Regenerative Agriculture – Kiss The Ground | Clear Creek Farms Certified Organic Beef Ontario

Regenerative Agriculture – Kiss The Ground

By Chris Knight
May 2, 2021

Regenerative agriculture is a concept that is growing in popularity in the agriculture community and even more so from a consumer perspective. The movie Kiss The Ground has done a great deal to promote both the concept and the conversation around this type of farming. However, many of us have been quietly going about this form of land and soil stewardship for decades.

Angus Cow eating a mouth full of organic grass and alfalfa.

The concept that soil health leads to plant health which ultimately leads to human health is a well-established tenant of Organic farming. Whether you are growing vegetables or grass-fed beef, if you increase the health of your soil, you increase the health of whatever you grow from that soil. Reducing tillage, increasing biodiversity, growing cover crops, eliminating pesticides and synthetic fertilizers all promote soil health.

Cows on the landscape have become a recent target of those concerned with Climate Change. However, as the film describes in great detail, the devil is in the details and the problem isn’t the cow per say, but how she is raised. We have to keep in mind that almost 60 million head of another ruminant, the buffalo, roamed North America for 1000s of years and actually helped sink atmospheric carbon into the ground in a safe form. Their hooves trampled what they didn’t eat and the carbon contained in the stems of plant was allowed to decompose and form soil for the next growing season. Have a look at Alan Savory’s TED Talk which I have referenced before for some inspiration.

Like so many things in our life, we get polarizing opinions in politics, food, news, etc. We need to dig a little deeper below the surface to get to the reality of a situation. We believe in building on the concepts of regenerative agriculture and adding in some modern technology. For example, the Angus breed is known for two main traits: a mother cow that has many maternal qualities that can’t be beat and delicious beef and has exceptional tenderness and quality. To further build off that foundation, we are able to pull a hair sample off of our breeding bulls (those that will sire many calves in our herd) and send them away to have their DNA analyzed for the above-mentioned qualities. The information we get back is becoming increasingly accurate in determining characteristics such as: calf growth, temperament, marbling, calving ease etc. Technology like this is extremely useful because we believe that it is our responsibility to raise the best beef possible while using the fewest environmental resources.

One of our breeding bulls. Click on his photo to see his pedigree and results of his genomic testing.

Modern technology coupled with regenerative and Organic principles ensures that we will have safe, nutritious and delicious food for generations to come.