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Montanan here: This is true. One of the regenerative crop types are pulses (lentils, chick peas), and MT produces a lot. https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/pulse-inf

Montanan here: This is true. One of the regenerative crop types are pulses (lentils, chick peas), and MT produces a lot. https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/pulse-info/resources-pdf/Growing%20lentils%20in%20Montana.pdf https://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/pulse-info/resources-pdf/Growing... The state often appears in stories about agriculture in precarious environments (See Jared Diamond's "Collapse" for one example.) Montana is largely a semi-arid desert, especially over the 2/3's of the state that are northern Great Plains. East of the continental divide, it gets about 10" of rain per year, which is about a quarter of the US average. And with climate change, it is more precarious. Temperatures have been unusually high this summer, and it's fire season now. Weather has become more volatile. (Cherry crops on the Flathead have been destroyed two of the last three years.)

greenie_beans 5y ago
where would one go to read about the cherry crops on the flathead? (such a lovely area!)
- blueyes 5y ago
  For news about the cherry harvests you could go to the Daily Interlake, a newspaper published in Kalispell, or the Flathead Beacon: https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2021/jul/03/growers-expect-early-fruitful-cherry-harvest/ https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2021/jul/03/growers-expect-e... https://flatheadbeacon.com/?s=cherry https://flatheadbeacon.com/?s=cherry
pacerwpg 5y ago
Interesting, I saw a map show chick peas as being a big crop in that region and thought it was surprising, just because it's not seen as a huge money crop.
danans 5y ago
> Lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.) are produced on over 1.5 million acres throughout the world. They are primarily used for domestic consumption in casseroles, salads, soups and stews. Lentils provide an excellent source of protein (20 to 35 percent), but are limited in the sulphur-containing amino acids methionine and cystine. However, consumption of lentils with cereals provides a balanced diet high in fiber, protein and essential amino acids. > Lentils in the United States are primarily grown for export. Growing lentils is a great idea, but the developed and developing worlds' palates also need to also change course toward consuming less climate-damaging foods like meat and more lentils, chickpeas, and other pulses. Already today, pea protein is a major constituent of the newer more realistic meat-substitutes, which is a good trend, but if most lentils just end up being exported and used as some sort of livestock feed, it will make little differences to the climate and environmental issues we are experiencing.
- reedjosh 5y ago
  From the article. > They also lease land to neighboring ranchers, whose grazing cattle aerate the soil with their hooves and add organic matter and nutrients via manure. Meat can and should be a part of regenerative ag. I recently visited a family friend's place/farm. A year ago, the soil was the typical cracked dry light tan clay ground that I have in my yard. It's quite typical in Oregon. This time, the soil was a dark color with tons of organic material and great water retention. This was entirely due to the grazing. They have goats and an alpaca. Ruminants are excellent for soil health, and the meat they produce is also great for human health.
  - EricE 5y ago
    Yes - people dramatically underestimate the value of ruminants that can process plants that we can't.
    - pacomerh 5y ago
      I wish more people knew about this. It's amazing how little we know (as a whole) about what we eat
  - knuthsat 5y ago
    There's really not that much meat in regenerative agriculture. Given the current per capita consumption of meat in kg, a regenerative ag operation could never accomplish that. Reducing to 4-30kg of meat per capita per year seems impossible. No one can even accomplish that with ruminants. That's why there's so much chicken everywhere, because accomplishing that with ruminants is near impossible, so chicken is advertised massively instead. A nitpick, there's no single food that is great for human health or bad for human health. Diet can contain various things and be healthy and it can also lack meat and be healthy.
    - andscoop 5y ago
      Do you have sources for this? I used to think similarly, but now I’m not so sure. Gabe Brown, the author of Dirt to Soil, changed my outlook on animals place in a healthy ecosystem. On his farmland he puts about 700k lbs of cattle on 1acre of land at a time, rotating those cattle frequently across 40 acres. He claims this practice has been an integral part of his regenerative ag method. http://brownsranch.us/grazing/ http://brownsranch.us/grazing/
cushychicken 5y ago
Cherry crops on the Flathead have been destroyed two of the last three years Very sad. I grew up in Bozeman, and I loved Flathead cherry season.
eli_gottlieb 5y ago
>This is true. One of the regenerative crop types are pulses (lentils, chick peas), and MT produces a lot. Interesting! I always sorta thought those were warm-weather crops.

