Seeing in New Ways

Ken originates from south-west Saskatchewan; his brother farms land which has been in the family for over a century.

Farming country in South-west Saskatchewan

Recently Ken's brother told us about a rancher from North Dakota, Gabe Brown, who is an articulate and passionate spokesperson for something called "regenerative agriculture". Ken and I have been watching some of Brown's talks on Youtube. He is knowledgeable, convincing, and persuasive.

Regenerative agriculture - and for that matter, any kind of regenerative gardening - stems from the perspective that soil health is critical, and that tilling the soil -- something we had assumed is the only way to go -- is in fact harmful to it. Instead, Brown advocates farming techniques that build organic matter and nutrients in the soil, and avoid tilling it.

Here is a link to Brown's website for his ranch: http://brownsranch.us His website describes his mission as "regenerating landscapes for a sustainable future". His ranch is shown below:

Scene from Gabe Brown's ranch. Source: http://brownsranch.us

The talk we have been watching is called "Treating the Farm as an Ecosystem:

Screen shot from Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A

Brown talks about his journey from farming and ranching using commonly accepted techniques, to a new approach based on ecosystem principles. He avoids saying that he is departing from "traditional" farming and ranching, because his perspective is that established farming techniques are at odds with "tradition", in that the longest tradition on our landscapes is one where ecosystems were in balance.

He provides ample evidence that his approach regenerates the soil, and yields crops and results with higher nutrients. His presentation is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmIdq0D6-A

Seeing with New Eyes

During Brown's talk, he speaks to the following quote:

If you want to make small changes, change how you do things. If you want to make major changes, change how you SEE things! Attributed to Don Campbell

I find his talk inspiring. It is so easy to think, in this time of entrenched and polarized positions, that changing the way we see things is an impossibility.

Brown demonstrates that change in the way we see things is possible. In fact, he has become so convinced of the merits of his approaches, that he has travelled, taught workshops and written extensively. The Youtube video above was filmed while he taught a workshop in South Carolina  - a long way from North Dakota!

Changing how we see things... Shifting our perceptions of what is the "right" way of doing something, of what works and doesn't work. Humans don't always make changes easily, but Gabe Brown provides one example from agriculture, an inspiring one.