures regularly reaching well over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) throughout the summer new production techniques and technologies are critical to developing a sustainable food system. I recently caught up with Ray to discuss the amazing opportunity to build a food system from scratch and the challenges in doing so in a harsh desert environment. You can listen to our conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 21, 2022 · 28 min
Learning from nature how to eliminate livestock methane emissions with Prof Athol Klieve - University of Queensland
Could nature provide a map to greatly reduce the climate impact of animal agriculture. Dr Athol Klieve has spent his career researching the microbiome of ruminants and kangaroos and why ruminants produce methane and kangaroos do not. In our conversation Athol also explains how there are no identifiable patterns in nature as to why a particular species produces methane or does not produce methane and that with us humans, some of us produce methane and some of us don’t. The exciting thing is that the current situation is not fixed, things can be changed. Athol also delves deeply into the complex community structures within the microbiome, how micro organisms cooperate with each other, how they compete, how they protect or sabotage other microbes and, how they communicate or talk to each other. He also discussed the adaptability of microbes to change their metabolism and even genetic pathways under different conditions. The ultimate focus of Athol’s research has been how to better understand these complex ecosystems to improve animal agriculture and drastically reduce livestock methane emissions. I recently caught up with Athol to hear more about his work. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 21, 2022 · 1 hr
Bridging the gap between consumer expectations and on farm/ranch productivity through listening to the next generation and challenging the current thinking with Harry Lawson – Lawson Angus
Harry Lawson runs Australia’s largest Angus seed stock business. Lawson Angus (www.lawsonsangus.com.au) sells 1000 bulls annually across all states. While working to breed cattle that bridge the sustainability demands of beef consumers with the productivity requirements of his beef producing customers, he realized that collaboration among highly educated and skilled young people is critical. Sustainability and productivity are not mutually exclusive but much of the current thinking is moving the whole industry in the wrong direction. The issue is that very few people actually understand the whole livestock production system, biologically these systems are very complex. Harry’s big hope is that accelerating the transition to the next generation of highly educated farmers will bring that much needed knowledge and understanding to the industry. The Lawson Angus breeding program bucks the industry trend to breed larger cows. With the breeding herd producing around 70% of beef industry methane emissions Harry focuses breeding lower emission cows. It’s a win win that these moderately sized, highly fertile and energy efficient cows animals are also much more drought tolerant. When Harry’s children started questioning the environmental footprint of the family business, he soon realized he didn’t have the answers that would satisfy either his children or himself. His initial digging around has now led to developing his own research program to include methane emissions in his breeding program. I recently caught up with Harry to discuss how he is working to improve beef sustainability. You can listen to our conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 13, 2022 · 51 min
Feeding the half of world's people who are living on less than $6 a day with Tim Prewitt - The Hunger Project
For the billions of people living on less than $5 a day the only available option with rising food prices is to buy less food. It’s easy to blame this current crisis on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, when you look at things more deeply there are bigger issues at play. The coupling of fuel price and food prices is crippling food systems for many of the world’s poorest people. On top of this are growing impact of climate change and the flow on market effects of countries locking up food and energy reserves for their own perceived national interest. The Hunger Project works across Africa, South Asia, and Latin America to help millions of people end their own hunger and poverty. By far the best tool available is increasing local food production. This is especially the case if these systems are growing highly nutritious indigenous crops and include small scale livestock production. I recently caught up with Tim Prewitt, The Hunger Project’s CEO to discuss how the current spikes in food and energy prices are impacting world’s most vulnerable. He described a small regenerative farm and agribusiness in Uganda run by Fareeda, where she grows and processes pumpkins and a few other crops. There were no neat rows with trees and other crops dispersed across the farm. The trees included cocoa, mango, and papaya. The crops included, corn, soy, okra, melon, pumpkin, and other vegetables all growing together. You could see how the plants were working together. All the waste from the farm and business were composted and returned to the soil. The farm was feeding her family and several others around her by using these techniques. She’s really proud of her work. Fareeda’s farms show how food can be produced locally and regeneratively. It also highlights the challenges of scaling regenerative agriculture, especially given the agricultural subsidy policies that remain highly focused on the industrial production of wheat, corn, rice and sugar. You can listen to our conversation here. Send us Fan Mail
Sep 6, 2022 · 32 min
Working with customers to reduce carbon emissions with Justin Webb - AgriWebb
Agriwebb arguably has visibility over more head of livestock and acres of grazing and farmland than anyone else with over 20 million sheep and cattle and 125 million acres being managed through their systems. Agriwebb is now working with their customers to reduce carbon emissions. A key aspect of Agriwebb’s success is that by becoming the trusted partner of farmers and ranchers, who are collecting large amounts of production data, they can create a digital paper trail that makes it easier to target value adding certifications such as carbon neutral beef or participate in carbon sequestration schemes. AgriWebb strongly believes that livestock production systems can be productive, profitable, and sustainable all at the same time. However, whilst technologies already exist that can enable these improvements the issues of who pays for these technologies, who captures the premiums and how premiums are shared, and how risk is shared across the supply chain are still significant hurdles to change. I recently caught up with Justin Webb, AgriWebb’s Co-Founder and Executive Chairman to discuss how AgriWebb is working to improve food sustainability globally. "...supermarkets and the retailers themselves step up to take responsibility through the supply chain. They have to be the ones making calls into the wedge of profitability ..." - Justin Webb, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman Agriwebb Send us Fan Mail
Sep 6, 2022 · 22 min
Ruminant Methane Production with Dr Matthias Hess - UC Davis
Dr Matthias Hess has been spearheading the assessment of compounds and feed additives for their impact on cattle methane emissions in the United States. Matthias is a microbiologist in the department of animal science at UC Davis where he has spent the last 8 years looking into the ruminant microbiome to better understanding how these different microbes breakdown complex plant materials into smaller molecules that can be utilized by the animal. Matthias current work is leading research focused on understanding the biochemistry of how these microbes convert plant materials into small molecules that can be utilized by the animal. A huge part of his work is looking at the production of undesirable metabolites and especially methane with the aim of finding solutions to how methane emissions can be reduced. The exciting news is that his team is using new techniques including DNA, RNA, and protein analytics to understand the microbial processes in the rumen on a molecular level. This is leading to a much better understanding of not just the species of bacteria, archaea, and also fungi in the rumen, but more importantly how they interact, what activates these microbes, and the intracellular communications that control what genes are switched on at any point in time. Ultimately, as methane production is an energy inefficiency within the ruminant digestive system Matthias thinks solutions that solve the methane problem will also increase protein production. That said, because of the complexity if the rumen microbiome it is highly probable that there will be different solutions for not different production systems, grazing and fed animals, and also for different environments. Send us Fan Mail