Ashley Mcdonald, Environmental Counsel for the National Cattlemenã¢â‚¬â„¢s Beef Association
The Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT) is pleased to debut a new informational Q&A serial featuring experts in their field. For our first installment, we interviewed Ashley McDonald near the role of working lands conservation in strengthening and protecting the national beef supply chain. McDonald is the Senior Manager of Sustainability with the National Cattlemen's Beef Clan and too serves as Executive Managing director of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef.
Q: The mission of TALT is to conserve Texas' working lands – the farms and ranches that provide the nutrient we eat, the water we potable, the wildlife habitat that nosotros enjoy. COVID-19 has underscored the importance of the farming and ranching industry. Can you lot clear the part of conserving working lands in strengthening and protecting the national beef supply concatenation?
A: Working lands are the bedrock of the beef supply chain. It all starts there. Conserving our working lands is extremely important because without them nosotros wouldn't have a beef supply chain to begin with. Not only does the conservation of working lands support the product side of the beefiness supply concatenation, but information technology is also where we concord the nigh reputational value as part of the larger food system that nosotros all depend on. It not simply has the product value, but also the reputational value. Conserving that and honing that value through the work of TALT and other groups is extremely important. The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted its value, and going forward information technology is of import that our manufacture demonstrate all those ecosystem services that nosotros provide through these working lands.
Q: Nosotros hear the terms "resiliency" and "sustainability" a lot these days. Some people may not really empathize how working lands conservation promotes both resiliency and sustainability. What is your perspective?
A: Those words take become buzz words for some, and they are not always well-received. But they should be part of how nosotros [producers] talk about everything we do. Nosotros take to testify the inquiry behind various conservation practices, and always connect it to the economic bottom line of the concern of ranching. And I think that's one thing we're doing improve than we accept in the past. Nosotros know the value of a lot of our practices to biodiversity, and to wildlife. But there'south a lot of co-benefits that we don't e'er talk most. For case, the water-property capacity of the soil benefits our animals and therefore the bottom line of those ranching operations. Making sure we always keep that in the dorsum of our mind, that these practices are good for the environment, for all of the states, just almost always they're also good for the bottom line. I think talking about sustainability and resiliency is 1 of the ways we might enhance the promotion of a lot of these conservation practices and the conservation of working lands.
Q: So, working lands are practiced for the environment, and they're expert for concern. How do nosotros go along working lands productive?
A: Well, I call back it'south a labor of love that happens over fourth dimension. Continuous improvement. We want those lands to be resilient in terms of not only being able to spring back quickly from a crisis, similar a drought or a overflowing, only nosotros likewise want to see a trend of merely existence healthier. Better soil wellness, improved water resources through better belongings capacity or quality, more than biodiversity in plant and animal species and better habitat for wildlife. I call back we besides demand to instill the importance of continuous education, both the producer sector and the entire landowner sector. Through continuous education of ourselves and everyone else involved in state conservation, we will try out and implement new practices, and we'll become results from those practices. Ultimately, that will upshot in better outcomes. And that speaks to the resiliency, non only of only the lands, simply to the manufacture as a whole.
Source: https://www.txaglandtrust.org/working-lands-perspectives-ashley-mcdonald/
0 Response to "Ashley Mcdonald, Environmental Counsel for the National Cattlemenã¢â‚¬â„¢s Beef Association"
Post a Comment