It is telling that the places where beef cows are sent to fatten up before slaughter are referred to as CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations). The acronym fits nicely into the industrial scheme. Indeed, corn farmed using oil-guzzling techniques must travel thousands of miles in order to reach the CAFOs where it is passed through the stomachs of thousands of cows that have no room to move away from their feed troughs.
The system is alluring, with its quick, cheap product, but in the end it simply does not work. Millions of gallons of liquid waste fill lagoons next to the feedlots and leach slowly into the groundwater. Meanwhile, the land that produces the corn itself sickens as it is forced into producing tremendous quantities of genetically engineered corn.
However, raising beef does not have to be such an earth-scarring activity. Proponents of veganism who point to the inefficiency of cycling nutrients through animals have a point, but they might do well to think about what might happen if humans somehow did away with animals and ran a sort of plant-dominated world. How would the soil replenish itself? In fact, cattle can be the greatest healers of the land. It all depends on how it’s done.
The story of a local fourth-generation family farm called Thundering Hooves ends with cows coming to the rescue of the land. It is in a sense a circular story of a return to simplicity. Back in 1883, the great-grandfather came to America from Germany and settled in the Walla Walla Valley. His son began ranching cattle in the area. At that time, there were no terms like “organic,” “free-range” and “conventional” because organic was conventional. However, current farm head Joel Huesby writes in an article posted on newfarm.org that, “over time, wagons gave way to trucks, horses gave way to tractors and organic matter was replaced by chemical fertilizers.”
For a while, the land was producing more than ever, but by the 1950s, Huesby noticed that the “land’s natural fertility was exhausted.” And he began to think about how the land had been damaged and about how he might be able to repair it.
“Joel looked at the way agriculture was going,” said Keith Swanson, another member of the family operation. “After generations of taking, taking, taking from the soil, it was clear that something needed to go back to the soil and it needed not to be chemicals. When you add chemical fertilizers or herbicides or pesticides, it’s very much like giving someone a drug when they’re addicted to drugs . . . and the next year it needs a bigger hit and a bigger hit. . . . So the two questions really were, how do we repair the soil and how do we make something which will be profitable for us and beneficial for the environment?”
The obvious answer, according to Swanson, was to look at nature and think about how it repairs the soil. “Nature adds organic matter,” he said. “It’ll start with weeds, it’ll start with whatever will grow.” They realized that “cattle are the perfect way to turn vegetation into recycled organic matter.” So they realized that if they just brought cows directly onto the land and fed them grass, the whole system would take care of itself. The grass would feed the cows even more efficiently than corn would, because that is what cows evolved to eat, and in turn the cows would repair the land by depositing their manure on it.
I described manure as “waste” in the beginning of this article, but manure does not have to be waste at all. It can be the most precious resource. It all has to do with how it’s distributed. At the feedlot, there is nowhere for the manure to go, but in the grassy fields at Thundering Hooves, the cows mimic the harmonious patterns of the buffalo on the plains. Grass has actually evolved in concert with ruminants, and their manure and grazing actually contribute to the grass’s health. The Huesbys rotate their cows to new pastures every few days, mimicking the bison’s migration. No chemical fertilizers need to be used to grow corn that is transported thousands of miles to feed the cows. Instead, everything happens on site and is entirely sustainable.
Yes, even financially sustainable, although that’s a bit more difficult. Swanson said the key is “vertical integration,” which means controlling all of the steps in the process from farm to consumer. Thundering Hooves slaughters their own animals at a tiny but meticulously inspected USDA facility on their farm and sells their own meat at the QuikFrez shop at 2021 East Isaacs Ave. Thus, the farm does not have to go through all the usual middle men and can bring in 100 per cent of the what the consumer pays. Swanson also said that because of the grass-feeding and the low-stress raising methods, the meat is very healthy and tender and customers love it.
