Regenerative Agriculture’s Achilles Heel & The Devastating Impact of Annual Crops | Guy Singh-Watson

[@stevec4661]

A farmer who is socially, environmentally and politically astute. I suggest the government approach him to help steer national policy on food and supermarket regulation. This guy is someone I would trust.

[@LittleKi1]

Conversations like these should be getting a million views. Stick with the long-form even if views lag. You are very good at it!

[@regenmediaofficial]

That's super kind thank you! More en route

[@dannyc5813]

Loving these conversations Huw. They're very informative and UK based which makes them way more relavent for us UK growers. Thanks for doing these podcasts!

[@HuwRichards]

It's an absolute pleasure, I'm really enjoying them!

[@freedomforestlife]

Great convo - Love Guy's frank and openess to discuss and look at the realities of food production in the uk, consumtion and most importantly how we value it. Just like the US is now putting in an 'alternative farmer' as an advisor to the government, we need Guy in this role here in the UK 💚✌🌿

[@glassbackdiy3949]

Interesting conversation, thanks Guy and Huw. If you really want to shake up farming and food production, introduce a nutrient density standard, in the recent wide ranging BFA trials there was a 5 orders of magnitude difference in nutrient density, yet the consumer has no clue of the quality of food from a nutrient density standpoint, why is this never part of the conversation? Huw, see if you can interview Ben Taylor-Davis (RegenBen) he has a straight talking attitude, with an encylopedic knowledge, he'd be a perfect fit for the series.

[@antonyjh1234]

If they put it as nutrient density a huge amount of crops would fail any logical test of consumption/production. Currently using kg's and all emissions being put onto just the edible that make it to market is a poor way of measuring things.

[@HuwRichards]

I really do appreciate this and any recommendation to chat to people! Ben would be excellent to chat to! And yes totally agree regarding nutrient density, and there should also have to be on packaged food, a "number of ingredients" stamp and so people will see that many things have about 10X as many things as first thought!

[@glassbackdiy3949]

@@HuwRichards Adam Swan (soilecologylab) would be goo too, they make a really interesting bioamendment from compost extract, and they're working with some interesting projects/market gardens doing soil amendment/biologicals trials with some quite remarkable results, recently helped me decipher my soil lab analysis results, really knowledgeable guys.

[@judithbreakell9706]

Local farmers supplying local markets used to be abundant in The U.K. Circular Economy. Fair Share..👍

[@Coxeysbodgering]

A farmer I know had a massive supermarket contact, then decided that he needed to upgrade the pack house, that cost millions, had to get a loan then turned round and said they will only buy the product at 10p (sold for 60) but cost 20p per product! Small land parcels that are available are over priced and marketed and costted to carbon offset which is just a green wash and isn't making big companies actually become greener. Like net zero it's ridiculous as Guy said we need lots of smaller farmers not the massive agricultural businesses that promise the land owners, estates etc £x per acre a year

[@lisascheibmeir300]

Regarding ruminant animals, I would like to point out that there were millions or possibly even billions of bison on the North American continent, and it didn't destroy the environment. If cow farts are as awful as they say, it is because they are feeding things to those cows that they were never designed to eat. If the cows eat grass like they were designed to do, it shouldn't be any more detrimental to the environment than those bison were.

[@philipsankey988]

It has been said if the grass is say 2-3ft tall ,if its left as it is and breaks down its the same amount of methane as the cow grazing the grass down to a few inches

[@dcfromthev]

The big difference is that bison are native and wild animals, who grazed massive areas of land rather than being stuck in an artificial and confined area. Bison traveled around across wide areas rather than constantly grazing the same small pastures as with farmed animals. They ate native plants, and thus fertilized the ground with native seeds in their feces. Modern commodity animals are fed invasive grasses and plants, and they reseed the pastures with these and thus exacerbate the problem. They are also kept in massive numbers within relatively small areas, thus hammering the land much harder than any wild ruminant ever would in natural conditions. Cows, goats, sheep etc are animals bred and created by humans via artificial selection. They did not evolve with the land, and they are not living in harmony with nature. There is NO COMPARISON.

