This is a YouTube video titled "Are Animals Needed For Regenerative Ag?" containing a discussion recorded on November 29, 2020, about the role of animals in regenerative agriculture. The conversation features Ask AI Mark and another speaker from the Rodale Institute, focusing on scientific research and practical experiences involving grazing animals to improve soil health.
Do you need animals as part of an ecosystem to create true regenerative agriculture? And what does the science show that the Rodale Institute has created?
Yeah, our science over the decades would show a resounding yes that animals belong in a truly regenerative agricultural system. And the reason for that is because of the ruminating factor of the function of an animal is to literally graze. And in so doing, the animal becomes a tool that actually improves the health of the soil over time. So, funny enough, over the first couple of decades of us being on the campus in which we're on, we really didn't have a lot of animals involved in our research trials. But would you believe that our farm just happens to neighbor two Mennonite dairies? They're actually a family that live one on each side. And so about five years ago, we've had a tremendous relationship with both farms. It's the father and the son-in-law that farm on either end of ours. and we decided to build a relationship with them to bring their dairy cows onto our farm. As a Global Research Institute, we didn't want to have to pay PhDs to milk cows, so it was a perfect relationship. And so as we've introduced these animals onto our farm over the last five years, we've actually began a study. The study is actually being done in partnership with several other universities, and it's all being housed at Rodale. And what we're looking at is how the health of our soil is improving over time, the more we graze these animals. And so over the last five years, we've seen dramatic improvements in the soil organic matter of the soils on the Rodale Institute's farm.
