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Cattle grazing in large pastures that have been in the
same family for generations - that's verysustainable, in my opinion. |
Sustainability
is a buzz-word and news topic that is not going away anytime soon; remember the
green movement? Well, now we’ve surpassed a movement and plowed full steam
ahead into a reformation of the way we think, plan, grow and progress.
Restaurants, NGOs, natural resource companies – entities around the world are
reevaluating their business plans and searching for tactics to become
sustainable and attractive to the millennial mind.
The problem,
however, with throwing the word “sustainable” around so often is that it’s
extremely subjective. My definition of sustainable is polar opposite to that of
McDonald’s, which varies from that of the Environmental Protection Agency,
which varies from the actual definition of sustainable, “Capable of being
sustained; able to last or continue for a long time.” Thanks, Merriam-Webster.
By English
literature standards, there are thousands of farms and ranches that qualify as
sustainable. Take my husband’s family farm for example: they have been farming
and raising cattle on the same piece of land since 1847. That’s more than 165
years of food production on a farm that has weathered the Civil War, the Great
Depression, the farm crisis of the 1980s and annual increases in vital inputs.
If that farm isn’t the picture of sustainability, then I’ll eat an artichoke
(in case you don’t know me, I’m not a big fan of green food!).
The
underlying issue is that one cannot use a broom to paint a portrait – each farm
and ranch varies from the next and sustainable practices that conserve natural
resources are vastly different between states. What works in northwest Ohio,
where the average annual precipitation is 34 inches, is probably not going to
work in west Texas, where the average annual precipitation is a mere 19 inches.
Instead of
trying to come up with a one-size-fits-all panacea, the beef community needs to
unite and work together internally to implement already proven sustainable
practices rather than waiting for a third-party regulatory body to do it for
us.
Until next time,
~ Buzzard ~
Disclaimer: I wrote this for the Masters of Beef Advocacy newsletter that was distributed a few weeks ago but I had to share it here too. It's applicable to more than just MBA grads!
Labels: family farm, farming, ranching, sustainability, sustainable beef