This session on regenerative agriculture production builds on previous conversations about Synthetics, Soil Health and Fertility, Compost, Manure, and Cover Crops, Tillage, Ruminant Livestock, and Dairy Production by asking what are the best practices - and worst practices - when managing a regenerative system. Our panelists are practitioners with skills honed from decades of experimentation and learning. They also bring cautionary tales of shortcuts and unpredicted outcomes.

Part 1

GMO is everywhere, so why do we even care?

Part 2

What are examples the greatest threats from around the world in agriculture, food ingredients, food, animals, insects, fungi, soil, microbiomes and other areas?

Part 3

What's a real-world example of how these genetic techniques work?

Part 4

Can these technologies really claim to be regenerative and climate friendly? Is there any part of these technologies that is defensible?

Part 5

How are these techniques disclosed in the supply chain and on retail food products?

Special bonus session

Hear directly from the leaders of the grassroots campaign to keep GMO corn genetics out of Mexico.

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.

Please join us for this stakeholder session on Minimum Regenerative Standards for retail food claims. This session will focus on regenerative dairy production. Guest panelists include Dr. Meg Cattell (CSU), Phil Forbes (Kalona) and Phyllis Van Amburgh (Dharma Lea). Pics and bios below.

As our work groups sessions unfold, we now turn to how regenerative dairy production is managed. It's imperative to know how feed is grown, how pastures and paddocks are maintained, and how milking, pasturing, and harvest are managed. Vaccinations, antibiotics and other pharmaceutical use will be examined. Animal welfare and environmental outcomes are key.

This session on regenerative dairy production builds on previous conversations about Synthetics, Soil Health and Fertility and Compost, Manure, and Cover Crops, Tillage, Ruminant Livestock, and Hogs and Poultry, by asking what are the best practices - and worst practices - when managing dairy production in a regenerative system. Our panelists are practitioners with skills honed from decades of experimentation and learning. They also bring cautionary tales of shortcuts and unpredicted outcomes.

The session is organized around the following topics to help stay focused but also embrace the holistic complexity of dairy production:

PART ONE: What is the longstanding and ancient human relationship to milk animals?
• Safe and nutritious meat/milk/preserved food/ byproducts produced by animals consuming inedible grass and non-potable water
• Key foundation for family and community food sovereignty and resilience.
• A system that cares for animals and ecological outcomes.
• Source of manure fertility for food crops

PART 2: What are the current best practices in dairy in North America and are they still similar?
• Animal welfare
• Pasturing
• Grassfed ecology
• Appropriate breeds
• Scale of operation
• Feed, forage
• Confinement .and manure management
• Local processing and consumption

PART 3: We need to take a moment to describe conventional and large-scale dairy industry’s weak points, where the economic and ecological system built to support it often undermines some longstanding best practices.
• Substantial grain and silage feeding
• Feed crops produced with GMO and conventional pesticides
• Concentrated confinement and antibiotic treatment
• No real and consistent access to living pasture
• Little improvement to ecological outcomes

PART 4: Describe the tensions between higher production costs, and consumer demand when weighing higher retail prices.
• Accounting for the integration of true costs into production system instead of externalizing costs to environment, animal welfare, community vitality.
• What works to communicate to shoppers the values behind the higher price?
• What works to communicate to shoppers how low-priced industrial milk is based on externalized costs to the animal welfare, worker welfare, farmers, and local ecology?
• Why are some smaller certified organic dairies struggling to maintain market share and stay in operation? Do legitimate label claims help fix this imbalance?

PART 5: Comparing label claims and certification systems
• What parts of current best practices are addressed by USDA organic certification and which are not?
• Grassfed, herd size, access to pasture, antibiotics, weaning, grain supplements, nutrition supplements, insemination.
• Origin or livestock, non-GMO grain and silage, antibiotic use
• Are current NOP Organic rules comprehensive? Consistent? Enforced?
• Is there a regenerative claim whose requirements meet your own expectations of “regenerative”?
• What practices and outcomes make a dairy operation regenerative?
• Can average shoppers consistently match practices to label claims across brands?

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.

Please join us for our next stakeholder session on Minimum Regenerative Standards for retail food claims. This session will focus on regenerative hog and poultry production. Guest panelists are Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin of Tree Range Farms, Heidi Diestel of Diestel Turkey, and Greg Gunthorp of Gunthrop Family Farms. Pics and bios below.

As our work groups sessions unfold, we now turn to how regenerative hog and poultry production is managed from start to finish. It's imperative to know feed is grown, how pastures, paddocks and coops are maintained, and how the animals' life cycles are supported. Vaccinations, antibiotics and other pharmaceutical use will be examined. Animal welfare and environmental outcomes are key.

This session on regenerative hog and poultry production builds on previous conversations about Synthetics, Soil Health and Fertility and Compost, Manure, and Cover Crops, Tillage, and Ruminant Livestock by asking what are the best practices - and worst practices - when managing pigs and chickens in a regenerative system. Our panelists are practitioners with skills honed from decades of experimentation and learning. They also bring cautionary tales of shortcuts and unpredicted outcomes.

To make sure everyone can follow along, here is a general outline of the discussion:

First, we will describe how both hogs and poultry managed in a regenerative system can benefit ecology, animals, and communities.

Second, we will ask where are the weak spots in current regenerative production practices, and what can we do to strengthen them? We will focus first on feed sources, and then on confinement practices and animal welfare.

Third, of the many hog and poultry facilities that claim regenerative outcomes, how much of this is defensible and how much is marketing puffery? What are the deal-breakers for you? Are environmental outcomes alone a sufficient measure?

Fourth, a lighting round of “thumbs up or thumbs down on” on a list of inputs and practices.

Fifth, access to processing and access to retail and institutional markets is a key tenet of regenerative agriculture. Why are both so hard to achieve, and what to do about it?

SideBar: What’s up with eggs? With special guest Steve LaQua of Mid-States Specialty Eggs.

Lastly, what is our right relationship with livestock animals, the planet, and with each other?

All session info at https://ifoamnorthamerica.org/regenerative-minimum-standards/ New podcasts released every three weeks.