Sustainable Practices
Growing and Eating Meat as Nature Intended
Left, Russ Conser. Right, Todd Churchill
Blue Nest Beef, in partnership with the Audubon Conservation Ranching Program, has hit upon a way to deliver highly nutritious meat and restore the ecosystem at the same time. By Robert Yehling We’ve all seen the ecological devastation of our nation’s addiction to meat and poultry. From nutrient- and topsoil-leached farms to destroyed woodlands and grasslands, the health costs of eating feedlot products, and the draining of our water supply, our dependence on a meat-based diet is the costliest, least environmentally conscious food supply operation on the planet. Further, the high cost and low profit of running these operations — even with USDA subsidies — has resulted in the loss of 90% of family farms in the past 40 years, replaced by huge agribusiness outfits.
50
a forward-thinking operation that has partnered with the Audubon Conversation Ranching Program to produce grass-fed beef and chicken that not only is healthier for our bodies, but is done in a way that restores the ecosystems of the participating ranches themselves. All while giving those family ranchers higher margins than the status quo.
Whether or not we care to admit it, we’re at a crossroads, not only on our food supply, but also the ecological impact and our abilityg to sustain meat-based diets in the future.
The point? To restore grasslands to ecologically balanced blends of grass, woods, wildlife, bird life and water retention, while also providing nutritionally superior beef and chicken that dances on the taste buds of anyone who tries it. As Chief Marketing Officer Todd Churchill deftly notes, “Why does a rancher have to choose between raising beef and benefitting the ecosystem? Why can’t it be both?”
Welcome to a solution that takes us right back to the way farming used to be: regenerative agriculture. And with that comes Blue Nest Beef,
“We’re in a very difficult place in our ability to feed people healthy beef and chicken,” Blue Nest CEO Russ Conser pointed out. “We’re also in a
SUSTAINABILITY TODAY | SUMMER 2021
tough position environmentally, with millions of acres of land now farmed out, and farmers and ranchers relying more and more on fertilizers, herbicides and growth hormones — which makes the product less healthy and the land less productive. And, we’re harming the ecosystem.” “Because of that, we came up with this idea of working with the people who know best -- the family ranchers who’ve been growing food for decades — to produce highest-quality grassfed beef and chicken. Not only that, but using the principles of regenerative agriculture to fortify and return their ranch ecosystem to a natural balance. And how can you best tell if a place is ecologically balanced? By the bird population. Which is where Audubon comes in.” There’s a lot to unpack here, all of it great news for the land and our future food supply. First, regenerative agriculture has a simple premise: restore the grasslands to their pristine natural