[@zoeward4555]

Really interesting conversation, thanks Huw and Guy!

[@regenmediaofficial]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@johnfowler4820]

Please look into Walter Jehne's research on the H2O cycle. He shows that farmers hold the key reversing global heating by covering the soil and incorporating agroforestry.

[@666bruv]

Yep, the removal of C from the earths crust, and exhaling into the atmos sounds like a plausible effect on the global system

[@alibali672]

Farmers pump Seee Ohhh 2 into greenhouses to produce a better crop. We need more not less. It currently makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere, whereas at times when it made up 30% of the atmosphere, the planet thrived. Solar cycles and Hunga Tonga are having a huge effect on things and that will continue whatever else we do.

[@piersfenwick]

“At times when the planet thrived” was before the over population and use of the planet by “sophisticated” human life. We would not be able to survive in those overheated environments as will soon become apparent unless we accept global warming is a man made problem that needs intelligent solutions by knowledgeable scientists.

[@666bruv]

@alibali672 er, you are comparing two completely different growing scenarios. Increased CO2 is not the only requirement of plant growth in the natural growing environment. It is also effected by latitude, altitude, soil type, soil moisture, rainfall frequency and volume, just for starters. If the CO2 levels were 30% you would be dead

[@GlenisBalderrama]

Allan Savorys message is slowly getting through, Just takes institution's & organisation's decades to accept.

[@regenmediaofficial]

Just recorded a fascinating podcast with Patrick Holden too that has another mention of holistic grazing

[@sueeverett277]

I attended a session at LandAlive on Friday with Tim Parton (Green Farm Collective), Andrew Neal (Rothamsted Research) & Ian Wilkinson talking about glyphosate alternatives in regen arable. Ongoing research and Tim using a lot less than before,

[@spencersanderson1894]

I was interested in that as I live in the area but never got a ticket. Was it worth it? Might have to go along next year.

[@LittleKi1]

Clarkson’s Farm is worth watching because you can watch Jeremy transitioning from just taking the piss to waking up and truly caring about something, maybe for the first time.

[@regenmediaofficial]

It's a fascinating process

[@tessa5585]

"can kids get excited about vegetables" - after growing my own veg for a few years, my daughter of 9 is super excited when the first brussel sprouts (yes!) are ready, and my son of 10 (with autism, and started life as a very difficult eater) recently acknowledged that kohlrabi dipped in soy sauce is "really really good mommy!" They both tend to eat their salads (including mustards, rocket, radicchio, endives) before the rest of their plate, and I could go on... It wasn't instantaneous, but yes, it is possible!

[@Marco-hb4pt]

41:25 Every critical technology and piece of infrastructure was developed through public funding: the internet, GPS, microchips, accelerometers, image sensors, touchscreens, satellites, Gorilla Glass, schools, Medicare, roads, and more. Competition actually stifles innovation with practices such as patents, gatekeeping of information and technologies, intellectual property rights, NDAs, buying out competitors just to remove them from the market, planned obsolescence, and so on.

[@Marco-hb4pt]

41:35 So ridiculous that, in just 60 years, the Soviets went from being a third-world country to achieving: the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth (Sputnik), the first spacecraft to reach the Moon, the first human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1), the Soyuz spacecraft (a design still used for space travel today), the first series of space stations (Salyut program), the first robotic rover to explore the Moon (Lunokhod 1), the first supersonic passenger jet (Tupolev Tu-144), the invention of RBMK and VVER nuclear reactors, the Tokamak fusion reactor, the Setun computer (the only ternary, or three-valued logic, computer ever built), early prototypes for mechanical heart systems, pioneering the large-scale use of titanium alloys in aircraft and submarines, the discovery of Cherenkov radiation, the establishment of the first global seed banks, the first nuclear power plant in the world to produce electricity for a power grid (Obninsk), the first spacecraft to achieve a soft landing on Mars (Mars 3), and the first spacecraft to land on Venus and transmit data back to Earth (Venera 7).

