Goal: Use regenerative agriculture and sustainable food systems to impact my community and our earth

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May, 2019

 

"What do you want to do with your degree?" no longer leaves me feeling speechless. I've been in Colorado since the end of 2018, and I have grown so much professionally in that time. When I moved out here, I was determined to become an environmental consultant for businesses that wanted to be more sustainable. After all, I left my previous job because of the negative impact that it had on the environment. Yet, since moving here, I have learned that there are so many ways other than consulting that can lead to a positive impact on our environment.

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&& so much of it comes back to agriculture.

 

Growing up on a farm was undoubtedly the most beneficial experience of my childhood. It brought me incredible amounts joy, frustration, growth, responsibility, love, and challenges. I highly value that experience, especially in my upbringing, and I wouldn't change it for the world. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to grow up in such a way. One thing I have come to learn, though, is that the WAY that we farm in the midwest is flawed, greatly, when it comes to sustainability, nutrition, and environmental impact. Practices like heavily turning over the land, implementing mono-cropping, raising GMOs, and mass-producing livestock all have an incredibly negative impact on the environment. Because of my upbringing, I am not naive to the reality that there is no easy solution to this. Every practice that we've utilized in our farm we've used for a reason.

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But, I also recognize that a change needs to occur. That is where my current passions lie:

 

Since moving out to Colorado, I have learned about carbon sequestration through farming (ie. regenerative agriculture), via practices of permaculture and biodynamics. While "organic" focuses on removing GMOs and chemicals, these other practices go beyond that and focus on maximizing soil health to increase the nutrient density within the food that it raises, ultimately benefiting earth and all living things on it at the same time. Importantly, I've learned the value of integrating livestock into agriculture. For about 99% of the year of 2018 I practiced vegetarianism/veganism in an attempt to reduce my negative environmental impact. Yet, I now understand that livestock aren't quite the issue; it's the way we raise them.

 

Through these discoveries, I entered 2019 driven to find ways to work within the space of regenerative agriculture, all for the benefit of the produce grown, livestock raised, and the fertility beneath our feet. Peek here to catch a glimpse at the raw emotions I had after watching The Biggest Little Farm, a film documenting a farm in California that is focusing on all of these things already! And, check out my blog post about my masters program to learn about how I have begun to turn these passions into a profession!