STEVE GABRIEL

The Innovative Farming Practice That Uses Animals and Woodlands To Regenerate Farmland, Cycle Nutrients & Capture Carbon || Steve Gabriel

It's important to ask where our food is coming from and how it impacts the environment around us. Silvopasture is an innovative and growing farming practice that uses woodland and domesticated animals to create a regenerative farming system that has one of the highest carbon capture rate and promotes nutrient cycling.

BIO

Steve Gabriel is an ecologist, forest farmer, and educator living in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. He passionately pursues work that re-connects people to the forested landscape and supports them to grow their skills in forest stewardship. He is Agroforestry Extension Specialist for the Cornell Small Farm Program and co-owns Wellspring Forest Farm & School with his wife Elizabeth, where they produce mushrooms, maple syrup, duck eggs, pastured lamb, and elderberry extract, all from forest-based systems. The school hosts several educational programs each season with the goal of increasing people's understanding of healthy forests and how they can play a critical role in their stewardship.

TIME STAMPS:

6:37 – How did you get into farming & agriculture?

9:35 – How did you learn about Silvopastures?

12:41- When did humans get into monocropping?

15:38 – What are “Silvopastures”?

17:22 – How do you bring back nutrients into food through regenerative farming?

22:31 – Can a family sustain purely off of farming alone?

23:55 – Why Silvopastures have one of the highest carbon capture among all farming practices

26:07 – What kind of animals work best for silvopastures?

29:00 – How can trees and animals help each other?

30:53 – What kind of trees can you use for Silvopastures?

34:00 – Is this form of farming growing?

36:20 – How do I get started on Silvopastures?

37:41 – What are some of the biggest issues in farming and agriculture these days?

40:07 – How negative farming practices can lead to negative health consequences

45:22 – How can you become a smart consumer when it comes to picking food?

48:23 – Why understanding where your food comes from is very important

51:10 – Challenges for new farms and farmers?

52:16 – Is there a shortage of farmers?

54:32 – Tools that can be connect consumers with farmers?

57:07 – New farming innovations and paradigm shifts

59:59 – Final Plugs