EP102: The Independent Farmstead with Beth and Shawn Dougherty

Beth and Shawn Dougherty have been farming together for over thirty years, the last twenty in eastern Ohio on their home farm, the Sow’s Ear, which was once land deemed "unsuitable for agriculture." They identify intensive grass management as the point of union between good stewardship and good food. Their ongoing goal is to rediscover the methods and means by which a small parcel of land, carefully husbanded with the application of ruminants, pigs, and poultry, can be made to gain fertility and resilience while feeding the animals and humans living on it.

This was an incredibly important conversation about the importance of understanding exactly where your food comes from, why it is our responsibility to improve the health of our planet, and what all of us (no matter where you live!) can do to join this important effort. Listen, learn and pass it on! We are on a mission over here to teach people that we can have both a healthy environment AND a healthy diet with properly raised animal products (from well-managed farms) and that they're actually one in the same.

Here's what you'll learn:

• Why they started farming on land that was "unsuitable for agriculture"
• The difference between conventional grazing and intensive rotational grazing
• Why big farms are not sustainable
• Why animal agriculture is the answer
• The difference between open loop and closed loop systems
• How large a farm should be to be sustainable
• Where to begin if you want to farm
• Why they recommend squatting
• Why we need to take all "costs" of our food into consideration
• Why there is a new trend of animals grazing on public lands
• What to do if you want to raise your own chickens
• How many chickens you'll need
• 3 steps you can take to support sustainable farming
• And much more!