DEFRA: IN CONVERSATION WITH A SOIL HEALTH PIONEER Future Farming Podcast - Janet Hughes and The Team
Introduction From the series of Future Farming podcasts, in this one Janet Hughes has chosen to talk to Gabe Brown. A familiar name with our readers (his name featuring in about half our issues of Direct Driller), Gabe has been named one of the twenty-five most influential agricultural leaders in the United States. He farms at Brown’s Ranch, a diversified 5,000 acre farm and ranch in North Dakota, with his wife Shelly and son Paul. He is one of the pioneers of the soil health movement. His book, “Dirt to Soil, One Family’s Journey Into Regenerative Agriculture.” Was featured in our recommended reading and has been quoted by many farmers on here, including Tom Sewell and Tom Chapman. If you haven’t read the book, it well worth a few hours of your time to understand how Gabe and Paul run their operation and how they have got to where they are today. Gabe is also a partner in the regenerative farming consultancy Understanding Ag and an instructor for the Soil Health Academy, which teaches the power and importance of healthy functioning ecosystems. In this Podcast, Janet and Gabe talk about education in farming, shortening the supply chain and the six principles of soil health. Those who have read “Dirt to Soil” will realise he has added another one to the 5 mentioned in the book. Janet Hughes: Hello everyone and welcome to episode three of the Future Farming podcast, which is the podcast of the Future Farming programme here in Defra, where we share the fascinating conversations that we have as part of the programme with everyone who's interested in what we're doing. And today I have the great pleasure of welcoming to the podcast Gabe 12 DIRECT DRILLER MAGAZINE
Brown, author of Dirt to Soil, North Dakota farmer and leading regenerative agriculture practitioner, who's going to share with us today some of his insights about the journey he's been on and the lessons he's learned, and what we can learn more broadly from what he's doing. Gabe Brown: I'm so excited about the direction that your country is heading with farm subsidies. I gotta tell you, I'm a bit jealous. Oh yeah, I'm a bit jealous because, well, just yesterday I was on, I was on a TV show talking about this and how we pay farmers based on yield and pounds, and nothing based on ecosystem services and nutrientdense food, and it's just, the current model we have drives over-production and, you know, increased supplies, and you're just stuck in this vortex of low farm profitability and so then subsidies increase, and that's just bad for everyone. Janet: That's definitely the conclusion we've reached here, but the problem is because we've had subsidies for such a long time, moving away from them is a really complicated and difficult thing for farmers and for everybody, really, because it's embedded.
Gabe: We need to do what they, yeah, we need to do what they did in New Zealand, just just drop it. Janet: Do you think so? Gabe: Ah, in all honesty, that would drive the biggest change on the landscape, okay? Farmers, ranchers are extremely resilient and they will adopt quickly if forced into doing it and, you read my book, you know how I was forced, and I tell people, best thing that could ever happen to me and now, you know, I have not accepted a penny of government subsidies for years. My business partners, they do not accept any government subsidies because our goal is to show people that a farm, a ranch can be profitable without it, and we're all extremely profitable. Now I'm not saying that it would not be nice to be paid for ecosystem services that we provide, you know, um, whether it be carbon, although I think, we really need to look at water, and biodiversity, and soil health, things like that first. Carbon is a part of it, um, the carbon flow, but you know, as you know, it's extremely difficult to measure carbon accurately. Janet: What do you think government should be doing, if not paying the ISSUE 14 | JULY 2021