(Slow and pensive orchestral music) (Sound of cow mooing) (Chimes ring) [Tom Horton] I've been writing and teaching about environmental threats to my native Chesapeake Bay for 50 years now and high up there on my list of concerns has always been industrial meat production.

Uh, despite improvements, it's still got uh, too much impact on water quality and climate change.

But a lot of people like to eat meat.

So is there a responsible middle ground for the Bay loving carnivore?

Come on down to Pop's Old Place and take a look at how Darlene Goehringer and her husband, Arthur Wilson, are farming regeneratively.

Part of a growing movement of small farmers who leave the soil, air and water better than when they started.

(Rooster crowing) [Darlene Goehringer] We call it Pop's Old Place for a reason.

Um, it was my great grandfather's farm.

He purchased it in 1909.

Gustave Goehringer.

No so growing up on the farm, um, we raised a lot of handpicked vegetables, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweetcorn.

Um, when I was younger, especially, and Dad would plow the fields, I can remember getting off the school bus, you know, and the smell of the earth, and you would run through the furrow, take your shoes off.

We just thought that was great.

And seeing that dark soil, soil you know, brought to the top.

We thought we were doing the right thing.

Um, now they're finding out if you don't till the soil, you don't get the erosion, you don't get the runoff.

One of the things that breaks my heart is to see the wind blowing in the spring.

And you see that dirt just going across the roadway.

And my goal was to not ever till the soil again.

(Music crescendos) (Sound of farm animals) [Darlene] From the time as long as I can remember, I remember us having, you know, pigs and calves and ponies, and my father was pretty ah, good about bringing anything that he found in the house.

We had, baby deer and squirrel and raccoons and rabbits and snakes and anything you can imagine, along with livestock.

Livestock is always been something, I really don't know any different.

I don't know what year it was.

It had to be right about the time we started raising meat.

12 or 13 years ago, um, Arthur was diagnosed with something, and it's a chronic, form of uh leukemia.

And that sounds absolutely horrible, but I've been reassured if you're going to have a diagnosis that's the one to get.

We're going to watch it.

We're going to monitor it.

And... you know, I adore him.

There's- there's no- if you're ever around the two of us, you can tell most of the time we like each other a lot.

Um, and I just felt like, you know, really feeding my family and feeding him especially something that I know every single thing about it was the one thing I could contribute.

What was the harm?

[Tom] Lisa Garfield is a soil scientist with the nonprofit Future Harvest.

She's enrolled Darlene's farm in a larger program that is checking on the soil to measure how much they are restoring it, building up organic matter and sequestering carbon.

[Lisa Garfield] Um, there's a saying that gets used a lot.

It's not the cow, it's the how and that kind of sums it up.

Um, management is everything.

So the way that you're including animals uh, in your system makes a huge difference between um, degrading the environment or enhancing it.

Well, in um, in a concentrated animal feed operation, you have, you know, a really large number of animals confined in a small area.

They're producing a lot of manure, um, you know, more basically more manure than the landscape can hold uh, or cycle and they're also being fed a diet that is not the diet that they were meant to consume, causing health problems.

Um, confinement causes health problems.

Um, in a management intensive rotational grazing system, which would be kind of the antithesis to the the CAFO um, they're you know, they're following more of a natural pattern in the way that herbivores would move across the landscape.

So they're being moved really frequently.

Um, the pasture is being managed, so it's never um, grazed too short.

Keeping the grasses longer serve quite a few different functions.

Um, it it keeps the animals away from the parasites that might be um, getting deposited on the ground.

Uh and it's really spurring a lot of root growth below the ground, ah, which is really important.

Root growth is a really important part of building up biomass that's often not really considered.

People look at what's going on above the ground, but below the ground is where a lot of the action is happening.

So um, when the animals are grazing on the grasses, they're really promoting below ground root growth.

And root growth is constantly dying off and it is adding organic matter to the soil as it dies off.

It- It's also making channels through the soil that allow water and nutrients to funnel through.

What's happening in the soil below the ground is is really the driving factor in both plant and animal health.

There's a lot of potential to sequester carbon.

Uh, about half of all organic matter is carbon.

Um, so when you're building organic matter, you are building carbon.

(Sound of rain falling) [Darlene] I've seen a difference since we've been all forage as far as standing water.

We just don't seem to have it.

