It’s Not Enough to Sustain: We Must Regenerate

In this episode of Unconfined, the Center for a Livable Future’s food system correspondent Leo Horrigan walks us through the world of biological farming, the soil food web, the unpaid labor done by billions of microbes on the daily (they need a better agent!), and how some farmers could save a lot of money and agita if they just let nature do its thing. It’s not enough to simply stop the loss of soil-we must regrow new soil, and we can do that using plants, fungi, and microbes in an ecological system that’s been doing pretty well without our help for billions of years.
clf.jhsph.edu/unconfined-podcast
Unconfined Podcast
US consumers enjoy access to a veritable cornucopia of meat. We consume an annual average of more than 220 pounds of chicken, pork, and beef per person-one of the highest rates of carnivory in history. What makes it possible is a factory-like model of meat production that took root in Midwestern stockyards in the late 19th century and boomed after World War II. For decades, the transnational meatpacking giants that dominate US production have been exporting this model to countries across the globe. But it's not all about just widely available burgers, tacos, and nuggets. What are the model's downsides-the impacts on communities, workers, ecosystems, and public health? And are there better ways to farm animals? In Unconfined Podcast, veteran meat industry observers and CLF staffers Tom Philpott and Christine Grillo dig into those questions, interviewing the researchers, community organizers, journalists, and farmers documenting or experiencing the ills of our dominant mode of meat agriculture-and those who are exploring alternatives.