[@TheWoodlandOrchard]

I'm fortunate to be able to grow my own Hazel nuts but, as a trial, I recently bought a pullet from a national supermarket. They had been grown in Croatia, packed in Italy and were inedible with most starting to rot. From personal experience I would say they were at least two years old if not older. Incidentally, the garlic in the same supermarket had been imported from China. They stayed on the shelf of course. Regards, John.

[@bearsbreeches]

I don't buy Chinese garlic because it's tasteless as well as unsustainable

[@TheWoodlandOrchard]

@bearsbreeches ... and a ridiculous concept. 👍

[@alastairmackenzie639]

So glad to hear a conversation that ranges from perennial / agroforestry farming to commercially viable, affordable food & fairness and employee ownership approaches. Is there scope for a perennial veg box via Riverford or a new entrant ?

[@billiverschoore2466]

Thank you Huw for another utterly common-sense video! And thank you Guy for speaking up about 'certain inequalities' . As for glyphosates: BIG NONO! ; see e.g. Stephanie Seneff for clarification on its long lasting and insidious effects on soils, plants, and us. Also Don Huber and Anthony Suau. Also beware when you buy seeds; "organic", besides mostly meaning "corporate organic" (see e.g. The Real Organic Podcast), does nOt mean non-F1 or indeed non-GMO. The term "regenerative" also means "corporate regenerative" if glyphosates are used AT ALL. By the way heritage varieties have wáy higher vitality, nutrient content, and resilience. See e.g. Vandana Shiva on the twisted intentions of 'those corporations' regarding the pushing of GMO and the innate need of GMO products (they're barely plants anymore) for endless chemicals, and the social repercussions of all that. Subsidies tend to go to all the wrong (destructive) 'endeavours', and wtf is going on with all these anti-Life products still being available to buy??? Barbaric - and that's an insult to "barbarians"! I have an allotment and took up dowsing because i get answers to such questions as "does this horse manure (brought to the allotment site for the plotters' use) contain aminopyralids?" and many other questions one wouldn't want to guess the answer to or 'trust one's luck'. 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽 🌳🕊💚

[@ruthlongridge2137]

Truely sustainable agriculture cannot exist without livestock...

[@hollythebordercollie2257]

When was this recorded, no mention of the inheritance tax - I looked up prices of farms where I live and a small farm (not much more than a smallholding) cost nearly 3 million!

[@regenmediaofficial]

Back in September!

[@stevec4661]

Won’t the recent changes in inheritance tax help to address the problem of inflated farm prices? My understanding is that land prices have been artificially boosted by people buying land as a means to avoid inheritance tax.

[@philipsankey988]

@@stevec4661 It has been said that rough ground in the peak district ,is doubled in price to plant trees for net zero,usually big business

[@alastairmackenzie639]

Thank you Huw and Guy

[@mileswilliams9737]

You want to know what the government should do? Empower farmers. Hobby to professional scale. Every local farmer I know is flirting with the big corporate devils or relying on outside income to survive... I repeat, the local fellows who used to be a backbone of local economies, now farm in spare moments with spare money to invest, and they still barekt run profit

[@peterw7512]

Looks like the hopes for this government were futile 😞

[@ruthlongridge2137]

Sad that he buys their climate story, but a great mind and approach. In my view, chemicals have no place in Regenerative Ag. The silence about it is typical of the industry.

[@Tossdart]

With our kids we just showed them the excitement we exhibited about our food & always said how it put hair on your chest or made you prettier & how eating junk made you sickly & ugly. 😂. No clue where he gets his food price numbers but food is 50 percent of our total income. Rich bastard. $900 montly minimum here in Alberta Canada home of ranch beef. 1 T-bone is $55.

[@nickfosterxx]

45:51 just to note, in a country so blessed with productive land and amenable weather, that that may not last given the expectation of AMOC slowing. See Nature Food, 'Shifts in national land use and food production in Great Britain after a climate tipping point' Jan 2020. With the latest news on AMOC, it's not if, but when. Brace, brace.

