Revival of Rural America

Sep 19, 2023

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Regeneration of degraded land. Welfare to the animals. Re-enrichment of the local community. These are the three things Will Harris’ cattle company boasts, and those he is most proud of at White Oak Pastures. And people come to work on the farm, not because of the higher pay, but because of the principle behind what Will is doing. Epic Gardening Shop Homepage: https://growepic.co/3Pm1SBL Botanical Interests Shop Homepage: https://growepic.co/48aVtlL Book Collection Page: https://growepic.co/3rjlfUb EG Homesteading Book: https://growepic.co/3RnuRYM Connect With Will Harris: Will Harris is a fourth-generation cattleman, who tends the same land that his great-grandfather settled in 1866. Born and raised at White Oak Pastures, Will left home to attend the University of Georgia's School of Agriculture, where he was trained in the industrial farming methods that had taken hold after World War II. Will graduated in 1976 and returned to Bluffton where he and his father continued to raise cattle using pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics. They also fed their herd a high-carbohydrate diet of corn and soy. In the mid-1990s Will became disenchanted with the excesses of these industrialized methods. They had created a monoculture for their cattle, and, as Will says, "nature abhors a monoculture." In 1995, Will made the audacious decision to return to the farming methods his great-grandfather had used 130 years before.

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