Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

montanafreepress.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 297 posts

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#241

Post by garrickvanburen »

Floegipoky wrote: post #208
emilywolfe wrote: post #194

Emily Wolfe here, I’m the person who wrote this story. As I plan the second story in the series, which will be about new markets related to organic and regenerative, I’m curious to know a couple of things: -isn’t this a tech/VC blog? How is it that so many of you are so interested in and knowledgeable about agriculture? -what about this story made you want to discuss it here? Looking forward to learning more!

Speaking in generalities but hackers love hard problems, and implementing a 21st century food system is the intersection of most of the biggest problems of our time- climate change, population growth, sustainable energy. The fact that the best solutions seem to involve decentralization, taking a big chunk out of the market cap of destructive megacorporations, and transferring power down the class hierarchy aligns clo…

I'll add, hackers are also super fond of non-obvious, counterintuitive solutions to hard problems.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#242

Post by amanaplanacanal »

dsaavy wrote: post #240
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just bought a house surrounded by mostly lawn. I’m starting by sheet mulching my lawn with cardboard covered by a thick layer of wood chips. Hopefully the underlayer will be ready for planting next spring. Going to fill in between the food plants with clover, sweet peas, and lupine for nitrogen fixing. I’m looking forward to the transformation.

That sounds awesome. Best of luck. You might have heard of this already, but for anyone else who might come across this comment, there's a site called https://getchipdrop.com/ where you can sign up to get a free truckload of wood chips from arborists that just did work nearby. Just beware that you can get a TON of chips dropped off so be ready to move all that matter lol.

Yes! Highly recommended. Took about two days for a load to show up, then the guy asked if I would like a free load of firewood too.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#243

Post by user3939382 »

emilywolfe wrote: post #226
emilywolfe wrote: post #194

Emily Wolfe here, I’m the person who wrote this story. As I plan the second story in the series, which will be about new markets related to organic and regenerative, I’m curious to know a couple of things: -isn’t this a tech/VC blog? How is it that so many of you are so interested in and knowledgeable about agriculture? -what about this story made you want to discuss it here? Looking forward to learning more!

ok great. Makes sense. And people have definitely moved to Montana during the pandemic! Another q: What new markets in this space are interesting to you?

What I want to know is what steps can be taken to re-engineer incentives so that the major players in agriculture are pushing for regenerative agriculture and organic farming in their financial and political strategies.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#244

Post by TaylorAlexander »

nradov wrote: post #231
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do work at a farm and around farms that use regenerative grazing. It works great. However as a vegan my hope is that we eventually let animals graze and simply do not kill and consume them. One could argue “the meat is there” but that meat is beings with a heart and a mind. When I see the grazing animals with their babies in toe, I think about how they will be separated and the pain the mothers will go through. We…

Are you sure that plants don't go through pain? How do you feel about the small animals that cows eat when they graze? I'm sure those little birds and insects feel some pain when the cows chew them up.

No I am not sure that plants don't go through pain. I am however quite sure that animals experience pain, and so I don't want my food system dependent on that. I am pretty unconcerned with wild animals eating other wild animals however, as that seems to be the way of the Earth. I am only concerned with humans confining animals and growing them for commercial consumption, as it is clear to me that we are capable of thriving without such cruelty.

Big props to any cow that eats a bird though.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#245

Post by TaylorAlexander »

seltzered_ wrote: post #230
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do work at a farm and around farms that use regenerative grazing. It works great. However as a vegan my hope is that we eventually let animals graze and simply do not kill and consume them. One could argue “the meat is there” but that meat is beings with a heart and a mind. When I see the grazing animals with their babies in toe, I think about how they will be separated and the pain the mothers will go through. We…

Thanks for sharing this sentiment, vegetarian here who's been trying to read what I can about ecosystem restoration and such and it's really led to more balanced view around animals/meat consumption. From your experience is it possible (in a farm context of a fixed amount of land) to just let the larger animals graze in such a way that they can live their natural lifespan? or are there concerns of species overpopulat…

