Restorative Farming: How the Conventional Food You Eat is Destroying Our Earth with Anya Fernald

Our food is getting cheaper and cheaper, but at what cost? Not only are our current farming and food processing practices and systems deteriorating our health, but it's causing even more harm to our ecosystem. The question at play in this episode is how can we create food for ourselves in such a way that actually restores the health and vitality of the soil of which we are producing our food? In this episode, I am joined by Anya Fernald who has the asnwer. She is the founder and CEO of Belcampo Inc., a family of companies that encompasses Belcampo farms where they humanely raise organic meat (which I believe produces the highest quality meat I have ever come across in my life). Belcampo focuses exclusively on regenerative farming practices, which means it restores the land it uses rather than deteriorate it. Anya is a brilliant woman and I was in complete awe throughout the entire interview learning from her about our food, where it comes from, and the impact it has on our environment. What we discuss: How we have “perfected” nature 5:00 The interconnectedness of nature (How we solve one problem but create another): 13:00  The different roles of animals: 18:30 How animal digestive systems work and how it’s integral to our ecosystem: 21:30 Eating non-socially acceptable parts of animals 23:30 Shocking foods fed to animals: 29:00 Animals in Confinement vs. Pasture-raised: 30:00 Why cow farts are harmful to the environment: 32:00 What is regenerative farming: 33:00 What happens when you farm on marginal land: 40:00 Is regenerative farming scalable?: 41:00 The shift in mentally that needs to happen in the value we place on meat in our diet: 47:00 Anya’s tips for what our first steps should be 53:00 Check out Belcampo here. Follow Anya on IG here.