[@mawkernewek]

47:00 we have transitioned away from using coal at any large scale, but surely we can't transition away from eating food?

[@bearsbreeches]

Huw has some videos about growing perennials

[@muzealle]

I wonder how you protect your walnuts from squirrels?

[@Dazza_Doo]

I see the Homestead solar punk lifestyle, Trying to feed the world got us in this mess. Too much has happened in the last 250 years, But we are the problem, And we are the solution. We have such technology now that we don't even need to be a farmer to live on a farm. We have robots that can do most of the manual labor, We've done it for the industrialization of cars and vehicles but we have not done it for small farms. I would like to see and I'm hoping to work on personal project myself where small robots would be going around identifying what is wrong what is right with the plants, The soil pests and diseases to be identified recorded. Everything biological can be turned into compost. Have you seen Clarkson's farm, On Prime Video. Where he "farmed the un-farmable" using a vacuum cleaner to suck up ripe berries.

[@mfr58]

So again it seems that eating meat as a staple is how we evolved. Annual crops are naturally rare and have a whole host of issues and we still haven't got far with replacement by perennial crops. Notwithstanding the great success of, mainly annual plant food diets around the world, we do need to consider how we proceed in a perennial plant based scenario, if that is what we choose. As new plant foods are developed, we best make sure that they are truly health building and not just chosen because they may appear better for the environment or the economy, according to some prevailing ideology. Potentially edible and eatable plants usually contain protective compounds that are not necessarily good for our assimilation of nutrients. You can't just think in terms of supplanting animal fats and proteins with plant ones, they are not the same in food value. It's like saying we don't need soil, just a mechanical growing medium with plenty of NPK added. From my perspective it is a great shame that those concerned about the environment and healthy food are locked into the anthropogenic climate change story, as it hobbles us , perhaps fatally, in our ability to create viable growing systems with livestock as a central feature of fertility, soil health and nutrition. As for glyphosate, there is no question as to its toxicity in the environment and in our bodies. Glyphosate has no place in a food system, however convenient it may be. I love this series of interviews you're doing. Very interesting and thought provoking. Thanks.

[@HuwRichards]

On a personal note I do believe, particularly in the UK, we need to base our food system off grass, trees and ruminants, and from there we can get the fertility to grow vegetables and annual crops. Rather than pumping out empty calories like grains, or poor proteins like soy, we should be looking at high quality animal-based protein which happens to also be incredibly nutrient dense. We can produce this in abundance whilst healing our soils. In addition to this, more fruits, nut, and some core vegetables, perennial crops can be a part of it, but I do think there will always be a place for annuals. We just need to cut out sugar, and stop thinking that a healthy meal starts with loads of bread or rice or potatoes or pasta.

[@mfr58]

@@HuwRichards Yes, I agree. My main concern with some of the new wave farming ideas is that they don't always consider the long term health implications of novel crops and diets and that as you say, high quality pasture with livestock is viewed more as a climate threat than an asset.

[@ricos1497]

@@HuwRichards I'd be interested to see the calculations around a UK food system based on grass, trees and ruminants. I'm not disagreeing, and I like beef too! The farmers around me are all producing grass fed beef. However, almost all of it is over-wintered indoors, and almost all imports grass from other farms to supplement their feed, as well as grains etc. This results in a huge amount of land just to feed a herd, as well as the rather inhumane barn rearing. One neighbour does deploy Highland cows, with a lesser yield, but of pure grass fed, year round cows (and it tastes nice!). However, how would that scale to the national level, and could we produce enough food on the land available to feed the UK? I'm not convinced. I am convinced that most of the land round about could be converted to perennials, nuts and some crops for a higher caloric return, but would require significantly larger human input. Which leads me to another point that you nearly touched on in the video. You mention the lack of connection to food in this country, but is it possible to ever have a "civilised" system where the connection is maintained? Doesn't competition and growth require that we move away from that connection as less and less are involved with the actual food production? Does the abstract nature of current farming not tend to disconnection over time? I believe it does. I could retain a "relationship" with the farmer as a customer, but when it's abstracted via the price mechanism, there isn't a foundation to it. Via the supermarket, we are numerous steps from the farmer, thus there is simply no connection. I wonder if you think there is an optimum number of steps between farmer and consumer that would allow us to retain the connection (and, thus, care) to food? For me, unless we are all prepared to be gardeners of some sort - and I think we should - then we're always on a trajectory away from connection to food, and to nature. I think that's probably the same in the purchase of most commodities.