greenie_beans 5y ago

where would one go to read about the cherry crops on the flathead? (such a lovely area!)

blueyes 5y ago
For news about the cherry harvests you could go to the Daily Interlake, a newspaper published in Kalispell, or the Flathead Beacon: https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2021/jul/03/growers-expect-early-fruitful-cherry-harvest/ https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2021/jul/03/growers-expect-e... https://flatheadbeacon.com/?s=cherry https://flatheadbeacon.com/?s=cherry

pacerwpg 5y ago

Interesting, I saw a map show chick peas as being a big crop in that region and thought it was surprising, just because it's not seen as a huge money crop.

danans 5y ago

> Lentils (Lens culinaris Medik.) are produced on over 1.5 million acres throughout the world. They are primarily used for domestic consumption in casseroles, salads, soups and stews. Lentils provide an excellent source of protein (20 to 35 percent), but are limited in the sulphur-containing amino acids methionine and cystine. However, consumption of lentils with cereals provides a balanced diet high in fiber, protein and essential amino acids. > Lentils in the United States are primarily grown for export. Growing lentils is a great idea, but the developed and developing worlds' palates also need to also change course toward consuming less climate-damaging foods like meat and more lentils, chickpeas, and other pulses. Already today, pea protein is a major constituent of the newer more realistic meat-substitutes, which is a good trend, but if most lentils just end up being exported and used as some sort of livestock feed, it will make little differences to the climate and environmental issues we are experiencing.

reedjosh 5y ago
From the article. > They also lease land to neighboring ranchers, whose grazing cattle aerate the soil with their hooves and add organic matter and nutrients via manure. Meat can and should be a part of regenerative ag. I recently visited a family friend's place/farm. A year ago, the soil was the typical cracked dry light tan clay ground that I have in my yard. It's quite typical in Oregon. This time, the soil was a dark color with tons of organic material and great water retention. This was entirely due to the grazing. They have goats and an alpaca. Ruminants are excellent for soil health, and the meat they produce is also great for human health.
- EricE 5y ago
  Yes - people dramatically underestimate the value of ruminants that can process plants that we can't.
  - pacomerh 5y ago
    I wish more people knew about this. It's amazing how little we know (as a whole) about what we eat
- knuthsat 5y ago
  There's really not that much meat in regenerative agriculture. Given the current per capita consumption of meat in kg, a regenerative ag operation could never accomplish that. Reducing to 4-30kg of meat per capita per year seems impossible. No one can even accomplish that with ruminants. That's why there's so much chicken everywhere, because accomplishing that with ruminants is near impossible, so chicken is advertised massively instead. A nitpick, there's no single food that is great for human health or bad for human health. Diet can contain various things and be healthy and it can also lack meat and be healthy.
  - andscoop 5y ago
    Do you have sources for this? I used to think similarly, but now I’m not so sure. Gabe Brown, the author of Dirt to Soil, changed my outlook on animals place in a healthy ecosystem. On his farmland he puts about 700k lbs of cattle on 1acre of land at a time, rotating those cattle frequently across 40 acres. He claims this practice has been an integral part of his regenerative ag method. http://brownsranch.us/grazing/ http://brownsranch.us/grazing/

cushychicken 5y ago

Cherry crops on the Flathead have been destroyed two of the last three years Very sad. I grew up in Bozeman, and I loved Flathead cherry season.

eli_gottlieb 5y ago

>This is true. One of the regenerative crop types are pulses (lentils, chick peas), and MT produces a lot. Interesting! I always sorta thought those were warm-weather crops.