By Erin Bjorklund
TWO DOT RANCH, Montana— After a hefty lunch and an intense game of fetch with a stick-obsessed dog named Jefe, we began our tour of Two Dot Ranch. Our tour guide, Kathleen McConkey explained their work on the ranch. They practice intensive grazing, which entails rotating cows from one small pasture to another almost daily. This strategy prevents over grazing, leading to healthier cows, grass, and soil. As Kathleen put it, they’re “really grass and soil farmers” because “soil is the foundation of everything.” But soil health was not the only thing Kathleen and Two Dot Ranch valued. Self-care is a large part of their mission as well. Intensive grazing can take a lot of time and work. Kathleen joked, cows can control your life, “you could work on them everyday for 24 hours.” Two Dot recognizes that financial, community, and social sustainability are equally important. For example, taking a weekend off to go to a friend’s wedding would be encouraged, not seen as an inconvenience. The self-care practiced by Two Dot’s ranchers allows them to truly enjoy their work. During our tour, Kathleen’s love for what she does was made obvious. However, these practices are not among the most common, but they continue to gain popularity. Could Two Dot be a model for the future of agriculture? The solution to worsening soil conditions may not only be proper soil-care, but also self-care. People who love their work take the time needed to create an exceptional product and make a difference.
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By Sam Telling TWO DOT, Montana—“Where’s the cow crap?” I asked. Excited, Two Dot Ranch Manager Kathleen McConkey repeated my question to the class. It turns out the soil’s microbial community breaks it down. Follow up question: Why is it that every time I run in Dillon, I end up playing dodge the cow patties? Well, here’s the kicker, you need a healthy microbial community in your soil to break down manure. The difference between Dillon’s grazing ranges and Two Dot’s is that Kathleen holistically manages this ranch by emphasizing soil health. But how does she manage soil across 12,000 sunbaked acres? If I know anything about ranches from living in Dillon, it’s that cattle spread out across vast fields. And how can you manage soil health with that system? It starts and ends with intensive grazing. Everyday Kathleen moves cattle to new pastures. When a cow gets to a pasture, they choose the tastiest grasses to eat. If they are in the same pasture for long periods, tasty grasses are overgrazed and less desirable grasses are underutilized. If many cattle graze in a small area for one day at a time, they will eat all the varieties of food available—equalizing their diet and not overgrazing one food source. After they leave, that pasture is given anywhere from six months to a year to regenerate. Healthier soil stores more carbon in the ground, building resilience against unpredictable weather. This is the first positive ecologically-based argument for methane producing cattle I’ve heard. Maybe, just maybe, intensive grazing should be mandated. By Sam Telling
MOCCASIN, Montana—In the movie Kingsman, Samuel L. Jackson’s villain says, “When you get a virus, you get a fever. That’s the human body raising its core temperature to kill the virus. Planet Earth works the same way: global warming is the fever, mankind is the virus.” While I disagree with Jackson’s solution—i.e a population cull—his diagnosis is correct. Worrisome population trends predicting 11 billion Earthlings by 2050 coupled with increasingly unpredictable weather makes adapting agriculture more important—and harder—than ever. While the Earth has 83 million more mouths to feed every year, Montana’s golden triangle is suffering cratering populations. Moccasin is dying. Geraldine is dying. A century ago, 60,000 farms, averaging 600 acres, dotted Montana. Today, not only are farms being consolidated, lands are being lost to urbanization leaving 27,000 farms averaging 2,146 acres. In the last three decades, Missoula County lost 29,000 acres of agriculture lands. A hippie movement rebirth with its romanticized view of farming would help revitalize Montana’s lands and food production. Take David Oien, a 1970’s hippie who began farming legumes, replenishing the nitrogen in the soil lost from years of over tilling and strip cropping. He bucked the Reagan Era status quo of focusing solely on commodity crops and farm expansion. Today, his personal farm of 250 acres has created a model for regenerative farming. Resiliency to climate change begins with small farms possessing the agility to adapt. His company Timeless Seeds supports forty-five such farms, singlehandedly building a market for lentils—making them Montana’s third largest export. By Bradley Harvey
