Most of what you see that's plant matter is not digestible by our gut. If we eat the stuff that the cows and sheep are eating, it basically flows through us like fiber. We do not have the suite of enzymes or the digestive system that can handle it. But try going out and just chewing on grass and see how far you get and how long you can maintain yourself.
On this episode, Jason Bradford, who is an author, activist, farmer, and teacher, talks about the energy intensity of our modern industrial agriculture system.
How do we feed billions of people with depleting energy systems? How do we also protect existing biodiversity and ecosystem health? We also discuss what makes for healthy soil, why we’re losing it, and how small farms can help get it back - while creating higher yields of healthier foods for fewer inputs.
About Jason Bradford:
Jason Bradford has been affiliated with Post Carbon Institute since 2004, first as a Fellow and then as Board President. He grew up in the Bay Area of California and graduated from U.C. Davis with a B.S. in biology before earning his doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis, where he also taught ecology for a few years. After graduate school he worked for the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development at the Missouri Botanical Garden, was a Visiting Scholar at U.C. Davis, and during that period co-founded the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group (ABERG). He decided to shift from academia to learn more about and practice sustainable agriculture, and in the process, completed six months of training with Ecology Action (aka GrowBiointensive) in Willits, California, and then founded Brookside School Farm.
For Show Notes and Transcript visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/24-jason-bradford