I think the land's much more resilient to drought and to rain.

Um, we can get a really heavy rainfall and we just don't have the runoff I mean that you would get in a tilled field, um, which is important.

I mean, you're one, you're not losing soil, you're not losing nutrients and we're not contributing to runoff.

Obviously, we want it to benefit us in the short term, but I want it to also have a long term benefit to either my grandchildren or whoever else lives here, whether it's 100 years from now or 150 years from now.

(Sound of cow mooing) [Tom] When you eat Darlene's beef, you're consuming an ancient breed that got down to a dozen or so left on Earth, and still there's no more than a couple thousand today.

But with endangered livestock, it's their tastiness that can save them.

[Darlene] So the Randall cattle is a multipurpose breed animal.

They call it a land race breed, um, supposedly has been in the country since the early 1700's, and they used them for milk, meat and oxen.

Um, so they were a real good homestead cow.

And when I found out about the breed, I had spoke to the lady and asked her why she was raising the breed she was raising 'cause I was trying to do some research and she was saying that the cows that she was raising came in number two and number three on taste test, which I then instantly wanted to know what would be number one.

Um, and it was the Randall cattle which is the taste test that she was referencing, and then I knew if it came on number one on taste that's what I wanted because this is what it was all for us was to have good, flavorful, wholesome meat.

So I started doing some research on the Randall breed and discovered Cynthia Creech, who in my mind and many others, she was responsible for saving the breed from extinction.

There was very few cattles of that breed left in the 80's, and then when I saw them, they're just so beautiful.

So to think that they would... be hearty and good mothers and docile and taste good and then you like to look at them too.

It just seemed to make sense for me.

(Sound of young lambs crying) [Tom] Darlene's relationship to her animals might seem straightforward, raises them to make meat, but it's more complex than that.

[Darlene] When we're lambing in the spring, we always hope that the mommas will give us twins.

Triplets are great.

The older the ewe gets, the harder it is to support three lambs, you know, with nutritional quality and obviously with the age of the animal.

Um, but the thought process is, the first lamb um, produces enough income to pay for the care of the mother all year.

And then the second lamb would be profit.

And then we don't discard, you know, the mothers uh, when they reach an age where they're really not as productive.

The older girls will still give me a single.

So I kind of feel like that pays for their care and if they're too old to breed, well, you know, we hope that they don't.

Um, but anything that's here, especially with the ewes um, if we've had them 12 or 13 years and they've produced, you know, babies for us and lambs, I feel like, you know, they're deserving of a good retirement.

But I, I like to to reward the animal with a long life if possible.

Every year our goal is for the ewes to raise all of their young on their own.

One I think it's healthier for the lamb, two: it really helps prevent us from being (Rooster crows in background) more attached to the to the lambs.

It's a little bit of a moral dilemma that some animals are eaten and you don't really try not to think about it too much, but when you spend a lot of time with a bottle, baby (rooster crows) it changes it from, you know, livestock to almost more of a pet.

It's very hard not to get attached to a bottle baby lamb.

My goal was to always find them a home.

My husband gets very, very attached, um, so eating them is not usually an option.

And they're expensive pets.

It's a... it's a dilemma.

[Tom] Then there's Elsa, who was born half frozen and only survived because Darlene and Arthur took her into their house for a time.

[Darlene] So when Elsa was born, um, and she's a Randall Lineback heifer, um, she had a little trouble getting started.

And she was a bottle baby.

And because she was a female, I made the decision to go ahead and allow myself to get attached because I've always wanted a personal dairy cow for the home.

Um, so I thought that was the perfect opportunity.

Raised her on a bottle, teach her to a halter, um, and interact with her more than I do with the other cows.

So she was two in January and I'm hoping she'll give us a calf at the end of this year, and then I'm going to convert one of the stalls into an impromptu milking parlor, and then we'll have our own milk and cheese and butter is the goal.

[Tom] Warm and cuddly bottle babies aside, Darlene calls raising livestock an inherently dangerous way to make a living.

[Darlene] That's my immediate first concern is how are you not going to get hurt?

(Cows mooing) And you think it's the male, and it is the male, most of the time the testosterone gets in the way, whether it's a ram or a bull or a boar pig or anything like that.

But there's nothing more dangerous than a new momma.

You've got to use your common sense and expect always something to go wrong.