TWO DOT, Montana --We have all seen the pictures of mounds of plastic piling up on beaches or pits being filled with garbage and just this last year Americans used around 50 billion plastic water bottles, yet only recycled less than 12 billion (www.banthebottle.net). It’s easy to look at a landfill and see what we are putting into our soil and the earth, but for the most part we don't necessarily see what we are taking out of the ground. The person writing this article is no doubt the Patagonia-sporting, bicycle-commuting, scrap composting “consumer” of sorts, but I am willing to say it: consumerism is leading the world toward its demise. By simply ditching disposable plastic water bottles all together we can find improvements in many of the issues we face today including saving enough energy to power 190,000 homes and enough oil to fuel 1.3 million cars for a year- not accounting for the transportation needs for the plastic. Applying minimalism, the act of not only having less but mindfully consuming less, to the American lifestyle, we can see many advance unfold in its wake (Minimalism). This is not your average blog’s “what if we went nuclear” hypothetical idea; this is action that, if taken seriously by everybody, would actually get our RCP back on track by simply changing some minds and implementing an idea. If ditching a bottle can make so much of an impact, then what else can we do so easily? By Heidi Lykins HARLOWTON, MT -- The last day of our #ClimateClass adventures and education involved a trip to Invenergy. Surrounded by fields of crop, Mike Prater informed us that the wind turbines are placed strategically across the field based off of land conformation and wind currents. This allows for the most wind possible for the turbines to take advantage of. With all the “gloom and doom” that come with climate change, wind energy puts a positive spin on the situation. The MCA states, “The balance between incoming and outgoing radiation… determines the energy available for changes in temperature, precipitation, and winds…” (MCA pg 12, 1st paragraph). While some resources are feared to fail, wind will remain and shift as the climate continues to alter. The placing of these wind turbines may not seem significant in the big picture, but it makes all the difference if we want to maintain the grid balance of energy. Similar to the careful locations of this renewable energy option, people here on earth aren’t here for no reason. Due to the development of technology, our trials and errors with the environment, and our struggle to find truth in a world of “fake news” have made our generation the best people to solve world hunger, manage grid balance, and improve climate change. Like wind energy, we may not always be reliable and sometimes we may break down, but we have been created to be able to improve a cause and to take advantage of the winds that blow our way. Picture by Zach Archambault
By Heidi Lykins MSU Central Agriculture Research Center (http://agresearch.montana.edu/carc/index.html)MOCCASIN, MT -- On Wednesday evening, we were exhausted from hiking all day. The whole #ClimateClass was ready to fall asleep in the nearest hammock, tent, and even the nearest Suburban (it’s a rental). The feeling of exhaustion turned to crankiness when rumor had it that we had a lecture from one of the CARC (Central Agriculture Research Center) faculty members that evening. Thinking back, I am glad that I was capable of harnessing what few brain cells I had left to listen to Darryl Grove’s explanation of food production across the world.
But the food isn’t reaching everyone. For instance, Darryl Grove informed us that India has a population of 1.324 billion people (2016) and is the fourth food producing country in the world. Sadly, not all that food even goes to the citizens in India. It is exported out while 22% of poverty in India struggle to eat. I understand that there is more to just producing and providing food. Agriculture conditions are essential while the economy drives who and where that food goes to. But what inspired me from Grove’s presentation was that I did not want to be like India. I want to be able to self-sustain myself and my family when it comes to food. I want to be knowledgeable of local agriculture and its resources in my community. Not all countries are capable of this self-sustaining, but in Montana, there is no reason we shouldn’t be able to share our local food amongst our community - whether its purchased or donated. A nuclear power plant emitting steam from its cooling tower. Photo by Entergy By Clyde Schulein BILLINGS, Montana --
“Nuclear energy” brings to mind a vast, uncontrollable, and terrifying force of destruction, but it might be just what the world needs to fight global warming. A single nuclear power plant can last as long as 40 years, generates constant, reliable energy, and has less of an environmental cost per kilowatt hour than almost any other method of energy production (ExternE-Pol, 2004). In fact, nuclear power generation emits less radiation to surrounding areas than coal-powered plants (EPA Radiation Dose Calculator). Despite these benefits, nuclear power is not as widely implemented worldwide as it could be. The main reason is the potential of nuclear disasters on the scale of Chernobyl or Fukushima. The thought of an accident or malicious attack in a potentially dangerous power source creates opposition from international groups. However, there have been only 90 deaths per trillion kilowatt hours in nuclear power plants worldwide, whereas coal powered plants worldwide have caused an average of 100,000 deaths per trillion kilowatt hours (Forbes, How Deadly is Your Kilowatt?, 2012). This statistic does not include the effect of emitted CO2 on global temperatures and severe weather patterns, possibly leading to health disasters (MCA, page 13). However, nuclear power is not flawless. The high carbon cost of extracting, refining and transporting uranium fuel and the costs and safety issues of nuclear waste disposal are serious problems. However, they do not prevent nuclear power from being a serious competitor to coal powered plants. The energy market must assess the real risks of existing power options while continuing to seek cleaner and safer alternatives. Fear should not drive important energy policy decisions. Colstrip power plant generating electricity and emitting pollution. Photo by Larry Mayer By Clyde Schulein COLSTRIP, Montana --
