From Land to Market: Sustainable Agricultural Practices

The Savory Institute is launching the world’s first regenerative sourcing solution for meat, dairy, wool and leather.  The focus of the Colorado based organization is the preservation of grasslands. 1/3 of of the world’s land surface is grasslands, and the Savory Institute estimates that 70% of the world’s grasslands are degraded.

Daniela Ibarra-Howell, CEO and co-founder of the Colorado-based Savory Institute, says industrial agriculture is responsible for this.

“For eons animals co-evolved, herbivores co-evolved with the grass lands in a way and in a pattern of grazing that allowed those grasslands to continue to be healthy.”

When those wild herbivores were replaced by domesticated livestock the grasslands were impacted by overgrazing says Ibarra-Howell, and the loss of the natural tilling of the soil that happened when animals roamed free on the land.

“Now nature’s wisdom is replaced by human decision making.”

The Savory Institute’s new Land-to-Market program aims to educate consumers on the benefits of sustainable agricultural practices for the environment and also for climate change.

“It takes a village, we need to all come together, the consumer understanding so they can send the right signal. Policies aligning so we can promote and accelerate this type of management. The brands committing to supporting long term the producers they are sourcing from. And investment in the supply chain that now is designed for volumes and efficiencies rather than for local artisinal production type of production.”

Daniella Ibarra-Howell will be speaking on Tuesday May 15th at the Women Leading Regenerative Summit in Boulder, along with Katie Forrest, the co-founder of EPIC  (a founding partner of Land to Market), and Woody Tasch, founder of Slow Money, and author of SOIL: Notes Towards the Theory and Practice of Nurture Capital (Savory Institute is a member of the SOIL Initiative).

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