Education is key to scaling regenerative agriculture

In Australia, 5% of livestock producers are doing an excellent job managing their properties in terms of landscape management, ecological management, grazing management, and business management according to Terry McCosker who has been working to improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of the livestock industry for over five decades. That said, many others have started to move in a more sustainable direction. The challenge we are facing is a human issue. The total impact of livestock production on climate, biodiversity and society is the cumulative effect of the way every individual farmer/rancher manages their land, ecosystem, grazing, and business.

Well managing grazing is one of the most powerful tools available to limit global warming. Carbon in the soil is much more valuable than carbon in a tree when it comes to limiting global warming. This is because soil organic carbon greatly increases the amount of water held in soil and water vapour is a primary driver of the greenhouse effect.

"When you look at the greenhouse effect, about 70% of the greenhouse effect is due to water vapour, 25% of it is due to CO2. For every ton of carbon we store in the soil, we store between four and 10 tons of water. One tonne of organic carbon stored in soil is equivalent to 20 tonnes of CO2 pulled out of the atmosphere in terms of its heating capacity" says McCosker.

The greatest barrier to improving management is education. McCosker estimates that an investment of $AU50-100 million over 5-10 years could increase the percentage of farmers managing their land regeneratively from 5% to 30%.?To achieve practice change this education needs to be holistic, encompassing and understanding of ecosystems, production, people, and the business. Education programs also need be sustained over 4-5 years to build confidence, skills, ensure the whole team is on board, and provide support to farmers through their journey.

McCosker has been pioneering regenerative agriculture for over 50 years. His work has focused on bridging the gap between the contesting paradigms of traditional agriculture and regenerative agriculture to help to ensure the long-term sustainability of Australian agriculture and the nations’ farming families. Terry founded?RCS?to provide education and build capacity across the industry. Terry founded?Carbonlink?to make carbon farming more accessible to producers. McCosker's educational approach has been shaped global industry leaders including Allan Savory.

I recently caught up with Terry to hear more about his work, you can listen to a short summary followed by our full conversation here.?

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/regenerative-agriculture-can-be-scaled-through-education/id1643736566?i=1000626859649

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