Grass-Fed Meat

The fastest way to increase the carbon content of a degraded soil is to establish a perennial grassland and graze it with ruminant animals in a proper manner

- Dale Strickler

This fact has been well established both by scientific research and by centuries of practical experience.

What happens, though, when anyone proposes that we convert large areas of degraded cropland to pastures, in order to sequester enormous amounts of soil carbon? Detractors say that to do so would cause worldwide starvation, since statistics based on current levels of pasture production indicate that a pasture typically produces much smaller caloric output than a typical crop field.

That isn't the entire story, however. Here are some points to keep in mind.

FIRST OF ALL, throughout history the best soils were converted to cropland, while the worst soils were spared the plow and left in pasture. Most pasture acres simply cannot grow crops, because they are too rocky, too shallow, too droughty, too flood-prone, too something to grow crops. Pastures placed on productive ground are often several times more productive than the average pasture.

SECOND, the average cropland is relatively well managed, while the average pasture receives virtually no management: The animals are simply turned out and left to fend for themselves. When a controlled system of grazing management gets underway, even these current pastures on poor soil unfit for cropland can have their meat output doubled or more.