The town of Colstrip, Montana has around 2300 citizens, most of whom have profited from the presence of the coal industry in their town. This could soon change. Talen Energy and Puget Sound Energy, the two largest shareholders in the power plants, have decided to shut down their operations in Colstrip by 2022. This will be a victory for environmentalists worldwide, as the generators of Colstrip are the 8th largest contributors to carbon emissions in the United States (EPA, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data, 2015). Unfortunately, Colstrip’s economy will take a blow. The town’s average salary of $92,000, almost double the state average, is largely attributable to the high-paying jobs in the local coal mine and power plants. According to Wally McRae, average salaries could drop to between $45,000 and $60,000 with the closure of the plants. As Jessica Sena said, money does matter; economics are what ultimately drive energy production and consumption. The financial suffering of these displaced workers is real, and policy makers must consider both the effects of their policies on the population as well as potential public health impacts. The future of the global population is at stake due to the looming threat of climate change, and it is morally impossible to value the quality of life of 2300 over that of billions. Many communities have adapted in the face of similar industry changes. With the infrastructure that Colstrip already possesses, a transition to greener energy sources such as wind, solar, and nuclear could revitalize their town and bring a new economic foundation to the community. The families in Colstrip have a difficult and inevitable economic transition ahead, but policy makers and businesses will hopefully help support this vulnerable community. By Sam Telling BILLINGS, Montana—By about the fourth time Jessica Sena referenced Patagonia’s use of fossil fuels to make their products, I was getting slightly irritated. Here we were, at the Board of Oil and Gas Conservation getting lectured about the ubiquity of fossil fuels. And yeah, isn’t that the point? If the ubiquity of fossil fuels wasn't causing climate change, this class wouldn’t exist. Industry spokespeople like Sena can polarize the climate discussion by using my Patagonia hat to point out liberal hypocrites who use fossil fuels while simultaneously demonizing them, but what will that solve? Climate and resource conversations need to be about owning our destruction but more importantly planning our transition to renewable, green energy production. At a 2014 Montana Democratic Party event, Governor Bullock’s former Communications Director, Dave Parker, corrected me when I said hydroelectric dams provide green energy. Renewable yes, but not green. Dams trap water and sediment upstream which leads to rapid decaying of vegetation and nutrients along with increased erosion. These dams cause over a billion tons of greenhouse gases every year, accounting for 1.3% of global emissions (Weiser). Montana’s forecasted reduction in late summer streamflow even brings into question hydroelectric power’s renewability (MCA, page 106). What, then, is the silver bullet for energy production? Well, there isn’t one, but nuclear energy is the best option we have. Nuclear energy—releasing less radiation into the air, eliminating greenhouse emissions, and producing electricity more consistently than any other energy producer—is the best bet to responsibly fuel our future (Rhodes). Gosh darn, even Jessica Sena agrees! Rhodes, Richard. “Why Nuclear Power Must Be Part of the Energy Solution.” Yale E360, 19 July 2018. Weiser, Matt. “The Hydropower Paradox: Is This Energy as Clean as It Seems?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 6 Nov. 2016. By the way, Patagonia's Mission Statement makes it pretty clear that as a company, they take environmental responsibility. By Grace Beck BILLINGS, MONTANA-- I was insanely inspired this week when we visited Veronnaka Klamert's business, Swanky Roots. She has bravely jumped in and adapted aquaponics, a system that leaves a relatively insignificant carbon footprint compared to traditional farming. Aquaponics uses nutrient rich water produced by fish as a replacement for soil and is capable of surviving most changes that climate change will create. While more traditional farmers may doubt her for investing so much in a system, I believe that she is the smartest farmer I’ve met, because she will spend less on water and won’t have to invest in fertilizers or weed killers like other local farmers. I predict that this system of growing produce will become more necessary in the future as temperatures increase, diseases become more severe, and water becomes more limited due to climate change. Veronnaka’s story is especially inspiring because she graduated only two years ago, and, in my eyes, she’s the most successful speaker we’ve talked to so far because she had the courage to pursue a revolutionary idea instead of being stuck in old traditional ways like so many other farmers. I loved how she still has more ideas, such as incorporating LED lights and solar power, that she wants to include in her business to make it even more clean and sustainable. In the future, I hope to be working on projects similar to hers that prepare us for the future and contribute as little to climate change as possible. |
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