"I wanted to talk to you about cows."
Seth Itzkan
"I wanted to talk to you about cows."
It doesn't matter if it's meat or not meat. The efficacy is in the soil. The soil will tell you whether or not you're managing the landscape in a way which is regenerative.
Exchange with Seth Itzkan of Soil4Climate and Melinda Hemmelgarn of Food Sleuth Radio on PRX. Published Jan 29, 2026.
https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/605594?m=false
Melinda Hemmelgarn: Well, I wanted to talk to you about cows in particular, because cows have been vilified, and we hear people repeatedly say, We have got to eat less beef. And beef is pretty much categorized as one unit. So, we put all ways of raising beef in one box, and we don't differentiate between beef that is grazed in a regenerative way versus animals that are raised on (in) feedlots. And I wanted to have you on to talk about this vilification of cows and how they are really not the ecological wrecking ball if they're managed the correct way.
Seth Itzkan: Right, well, there's a saying in this field, “It's not the cow; it's the how.” And by the how, they mean the how of management. And really, what you want to look at is the ecosystem management or the entire ecological footprint of the whole food production system. And so, cows are obviously part of a food production system. And that food production system can itself be deleterious or restorative and regenerative, either. And so the exact same cows that are part of a deleterious food production system can also be part of a highly restorative and regenerative food production system. So it's not about the quote, unquote, “cows.” It's about the entire system itself.
Cows are obviously part of a food production system, and that food production system can itself be deleterious or restorative and regenerative, either.
And obviously, the modern industrial food system is deleterious. It doesn't matter if it's cows or not. I mean, moving to “plant-based” doesn't solve the problem of the monoculture crops all across Middle America and most of the world. I mean, people aren't prepared to give up wheat. They're still gonna grow wheat for bread. They're still going to grow corn. They're still going to have massive industrial fields of soy. And soybeans, and all of that is deleterious to soil. And that's why I say bring it back to soil. Soil is the measuring stick, not the cows. And so the real question that you want to ask is, how can we produce food in a way that restores soil?
The real question that you want to ask is, how can we produce food in a way that restores soil?
And in most of the world, that's gonna mean returning annual crop systems back to perennial grass with grazing. So, in fact, what we need to have less of, frankly, is wheat and soybeans and corn, because those fields need to become perennial grasslands again, with cows. And so cows and meat are not the problem. There's going to be plenty of cows and plenty of (meat). The problem is how you treat an ecosystem. And if you turn what should be a perennial grassland ecosystem with deep soil, high carbon rich soil, into an annual commodity crop, it doesn't matter what the crop is for - whether it's for people or animals. You know, nature doesn't care. You're destroying this ecosystem. The ecosystem has to be restored. And on most of the earth, doing that will require ruminants.
What we need to have less of, frankly, is wheat and soybeans and corn, because those fields need to become perennial grasslands again, with cows.
Now, what happens to be, and Allan Savory discovered this nearly 60 years ago, is that domestic ruminants, cows, could be managed in a way as a proxy for wild ruminants, and they could be restorative, and that's what we need to focus on. It doesn't matter if it's meat or not meat. The efficacy is in the soil. The soil will tell you whether or not you're managing the landscape in a way which is regenerative or not.
Allan Savory discovered this nearly 60 years ago, that domestic ruminants, cows, could be managed in a way as a proxy for wild ruminants.
https://exchange.prx.org/pieces/605594?m=false
#food #foodsystems #cows #grazing #climate #holisticmanagement #rangelands
