Soil Advocate Presents Pro-Meat Message at Vegan and Vegetarian Event - Soil4Climate Executive Makes Climate Case for Better Grazing

Soil Advocate Presents Pro-Meat Message at Vegan and Vegetarian Event 
Soil4Climate Executive Makes Climate Case for Better Grazing

"I am honored to speak to activists who care so much about climate, health, and ethics in the food supply. I stand with them, and ask that they stand with me in recognizing the role of properly produced meats to restore pasture and sequester carbon." - Seth Itzkan

March 13, 2019 - THETFORD, Vermont - Wearing a Maasai robe and holding a club given to him by tribal elders in Kenya, Seth Itzkan, co-founder and co-director of Soil4Climate, a Vermont-based, nonprofit NGO advocating for soil restoration as a climate solution, recently delivered a pro-regenerative grazing and pasture-fed meat message to a largely vegan and vegetarian audience at the 5th Annual Long Island Film and Food Festival in Huntington, New York (on March 3, 2019). The event was hosted by renowned chef, food activist, and life-long vegetarian, Bhavani Jaroff, founder of iEatGreen, a consultancy providing information and education on healthful cooking to schools, corporations, and families.

"I am honored to speak to activists who care so much about climate, health, and ethics in the food supply. I stand with them, and ask that they stand with me in recognizing the role of properly produced meats to restore pasture and sequester carbon," wrote Itzkan in a blog post accompanying a livestream of his presentation.

Itzkan observed that the issue of eating meat is often conflated with the environmental harm caused by factory farming, “... but that’s just a modern aberration, really since World War II.” He continued, "It didn't used to be that way. My proposition [is] to stop factory farming. Meat is a good thing, and more of the right type of grazing is needed to convert the [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation] system back to healthy meat and pasture and carbon drawdown.”

"My proposition [is] to stop factory farming. Meat is a good thing, and more of the right type of grazing is needed to convert the [Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation] system back to healthy meat and pasture and carbon drawdown.” - Seth Itzkan

Itzkan noted that when ruminants (cows) are managed properly, they benefit the climate by restoring grasslands, which serve as capacious natural repositories or “sinks” of atmospheric carbon. "Much of the land surface of the world is some sort of grassland or savanna that co-evolved with grazing animals. The soils there are incredibly deep, and rich, and they’re huge carbon stores,” he said. Itzkan also emphasized the necessary relationship between grasslands and the ruminants they coevolved with, saying, "[grasslands] need animals, frankly grazing animals, frankly ruminants, and lots of them, many more than there are now."

​"Much of the land surface of the world is some sort of grassland or savanna that co-evolved with grazing animals. The soils there are incredibly deep, and rich, and they are huge carbon stores." - Seth J. Itzkan 

Iowa, today almost entirely devoted to soy production, was formerly home to some of the finest tall-grass prairie and carbon-rich soil on the planet, commented Itzkan. The once thriving, biodiverse ecosystem, created over millennia through the beneficial grazing impact of native ruminants, including bison, has been highly degraded by industrial farming. "That whole state, all of it, used to be tall-grass prairie, with grasses this high [up to one’s eyeballs] and literally the best soil on earth, ten feet deep. How do you think it’s going to be tall-grass prairie again?” he asked, concluding, “With more grazing, not less.”

"The whole state [of Iowa], all of it, used to be tall-grass prairie...[with] the best soil on earth...Well, how do you think it’s going to be tall-grass prairie again? We need more grazing. Not less, more.” - Seth J. Itzkan

During the question-and-answer session following his formal remarks, Itzkan discussed research supporting the innovative grazing approach to grow soil and sequester carbon advocated by ecologist Allan Savory. In particular, a 2016 paper by Texas A&M research scientist Richard Teague, Ph.D. showed that  “Adaptive Multi-paddock (AMP) Grazing,” a form of grazing management akin to the Savory approach, sequestered in soil one ton of carbon per acre per year. If utilized on suitable rangeland throughout North America, AMP Grazing could capture in soil 800 million tons of carbon per year, an amount comparable to approximately two-thirds of America’s greenhouse gas emissions. An annotated list of published, peer-reviewed papers cited by Itzkan appears below.

Although Itzkan was the contrarian in this milieu, the mostly plant-based diet audience was primed to hear his comments with an open mind following a gracious introduction by Jaroff, whom Itkan called “a saint in the foodie movement.” Following Itzkan’s presentation, Jaroff stated, "We were happy to have Seth join us to present Soil4Climate’s work on climate change. On our path to addressing climate change in the food choices we make, it’s important to attack the problem from all sides. Let vegans reduce global warming by not eating meat, and let meat eaters address global warming by only eating meat that is raised on pasture, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.”

"We were happy to have Seth join us to present Soil4Climate’s work on climate change. On our path to addressing climate change in the food choices we make, it’s important to attack the problem from all sides. Let vegans reduce global warming by not eating meat, and let meat eaters address global warming by only eating meat that is raised on pasture, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.” - Bhavani Jaroff

During his presentation, Itzkan wore a decorative robe and held a traditional club, given to him by members of a pastoral Maasai community in Kenya, to honor their partnership with Soil4Climate on a regenerative grazing program near Nairobi.

Sponsors for the event included Cinema Arts Centre, iEatGreen, Slow Food North Shore, and NOFA-NY.

Itzkan’s full 18-minute presentation, including the Q&A session, is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqSexbG7-7A

Soil4Climate advocates for soil restoration as a climate solution. We promote regenerative cropping and grazing practices to improve soil fertility, increase the bionutrient density of food, restore wildlife habitat, enhance drought and flood resilience, replenish dried-up lakes and rivers, revitalize farming and pastoral communities, and ameliorate international relations while sequestering atmospheric carbon. Allan Savory and Richard Teague serve on the Soil4Climate Advisory Board.

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Annotated Peer-Reviewed Citations for Grazing as a Means of Building Soil Carbon and Mitigating Global Warming
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Texas A&M study finds 1.2 tons of carbon per acre per year (1.2 tC/ac/yr) drawdown via properly-managed grazing, and that the drawdown potential of North American pasturelands is 800 million tons (megatonnes) of carbon per year (800 MtC/yr).

Teague, W. R., Apfelbaum, S., Lal, R., Kreuter, U. P., Rowntree, J., Davies, C. A., R. Conser, M. Rasmussen, J. Hatfield, T. Wang, F. Wang, Byck, P. (2016). The role of ruminants in reducing agriculture's carbon footprint in North America. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 71(2), 156-164. doi:10.2489/jswc.71.2.156 http://www.jswconline.org/content/71/2/156.full.pdf+html

University of Georgia study finds 3 tons of carbon per acre per year (3 tC/ac/yr) drawdown following a conversion from row cropping to regenerative grazing.

Machmuller, M. B., Kramer, M. G., Cyle, T. K., Hill, N., Hancock, D., & Thompson, A. (2015). Emerging land use practices rapidly increase soil organic matter. Nature Communications, 6, 6995. doi:10.1038/ncomms7995 https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7995

Michigan State University study finds 1.5 tons of carbon per acre per year (1.5 tC/ac/yr) drawdown via proper grazing methods, and shows in a lifecycle analysis that this more than compensates for a cow’s enteric emission of methane.

​Stanley, P. L., Rowntree, J. E., Beede, D. K., DeLonge, M. S., & Hamm, M. W. (2018). Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems. Agricultural Systems, 162, 249-258. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agsy.2018.02.003
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