We put a bell on the ram um one so we always know where he's at.

I don't want him sneaking up on us ever.

Um, and they'll tell you when they're starting to get full of themselves and you just got to make sure you see it.

Um, I think they give you most of the time warning and people just overlook it.

Um, but safety is always our number one concern.

If we're going out there with the new calf and you're going to try to tag its ear, it's always a two person job.

Um, and we're very, very careful.

And the communication is key.

And as much as I love all the animals, I don't love them more than I love walking.

[Tom] When you see livestock munching grass in the pasture at Pop's you're actually looking at something akin to one of Earth's greatest natural ecosystems.

From antelope on Africa's Serengeti to the Great Plains, flush with bison, wild ruminants co-evolved with grasslands.

To make a modern business like Pop's work anything like those pristine systems requires a high degree of management.

Pasture is really complicated.

[Darlene] It's really complicated.

Um, and it seems so simple because, you know, you think just throw grass seed out there and it'll grow and they'll eat it and everything will be good.

Um, balancing how many animals you have and how much... will that land support?

You know, if you have a really, really a lush acre of ground, obviously it will support a lot more animals than an acre that's not in good shape.

[Darlene] A lot of people who raise um, 100 percent forage fed, they said, you know, we're not raising cows, we're raising grass, and then the cows eat the grass.

So we do a multi-species um, blend in the- in our forages.

Some things do really well, some things don't do really well.

And that's been a real trial and error.

Um... but to get good growth on an animal, you have to have something constantly growing.

I mean, it's just as far as the grasses.

So we're moving the cattle from pasture to pasture to one, prevent overgrazing.

Um, if they graze it down too short and keep grazing it, the plant will just give up.

Um so we're constantly moving it.

And then also one thing that we're trying to do is leave some forage behind, um, any waste from the animal, urine, feces, whatever it may be.

And we're trying to always build that topsoil layer.

Um, when we're feeding hay.

We leave a lot of hay residue on the ground, and to me that's just compost ...future compost.

Um, it's very scientific and I don't think we haven't quite grasped it 100%, and we're constantly working on it.

With us rotational grazing, I mean we're basically mimicking nature um, bunching animals up in a small area and then moving them frequently.

[Lisa] Building up the soil through pasture based grazing can really help mitigate a lot of the other issues that we're having with climate change.

So increasing um, the water holding capacity of the soil, water infiltration, so mitigating um, kind of reducing risk when we get really extreme weather events.

So you know we're getting weather events with uh, really high amounts of rain falling all at once.

We need the soil to be able to absorb that water like a sponge, store it for use later, help, you know, help that helps grow crops.

Okay um, this set up is a rainfall simulator and we're going to pour some water over the top of these soils and see what happens, which ones hold ah in place, which ones you know have some sediment loss into the water below.

Um, the first sample is taken from a conventionally tilled field.

The second one represents was taken from uh... a no till field with cover crops, and the third one is from a uh, a pasture.

[Tom] And the pasture is kind of like Darlene's?

Yeah.

[Lisa] Yeah.

The pasture would be really similar to what she's got here.

(Slow orchestral music) [Darlene] Right now we're probably running one cow per uh, acre or half, maybe two acres, and I'm hoping to be able to to get to where we're one cow per acre if the forage is good enough so it's good economics and it's good for the land and it's good for the animals.

[Tom] Pop's may be sustainable for the bay and the earth, but is it sustainable for Darlene?

[Darlene] Our model for farming is we sell direct to consumer.

We have a small on farm store and our customers, if they want to buy our product, come to the farm.

I don't do farmers markets.

I've thought about it... so far, it's not necessary, but it's just really important to me that people actually see it firsthand.

Um, once they see it.

I think it kind of sets the bar for them as to what's acceptable practices and use it as an educational tool um, more than anything as far as it can be done in a way that's not harmful um, to the environment.

And...

I do- you know, a lot of people don't want to see the face of something they're going to eat later on.

And I want to know all of it.

You know, I don't want to go to the grocery store and pick up something and not know the background story.

I'm very skeptical um... and I assume that my customer base is also.

I'm not certified organic.

I'm not certified humane.

I'm not certified anything.

And my point being is come out here and if it meets your standard, that's all the certification I think that should be needed.

So for us, one of our biggest obstacles is you have to eat the whole animal.

