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February 2021

Introduction: Policy Matters

by Wendy Millet

Soil scientists Harry Pionke (left) and Ron Schnabel examine a switchgrass stand. Relatively small buffer areas wil not only protect nearby streams from agricultural pollutants, but can also provide habitat for ground-nesting birds and forage for beef cattle.

Photo by Scott Bauer |  USDA, Office of Communications

Farmers, ranchers, scientists, and advocates around the globe have seen degraded lands returned to health thanks to management practices that restore ecosystems and bring carbon, nutrients, and water cycles back into balance. Now national and state leaders are highlighting land-based solutions such as regenerative agriculture as key to our healthy climate future. Both the Biden administration and the Newsom administration in California have issued executive orders to conserve 30% of US land and water at the national and state level respectively by the year 2030.

It is an exciting time for those of us who understand the benefits of regenerative, or climate-smart, land management practices and are eager to see them more widely adopted. 

Nearly three decades ago, I was working in Washington DC on the book Land Use in America, a review of the last 30 years of land use in the US. At that time, the idea that working and natural lands provided multiple cost-effective benefits to humans and the planet was not part of the conversation. That year, then-President Clinton launched the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) via executive order to develop bold approaches to achieve our country’s economic, environmental, and equity goals.

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Picture of the Month

TomKat Ranch cattle graze their way through a pasture of fresh, winter grasses under a wisp of clouds that hint at but offer no rain. Though rainfall has been infrequent, it's been enough to kick off the growing season. Photo - Andrea Hatsukami

Update: Soil Health Trials at TomKat Ranch

by Hayley Strohm

Despite a late start to the growing season and limited rainfall, the grass on the ranch has finally started to jump. For some ranchers, winter is a time to hunker down, but the Land and Livestock Team at TomKat Ranch has been busy this season applying biostimulants and mineral amendments, no-till drilling cover crops, and sampling soils for our ongoing soil health trials. With rain in limited supply, timing is everything. We want to make sure we plant in time to benefit from any upcoming precipitation to germinate drilled seeds and water in any applications that we put down. However, if we wait too long, we risk working on saturated soils where the tractor or even an ATV could cause soil compaction, or missing the rain all together.

Here is a brief update on our soil health trials:
...

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Virtual Sunday Brunch with the Sundance Institute

Members from the panel meet virtually to discuss reconnecting local food systems. From the first session (from top-left): Leonard Diggs, Veronica Mazariegos-Anastassiou, Helga Garza, Konda Mason, Natalie Baszile.

It was inspiring to join Kat Taylor and the team from Growing the Table at the Sundance Film Festival 2021 for a community discussion of how farmers, filmmakers, and funders are changing the narrative to build an equitable and inclusive food system for our collective future. We gathered for a chance to listen and learn from a panel of diverse voices in food and agriculture who are tirelessly working to achieve justice by building equitable food communities and fostering greater inclusion and diversity in all forms of media as well as in the art of storytelling.

The event opened with a land acknowledgment by Bird Runningwater of the Sundance Institute and Geralyn Dreyfous, co-founder of Impact Partners and Utah Film Center. Geralyn then introduced California’s First Partner and Filmmaker, Jennifer Siebel Newsom who gave a warm and heartfelt welcome address. The moderators and panelists then shared the stories of how growing food can heal land, people, and injustices. They acknowledged the harm caused by our current agricultural system and began to envision how we could draw on our collective will using storytelling to influence government, private investment, and philanthropy. Perhaps this would help practitioners to correct decades of systematic discrimination.

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Community in the Time of Covid

by Marianna Zavala

Since the middle of January, I have had the opportunity to work with Puente de la Costa Sur staff as they continue to serve our South Coast San Mateo County community. A full year into the pandemic, Puente has successfully tailored many of its services to meet the specific challenges of Pescadero, and its neighboring rural communities of La Honda, Loma Mar, and San Gregorio. 

As a South Coast community-based nonprofit, Puente works closely with the county of San Mateo. This partnership has resulted in a variety of community projects including at-home water testing, a climate forum dedicated to understanding and meeting the energy usage and needs, and coordinated COVID-19 education efforts.

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Meet Our 2021 Apprentices

In an effort to advance the careers of aspiring regenerative agriculture professionals and facilitate generational succession of the ranching trade, TomKat Ranch offers 1- to 2-year apprenticeships to individuals looking to develop their skills and experience and cultivate their professional networks. Apprentices learn to handle livestock in a low-stress manner, operate the tools of the trade, including heavy equipment, make land and livestock decisions guided by a holistic framework, and  meet and engage with other professionals in the fields of ranching management, grass-fed beef production, and science.

The outdoors is our classroom. The curriculum: meeting the daily demands of a working regenerative ranch and grass-fed beef business in ways that help restore healthy ecosystem function, assist us in our efforts to trial new approaches to ranching in partnership with nature,  and provide healthy food for our community.  All activities take place under the supervision and guidance of our ranch manager, Mark Biaggi, and Regenerative Ranch Coordinator, Hayley Strohm.

We’d like to introduce you to our two new apprentices, Dillon and Jessica, as well as Alex whose apprenticeship extended into the new year.

Dillon Gruber - Dillon is from Gardiner, Montana. He has spent his life working, adventuring, and playing outdoors. Dillon’s commitment to wildlife and wildland conservation gave rise to an interest in regenerative agriculture. His interest in regenerative agriculture transformed into a passion for food as he realized the impact our food production has on the natural world. 

“When I heard what TomKat Ranch was doing with cattle and soil, I knew the ranch was the exact sort of laboratory and classroom I was looking for to further my education.”

Jessica Teresi - Jessica was born in Lodi, California. She grew up raising livestock while participating in 4-H and Future Farmers of America programs. Her interest in regenerative agriculture started when she learned that livestock can be used to improve soil health. Researching the topic further, Jessica found many ranches and farms promoting regenerative systems, but kept coming across the TomKat Ranch website and eventually the apprenticeship application.

“I hope to gain skills and experience to implement holistic and regenerative practices in my own businesses.”

Alex Michel - Originally from Los Angeles, California, Alex studied landscape architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and learned to view terrain through the lens of analytical design. Seeking better understanding of how living landscapes function outside of the classroom, she joined Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch education program and began to view the world through the lens of other systems such as agriculture, forestry, watershed systems, and more. While at Swanton Ranch, Alex visited TomKat Ranch and was drawn to the “educational curiosity and work in regenerative agriculture” she witnessed.

“I hope to keep learning and working to improve landscapes while connecting the dots between multidisciplinary approaches to land stewardship.”

You can see the entire staff here.

Copyright © 2021 TomKat Ranch, All rights reserved.


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