Beef production has become one of the largest contributors to climate change. This project team set out to communicate that “it’s not the cow, it’s the how.” Using regenerative practices such as rotational or managed grazing, beef production can provide net-negative emissions and other economic, environmental and social benefits.

Working with numerous partner organizations, team members from the four major Triangle research universities (Duke, NC Central, NC State, UNC) developed healthy soils policy recommendations for North Carolina, as well as tools to help producers and policy-makers understand the potential of grazing. An ArcGIS-based tool for farmers and producers helps them easily document regenerative grazing practices, even when out in the field with no internet access. And farmers who wish to begin implementing practices such as strip and rotational grazing can use the team’s carbon offset protocol, which outlines the methodology for measuring the offsets from a regenerative grazing project.

A monthly newsletter and an online guide to key terms helped inform producers about regenerative grazing, and a webinar featured three people in the business. The team also produced a collection of case studies that explain how managed grazing has the power to be regenerative to the land, to producers and to rural communities.

For her stellar work on this team, law student Bridget Eklund received a 2021 Bass Connections Award for Outstanding Mentorship.

Timing

Summer 2020 – Spring 2021

Team Outputs

Team website

Healthy Soils Policy Recommendations

Carbon Offset Protocol for pastured cattle operations

Tool Kit to help producers and policy-makers understand the potential of grazing

Arc-GIS Tool for mapping regenerative grazing practices

Policy and Practice of Beef Production in North Carolina (2021 Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Virtual Showcase)

Regenerative Grazing to Mitigate Climate Change (lightning talk by Juhi Dattani and Annie Roberts)

Regenerative Grazing to Mitigate Climate Change: Sustainable Beef Production in NC (poster by Matthew Arsenault, Bridget Eklund, Emma Fulop, Lee Miller, Michelle Nowlin, Bonnie Ballard, Katia Colin Bernal, Juhi Dattani, Lauren Dunn, Brian Glucksman, Kimberly Hernandez, Andrea Padilla Guerrero, Carline Patterson, Mary Grace Phillips, Annie Roberts, Cambria White and Jiahui (Jenny) Zong)

Reflections

Bridget Eklund

Video

Regenerative Grazing to Mitigate Climate Change

This Team in the News

Highlights from the Bass Connections Annual Report: Seven Local Projects

Bass Connections 2020-2021 Annual Report: Selected Highlights

Cancelling Beef: Our Take on the Epicurious Decision

A Virtual Stroll through the 2021 Bass Connections Showcase

Two Graduate Students Honored for Their Outstanding Mentorship

Faculty Perspectives: Michelle Nowlin

What We’re Getting Out of Our Bass Connections Teams

See related teams, Regenerative Grazing to Mitigate Climate Change (2019-2020) and Regenerative Grazing to Mitigate Climate Change (2021-2022).