How Now Brown Cow

A Podcast by Danika Oystrek, Connor Budd, and Hongkai Qiu

Featuring Percy Folkard (Thompson Rivers University), Alan Lee (Sustainable Agricultural Landscapes Lab @ UBC), Shannon Davis (senior lecturer, School of Architecture, Lincoln University) and Annie Cloutier and Amber Forrester (Biquette Écopâturage).

On this episode of the How Now Brown Cow Podcast:

Regenerative grazing has come to be regarded as an ecologically beneficial landscape process, though it is a contentious topic. On one hand, some studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that grazing leads to greater biodiversity, higher soil carbon levels, has potential as a restoration tool, and in certain cases can be used as a wildfire mitigation technique. Other sources indicate an elevated risk of intensive and extensive land impacts due to grazing animal presence, and possibly dangerous misconceptions as to the applicability of beneficial grazing. In much of the North American prairies, grazing was a key component of pre-colonial ecological disturbance, a facet of our landscape that must be considered as we design in these spaces.

As newcomers to this topic, we start off the podcast by exploring adaptive multi-paddock grazing in rural environments with Percy Folkard and Alan Lee, bringing up both benefits and potential shortcomings. Could the application of regenerative agricultural practices in urban environments quell many of the associated ecological doubts? The front lawns of North America (that are already heavily altered ecosystems) could be turned into a local, sustainable food source rather than being mown down by a Honda push mower. Shannon Davis tells us that bringing livestock closer to the mass of our population not only makes the planet happier, but humans too. Yet, there lie some complications in this not-so hypothetical scenario; our guests Annie and Amber of Biquette Écopâturage share their experience in starting an urban grazing initiative out of two public parks in Montreal.

We round out our discussion with some design considerations for our listeners; where might urban livestock integration be the most successful and impactful? Hint: if you are ever designing a suburban park… spec some sheep in there.

[our episode has not yet been cleared for public use- class members please use this drive link and request access from us to listen ! ]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SkuA60dgvb5JzcpiwiNssB3df3a9Bl6I/view?usp=sharing

Resources

INFORMATION ‘FOR’ REGENERATIVE GRAZING

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GREY AREA 

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INFORMATION ‘AGAINST’ REGENERATIVE GRAZING

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