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A new partnership between Panorama Organic and the National Audubon Society adds 1 million acres of regenerative grasslands for the preservation of birds while producing sustainable, grass-fed beef.
You’ve seen the headlines: Beef is destroying the planet. You’ve heard all about the greenhouse gases and pollution a typical beef operation produces.
But the idea that beef is an environmental disaster isn’t quite that simple.
Those dire warnings are based on one kind of beef: The conventional, factory-farmed kind. And it is, by far, the most commonly consumed beef in North America. In fact, 97% of the beef in the US food supply is grain-fed, feedlot beef.
But there’s another way to produce beef, a way that actually enriches the environment. And it’s happening across at least 3.5 million acres of American grassland.
Kay Cornelius, a fourth-generation rancher and new general manager at Panorama Meats, intends to add another million acres to that total by 2030 through a groundbreaking new partnership with an unlikely ally: The National Audubon Society.
“All of our data proves that grassland birds are the most imperiled group of bird species in America. Grassland birds have lost 53% of their population since 1970, and 95% of all grassland birds live on cattle ranches,” says Marshall Johnson, vice-president of Audubon’s conservation ranching initiative.
The nonprofit’s “Grazed on Audubon Certified Bird-friendly Land” seal was established to recognize ranches that are managed in a way that protects those birds.
Saving these birds is a vital part of maintaining biodiversity. Like bees, birds are important pollinators, and they help maintain the delicate balance of a grassland ecosystem.
Continue reading The Birds and the Beef.
Photo by Candice Vivien
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