To combat climate change and feed humanity, we need both forests and grasslands. Forests and grasslands both provide critical ecosystem services — like storing carbon and providing wildlife habitat — and both deserve protection. Grasslands are maintained by grazing animals, and, prior to the arrival of European settlers, the Northeast was a diverse landscape that included grasslands grazed by herds of elk; farmland and hunting grounds maintained by Indigenous burning practices; woodlands managed by Indigenous people for food, medicine, fiber and shelter; and expanses of forest.

In forests, carbon is stored in trees and underground; in grasslands, more carbon is stored underground. The portion of forest carbon stored in wood is vulnerable to logging or wildfire, while the carbon in grassland soil can be protected by using grazing animals to keep the soil covered with grasses and other pasture plants. Knowledgeable grass-fed farmers graze their livestock in a rotation that allows each paddock to regrow before it is grazed again. Each time the land is grazed and allowed to recover, beneficial microorganisms store carbon from plant roots in the soil, building soil organic matter. This increase in organic matter supports increased plant health and drought tolerance, and is how deep, fertile grassland soils develop, through a partnership of soil microbes, grassland plants, and grazing animals.

Statistics about the carbon footprint of beef refer to conventional corn-fed beef. Regenerative grazing of grass-fed beef (no corn ever) sequesters more carbon than it emits. Given the higher capacity of producing plant foods instead of meat on a given amount of land, it makes sense to me to eat mostly plant-based foods; and given the benefits of managed grazing, it makes sense to me to include meat raised by knowledgeable farmers using regenerative practices in my diet.

Dorothea Sotiros

Greenfield

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