If I was going to sell just those prime cuts and not make money on the rest of those cuts, I would have to charge three times more for the prime.

So in order to be profitable, I have to be able to sell the whole animal.

For me, use the word emotion before, but it's um, it has to make money.

[Darlene] I'm not going to watch my life savings and Arthur's life savings go down the tube because I want to be a farmer.

I will stop before I'll do that.

(Bees buzzing around hive) [Darlene] The other things that I'm doing to kind of benefit us financially is I'm adding a lot of pollinating species.

And believe it or not, the honey helps pay- the bees collecting the pollen and the nectar... help my honey production.

Last year I needed- made enough money on honey production to reseed a few of my pastures, so it all works hand in hand.

Long term, if I can get the soil to the point where the grasses are really thriving, I can cut down on my uh, purchasing of hay.

So if I can increase my animals on the land, that obviously helps me financially.

And if I can decrease my need for forage that is stored for winter, that's my biggest expense is buying hay.

[Tom] Darlene also selects her animals in stark contrast to the rapid growth and maximum size usually chosen by the mainstream commodity animal industries.

[Darlene] Usually 5 to 6 months it takes to raise a commodity hog to size for butchering.

And I think it takes us probably 11, 10 to 11 months and we shoot for a weight, a live weight of about 275 to 300 pounds.

In a feedlot, you know, cows are reaching mature weight at 24 to 26 months, The Randall is taking us closer to 36 months to get something that is... has enough meat on the carcass that makes it worth the effort to go to processing.

[Lisa] On a... pasture based system, there's potential to do a lot of environmental good.

And we farmers who are putting the time and effort into raising food that way should really be valued uh, for contributing to um ecosystem health and you know contributing to clean water and clean air and nutrient dense food for the community.

So they're really serving a public good in many ways.

They're creating habitat for a lot of biodiversity.

And these are the things that that drive our ecosystem and community health.

[Tom] Feeding a world of 8 billion without fouling the environment is one of the great challenges of the 21st century.

Meat can play a positive role in that.

There is a tendency to dismiss little places like Pop's as inefficient, but that assumes it's a good thing to have one or two percent feed the rest of us disengaging most Americans from their land and their soil.

There's also no doubt that farming regeneratively, sustainably is not cheap.

But if you start accounting honestly, for all the environmental impacts of industrial agriculture and acknowledge the billions in subsidies that currently flow from government to that kind of agriculture, it's not going to be so much a bargain as you may think.

[Darlene] You know, you come out and you're on this high of, you know, I'm going to change the world and then five years in you really maybe haven't changed the world and you're tired and your pocketbooks getting light.

Um...

I don't know statistically, but somewhere in there, just like all businesses, I think it's within the first five years, most people stop.

And I don't want to use the word quit because I don't think you're quitting.

I think sometimes it's just not either physically, mentally or financially sustainable.

Um, and I'm the face of the farm most of the time, but without my husband to help, I would have stopped.

I just don't think I would have had the stamina or the resources financially to have...persisted.

[Darlene] I tell you, my biggest challenge with the farm is just trying to figure out how long can I physically do this?

Can I do it till I'm 65, can I do till I'm 70?

If we get different handling equipment, can I do it until I'm 75?

My goal is to hand this land down to my son and my grandchildren... and I want to give it to them better than I received it.

[Darlene] And I hope that in kind they'll do the same thing.

Um they're not making any more of it's the saying, you know, with land, and it means a lot to me.

I mean, I have an emotional financial, you name it, tied to this land.

And my goal was to be a good caretaker and a good steward.

I grew up here and I have great memories here, and I enjoy sharing it with my family and friends.

[Darlene] And part of that is making the area pretty.

Um, I like the shade trees.

It brings in the birds and I like the pollinators, and I'd love to see my grandchildren run around and look at you know, the butterflies and things like that.

Um and my goal was always been for, you know, us to to live in a place that feels like vacation every day.

Arthur and I have been on one vacation, took three or four days a couple of years ago, and I had a good time, um, but there's nothing like coming home.

So the barn is absolutely magical at night.

But on the nights when we have baby lambs or if we have a new calf that needs to be checked on and you walk out there it just... feels heavenly, um, the animals are content.

It's very quiet, stars are bright.

Um, it's just is a magical place.

(Slow, pensive orchestral music fades up)