Grassland 2.0— Building a Template for Transformational Change

BY LAURA PAINE

The Midwestern Corn Belt has been fueled by banked fertility and organic matter accumulated over millennia by the tallgrass prairie that once existed here. The diverse plant community, grazed by bison and managed by Indigenous people, built deep, rich soils that have made the region among the most productive in the world. Today, the bank account may be running dry. A recent study estimates that 30% of topsoil in the region is gone (Thaler et al. 2021). Lost forever.

And what is our collective response? Apply more fertilizer, breed better hybrids, tweak our tillage practices, plant cover crops, tile drain, irrigate—all to produce more corn that is often in oversupply. This is classic ‘Root Cause’ stuff: rather than stepping back and looking at the significant systemic issues with our agriculture and food system—the root causes of our current situation—we focus on solving the immediate problem that in many cases was a result of our own previous actions.

Grassland 2.0 is a unique regional collaboration that seeks to press the pause button on this vicious cycle. The land that we farm—this soil—is our nation’s most substantial and important natural resource. It is what we live on, both literally and figuratively. It can— and should—provide more than cheap food, livestock feed and ethanol.

Holistic Management Linkages

I was drawn to the project because of its many parallels to the practice of Holistic Management. In the 15+ years I’ve been engaged with Holistic Management, it’s been as much a framework for my work as it’s been a help in organizing my farm and personal life.

Grassland 2.0 speaks to fundamental Holistic Management principles: long-term visioning, paradigm change and ultimately systems change. And we’re taking on a massive challenge: how can we reshape our food and agriculture system so that, in addition to tasty, nutritious food, it produces healthy, resilient soils, clean air and water, biodiversity, stable incomes for farmers, racial justice and vibrant rural communities?

Grassland 2.0 (grasslandag.org) is funded by a five-year USDA grant and housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The grant program asks the applicant to describe what a sustainable agriculture system looks like in your region and provides funding to devise a plan for how you will get there by the year 2050. The project brings together a diverse group of partners—other universities, regional agriculture non-profits, state and federal agencies, farmers, consumers, and private industry—to address the challenge through a holistic lens: from soil carbon to finance to policy to humanities and culture. One of my roles as outreach coordinator is helping the project build partnerships. As we make connections around shared values, we are building a movement for grassland agriculture in the Midwest that will live beyond the life of the grant.

Who are the decision-makers? Our current system, with its focus on economies of scale, has evolved toward larger farms, more mechanization, and more specialization, especially here in the Midwest where I live and farm. Consequences have been the decoupling of livestock and cropping systems, a depopulating of the rural landscape, and degradation of soil health, water quality and other natural resources. Agriculture in the U.S. functions within an economic system that reinforces the status quo, rewards economic efficiency over broader societal benefits, and consolidates wealth and power in the hands of the few. Decision-making is the purview of supply chain actors and policy makers, often to the detriment of both family-scale farmers and eaters. This project recognizes that some of our solutions may need to come from outside of agriculture and that one important role we can play is to listen to and amplify the voices of those who are currently not invited to the table where decisions are made.

A Project Holistic Goal

We envision an agriculture system in which livestock are re-integrated into cropping systems, spreading the benefits of wellmanaged perennial forages and fertility from livestock manure and legumes across the landscape. Livestock production can deliver significant ecosystem services in addition to high quality grass-fed meat and dairy products, price premiums for family-scale farms, and economic growth for rural communities. We can’t pretend that everyone in the region agrees with this vision. And we are very aware that the potential change that it engenders can be threatening to some, especially those who are invested in the industrial model and whose livelihoods depend on the policies that support it. We want to hear from them too. We want to know what their aspirations are for their families and farm businesses, and to understand the barriers they see in making changes that will benefit the future communities their kids and grandkids will live in.

Even the most committed industrial farmers would find it hard to argue against clean water and healthy soil, a stable income without government subsidies, and a viable business that they can transfer to the next generation. It’s just that, more often than not, short term decisions lead away from the longterm vision they may imagine. And differences in short term perspectives create barriers to communities working together toward a better future.

Place-based Conversations

Building a framework within which people can get off that treadmill and have a conversation about our shared aspirations is another commonality that our Grassland 2.0 project has with Holistic Management. Grassland 2.0 Learning Hubs are intended to create a trust-based setting for communities to engage in these potentially divisive conversations. We will be engaging five community-based learning hubs in a goal setting and scenario planning process. The three Wisconsin hubs include 1) a dairy region challenged by consolidation and expansion, 2) a rugged landscape that’s experiencing catastrophic flooding, and 3) a larger, regional hub encompassing some of the most significant grassland bird habitat east of the Mississippi River. We are also exploring developing learning hubs with two groups outside of Wisconsin. A Central Minnesota group’s primary challenge is the conversion of forestland to annual crops. In central Illinois, we hope to work with a community that has almost entirely lost its livestock industry and culture. Diverse landscapes, diverse farming traditions, and diverse local relationships will make for a rich mutual learning opportunity.

The project team is developing a “collaborative landscape design” process for that will be the primary product of the project will incorporate opportunities for and barriers to change across the spectrum: addressing the risk to individual farmers in making changes to their farming practices and businesses, understanding the social components of change at the community level, identifying the levers for change in state and federal policy, and highlighting opportunities for change in markets and supply chains.

The Hard Part

Although building consensus and planning is not easy, it is the easier part of transformation. This five-year project will result in a plan, but rural agricultural communities that we’ll pilot in these hubs. It includes scenario design processes commonly used in natural resources planning and will use a landscape-based computer modeling system called SmartScape/ GrazeScape developed at the University of Wisconsin. The process will help communities map out and visualize transitions on the landscape at the watershed or farm level and estimate impacts on productivity, environmental indicators (phosphorus, soil erosion, biodiversity) and profitability.

Walking through a planning process with these local, place-based groups will help our team understand the process of change on the ground and will allow innovation and ideas to bubble up. The comprehensive regional plan what happens next? If we successfully engage a community of partners, build a shared vision, and work together to build this plan, it will have life beyond the Grassland 2.0 project. That’s our challenge! We welcome your ideas and partnership as we embark on the journey.

Reference

Thaler, Evan A, Isaac J. Larsen, and Qian Yu. 2021. The extent of soil loss across the US Corn Belt. PNAS February 23, 2021 118 (8) (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1922375118)

Laura Paine is the Grassland 2.0 Outreach Coordinator and a Holistic Management Certified Educator. She can be reached at: lkpaine@gmail.com.