[@vivalaleta]

How is this a regenerative ag problem?

[@HuwRichards]

Many of the large farmers and green-washing food corporations use the term regenerative agriculture in conjunction with glyphosphate and as there is no certification etc for it it's just becomes a bit of a minefield which is not addressed when it should be at Regen Ag conferences like groundswell

[@vivalaleta]

@HuwRichards I'd like a law that only small farms could exist and use the regenerative agriculture title.

[@antonyjh1234]

What is called currently regenerative agriculture is called normal agriculture for most of time throughout history and there is nothing new except trying to stop ploughing, which means spraying more.. Is spraying round up every year better? A cover crop and annuals needing a lack of perennial growth, these were discussed in the video and saying just because we sprayed instead of ploughed shouldn't mean regenerative agriculture and say we fixed the problem.

[@vivalaleta]

@antonyjh1234 If you stop plowing you must start spraying poison? Wtf? Jesus, buddy, do you have a lot of homework to do. Go look up Gabe Brown videos.

[@antonyjh1234]

@@vivalaleta I am repeating the problems HE said. You asked how is this a regenerative ag problem and he described the situation as it is in uk..?

[@Dazza_Doo]

The problem with the market place decides to government is controlling the marketplace. My let's talk politics for a second. I don't believe politics is the answer but that's just my opinion but let me say this. The conservative government is not conservative, It's like the number 0 it's a holding place for the next Government in power to make up more rulesGovernment in power to make up more rules. You see the government doesn't actually care for you they only care what you produce and how much money they can extract from you this is why we have such a high pressure work society especially in the cities where you are required to keep pumping out money to survive. That's not living. So when we use terms like conservative or left or right they are actually loaded words then have nothing to do with life, Nothing to do with the connection of the human beings Next to you. How many laws in rules are in government right now and this is based on the political party in power, There are so many rules that you break them every minute of every day. Some of the rules are logical and sustainable and makes sense and the rest is just garbage. Who controls the markets? Who has multi national trade agreements with different countries, I can tell you it's not the local farmer. Politics it's very easy to hate other people who have different opinions because that's what politics is it divides. I repeat my last point that conservative governments are not conservatives. Even the left-wing governments again another loaded term is stuck on identity politics when they care about what's between your legs more than what's going on in the world. This is why I say I don't think politics can save you because they're too busy wondering where they're going to get their next cash cow. One last word on politics in I'll leave this alone, The capitalist and the Communist all came out of the industrial revolution, That's basically destroying our planet. So I don't think either one of them have the solutions. People build communities, The 3 primary industries Is the basis for all trade. As Mr Stalatin says " You get scaling not based on centralisation, But duplication" Politics only focuses centralisation. Everything about business and industrialization is focused around centralisation, Regardless of the lying utopia that the politicians would make up. That's about all I have to say. 😊

[@FarmerVP]

Very disappointed with your knowledge on livestock farming and how much carbon we store without ploughing it up every year min till or not.. my livestock add to the quality and biodiversity of my soil and when managed properly never needs spraying, fertilizing or re-seeding.. how do you plan on growing crops environmentally sustainably without animals? how will you give back to the soil after you keeping taking from it.. is your solution chemicals?? where dose your compost come from?? A acre of well managed grassland takes as much carbon out of the atmosphere as an acre of forest(look it up).. if you don't manage without livestock it becomes less carbon efficient.. when you plough a field min till or not you destroy the ecology and biodiversity under the soil and release all the carbon stored.. we shouldn't be at each other here but don't just echo nonsense you heard media channels saying..

[@regenmediaofficial]

You'll enjoy an upcoming podcast episode with Patrick Holden that goes into a lot of this