How can we learn from our mistakes and pave a way for sustainable, nutritious, local meat? In Grass-Fed Beef for a Post-Pandemic World, Lynne Pledger and Ridge Shinn take readers on a journey through production agriculture to show how regenerative grazing can benefit our climate and environment.

The foreword below by Gabe Brown, bestselling author of Dirt to Soil and pioneer of the soil-health movement, highlights the true significance of this practice.

The following is an excerpt from Grass-Fed Beef for a Post-Pandemic World by Lynne Pledger and Ridge Shinn. It has been adapted for the web.

Grass-Fed Beef for A Post-Pandemic World: A Foreword by Gabe Brown

It seems that every day we wake up to a new crisis, from the COVID-19 pandemic and high fuel prices to empty store shelves and war in Ukraine. Our world is in a constant state of change. While many cry doomsday, some, like Ridge Shinn and Lynne Pledger, know that the secret to resiliency in a changing world can be found through healthy soil, created with the help of grazing ruminants.

Relying on a lifetime of experience with cattle and resource conservation, Ridge and Lynne take us on a journey through production agriculture in the United States. They explain how farmers and ranchers went from grazing livestock on pasture to confining cattle in grassless pens where grain and by-products are brought to them—grain and by-products that are grown with synthetics (fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides) and the heavy use of fossil fuels. These practices, in no small part, have led to the degradation of our soils, our waters, and, at least to some degree, our health.