It's a good question. While I work at a farm, my focus is on engineering our farming robot (see my profile if curious) so I do not have a lot of experience with the animals. It seems like goats could be pretty self sufficient but I'm not sure of the details.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#246

Post by derekbaker783 »

nradov wrote: post #231
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do work at a farm and around farms that use regenerative grazing. It works great. However as a vegan my hope is that we eventually let animals graze and simply do not kill and consume them. One could argue “the meat is there” but that meat is beings with a heart and a mind. When I see the grazing animals with their babies in toe, I think about how they will be separated and the pain the mothers will go through. We…

Are you sure that plants don't go through pain? How do you feel about the small animals that cows eat when they graze? I'm sure those little birds and insects feel some pain when the cows chew them up.

I lived on a dairy farm for many years and never saw a cow eat a bird.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#247

Post by TaylorAlexander »

derekbaker783 wrote: post #246
nradov wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure that plants don't go through pain? How do you feel about the small animals that cows eat when they graze? I'm sure those little birds and insects feel some pain when the cows chew them up.

I lived on a dairy farm for many years and never saw a cow eat a bird.

Someone on Twitter told me “you obviously don’t care about the fawn that will lose a leg from the harvester” as if vegetable farmers are out there mowing down deer every chance they get. People come up with weird reasons why “actually the vegans are the monsters”. And this is just me talking about being vegan, I do not criticize people for eating meat.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#248

Post by eli_gottlieb »

blueyes wrote: post #24

Montanan here: This is true. One of the regenerative crop types are pulses (lentils, chick peas), and MT produces a lot. https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/pulse-info/resources-pdf/Growing... The state often appears in stories about agriculture in precarious environments (See Jared Diamond's "Collapse" for one example.) Montana is largely a semi-arid desert, especially over the 2/3's of the state that are northern Great Pla…

>This is true. One of the regenerative crop types are pulses (lentils, chick peas), and MT produces a lot.

Interesting! I always sorta thought those were warm-weather crops.

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#249

Post by kickout »

stonogo wrote: post #233
kickout wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those costs are known, and outside of California and Nebraska, almost no crops are irrigated. As far as transporting crops to markets? That's actually a success story. Rail hauls most of the crops from Montana to the PNW (if exporting to China). Rail is dirt cheap and efficient, as any true HN reader will know. :)

For context, the "almost no crops" that are irrigated comprises about fifty-five million acres, a little over 7% of cropland & pastures. Removing pastures from this data is difficult, but since we're only looking at three hundred million acres primary cropland in the US, we can confidently approximate between a tenth and a sixth of primary crops are irrigated. 1 - https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/Todays_Reports…

I believe around 50% of that 55M acres are hay/forage/pasture. Nebraska and Colorado are easily top players. I underestimated the delta. Point remains there isn’t a ton a irrigated production for commodity crops (corn/soy/wheat/cotton)

Re: Organic and regenerative agriculture are revitalizing rural Montana economies

#250

Post by inreverse »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #202
matmatmatmat wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a meat-eater (have been my whole life), but I've always been partial to this argument. This is why I'm looking forward to lab-grown meat and would pay a bit of a premium for it.

Lab grown meat is promising, for sure. FWIW I am now in year three of veganism and it feels like I have made it past all the "teething" stages to the point where I am absolutely loving my vegan meals. It is rare for me these days to eat a meat or cheese substitute - more like the occasional junk food throwback than a normal meal. Lentils, tofu, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, brown rice, peanut sauce, lettuce, zucchini,…

Are there any chefs who unify veganism with traditional cuisines that use lots of animal products, e.g. french or chinese? I would love to be vegetarian but I'm lucky in that my partner makes fantastic traditional food and I don't want to give it up.

Vegan modifications along the lines of 'substitute the meat in your burger for mushroom' seem depressing, like they're unengaged with the balance of flavours in the dish.

Post reply on HN