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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2017)
Street Roots • July 21-27, 2017 Special Report Page 11 PH O TOS BY A R K A D Y BROW N Jon Bansen is the owner o f Double J Jerseys, part o f the Organic Valley cooperative. C o o tm o e d fro m page 10 “We were on a faster rotation, fed them a lot more grain. We pushed a lot more production out of our cows,” he said. “That was the old days where conventional agriculture was push push push, produce maximum amounts at really small margins - and that model is a little broken.” But that was until 20 years ago, when George Siemen, the founder of Organic Valley showed up on his doorstop and asked Bansen if he wanted to join the organic cooperative. He became one of Oregon’s early adopters of the organic milk movement after that. In the years since, Bansen said, he’s watched his soil become healthier and his pastures lusher, sequestering more carbon. He’s also watched how bigger dairies’ moving in has coincided with smaller dairies’ going out of business. But being in an organic cooperative, he said, he doesn’t face the same market pressures. “There were two other dairy farms on our road,” he said as we walked the perimeter of his pasture, “this one and another one that have all closed shop in the last five years.” Troy Downing, a dairy specialist at Oregon State University, pointed out that U.S. milk production is so efficient, with cows bred for production and advances in $ M M Verdant Hills Farm's Rich and Michael Butler say protecting their watershed is a priority. said. “But the cow doesn’t live nearly as livestock technologies, that the impact has long. It’s definitely a shortened lifecycle been greatly reduced. because you are pushing that cow really “Fifty years ago, we had twice the hard.” number of dairy cows in the U.S.,” While beef consumption in the Downing said, “and we produced U.S. is trending down, half the milk. So what we’ve consumption of U.S. beef in done by improving that other parts of the world is efficiency is we’re feeding increasing. In June, U.S. more people on less 1 beef was sold in China impact - and using grain [in4@d COW again for the first time in has been a big part of by a ~ 14 years, reopening a that.” gigantic market for export. He said most U.S. gràss-fed cow “The appetite for dairies feed cows a mix of American beef has grown grain and forage, which also tremendously in Asia in recent cuts down significantly on years, with Japan, South Korea and methane emissions. Hong Kong rapidly becoming three of the But the Butlers and Bansen both noted world’s top five importers of American- that grain-fed cows produce products produced beef,” according to a recent containing harmful Omega 6 fats, rather press release from the National than the beneficial Omega 3 fats found in Cattlemen’s Beef Association. “NCBA said grass-fed animal products. They said it will continue to fight for greater and grass, not grain, is what a cow is fairer access to foreign markets for supposed to eat. American producers.” “I consider giving them grain cruel. It’s On the small scale, raising beef and dairy like giving someone who is lactose cows doesn’t necessarily have an enormous intolerant milk,” Rich Butler said. impact, but what happens when your state “The disconnect for modern agriculture is home to 1.3 million cattle? has been to bring the animals in off the “We have far too many animals out there, pasture, put them on concrete, bring the and there’s too much area being grazed at food to them, feed them high diet of grains this moment right now to truly sustain and you get much more production,” Bansen Oregon’s biological diversity, particularly in the face of climate change,” said Boone Kauffman, senior researcher for the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. What happens when your country is home to 93.6 million cattle, like the U.S. was at the start of the year? To some cattle industry adversaries, such as Wuerthner, there is no such thing as sustainable beef or dairy, no matter where the animals graze. The sheer amount of resources needed to raise cattle and produce dairy heavily outweighs the sustenance the animal provides, but federal subsidies and low-cost public-lands grazing continue to mask the true cost of beef. “People are looking for this happy coincidence where they can say, ‘It’s OK to eat grass-fed beef,”’ Wuerthner said. “There are reasons why grass-fed beef is better than factory-produced stuff, but there are also reasons why factory-produced beef is better than grass-fed. In other words, neither is good.” Even as a dairy farmer, Bansen said people should eat mostly plants. “Truthfully, some Americans probably consume too many animal products,” he said. “I say, consume less and consume really high quality.” I I.IW •i .W I ■ Æ • ! s- . ? / z z Did you serve in the i Armed Forces Biand are experiencing > | or at risk of becoming homeless? Transition Projects Please call 855.425.5544 or visit 650 NW Irving Street n All Profits to Social Justice Cannabis with Benefits Panacea is a non-dividend, triple-bottom-line company. We commit 100% of profits to affordable housing and social justice. Everyone else is just sellin' weed. Recycle your cannabis money back to the community at Panacea. 6714 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, Oregon • 503-477-5083 www.panaceapdx.com • panacea_pdx Mon-Sat, 10-8, Sun 11-5
