Graze Against the Machine® is how we farm, live and breathe
"Every decision we make takes the entire ecosystem into account for the next 7 generations" - Farmer Sue
Ozark Akerz Regenerative Farm is located on Lumbee/Skaruhreh/Tuscarora Land. We farm with respect for the gifts that plants and animals provide. We raise Heritage Pineywoods Cattle, and a variety of of heritage chickens who are protected from hawks by a guard-turkey name Romeo. Romeo loves to be the center of attention when people come to visit. We are on a journey to follow indigenous Honorable Harvest an ancient wisdom that grounds our approach to regenerative farming. Many have asked us what regenerative farming is. Although it's difficult to summarize in one paragraph because it encompasses so much, this comes pretty close to it's essence for us right now, but if you come back in six months it will have evolved. We take slow and deliberate steps in our adoption of the Honorable Harvest principles, honoring the wisdom through understanding, practice and unlearning of other practices. :
We will care for the land that has adopted us. We will do so with respect, working in harmony with nature for healthy and vigorous soil and plants and improving the quality of life for wild and domestic animals. We embrace the 7th Generation Principle of indigenous nations around the world: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
We will care for the land that has adopted us. We will do so with respect, working in harmony with nature for healthy and vigorous soil and plants and improving the quality of life for wild and domestic animals. We embrace the 7th Generation Principle of indigenous nations around the world: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
Graze Against the Machine
The practices farmers choose to manage their farm are very personal. We have heard from other regenerative farmers that, like ours, their voices are consistently drowned out. Corporate noise and big-budget special interests, what we collectively call “the machine”, are hard to compete with. Inspired by one of farmer Mike's favorite bands, Rage Against The Machine who's lyrics express revolutionary political views, Graze Against The Machine® is an effort to make our voices heard and start a conversation about regenerative farming.
Our farm is an ecosystem that includes soil, plants, insects, birds, reptiles, fungi and mammals. All are interrelated and the decisions we make about one affects the others. Listening and learning from nature guides our decisions. Here are a few examples:
Current projects to improve ecological health at Ozark Akerz include but are not limited to:
Learn more about our animal welfare and regenerative farming practices
The practices farmers choose to manage their farm are very personal. We have heard from other regenerative farmers that, like ours, their voices are consistently drowned out. Corporate noise and big-budget special interests, what we collectively call “the machine”, are hard to compete with. Inspired by one of farmer Mike's favorite bands, Rage Against The Machine who's lyrics express revolutionary political views, Graze Against The Machine® is an effort to make our voices heard and start a conversation about regenerative farming.
Our farm is an ecosystem that includes soil, plants, insects, birds, reptiles, fungi and mammals. All are interrelated and the decisions we make about one affects the others. Listening and learning from nature guides our decisions. Here are a few examples:
- When we choose to buy organic straw from Cohen Farm to put in the chicken coop, we do so with the knowledge that the when the straw is cleaned out of the coop, we will compost it for use as a natural fertilizer in our garden. If we purchase straw that has not been grown with organic practices, we don't know what kind of chemicals are found in the straw, chemicals that could end up in our garden, affecting or preventing the growth of our plants. That, along with supplementing our birds diet with non-soy, organic feed means we get the best fertilizer around!
- We decided to raise Heritage Pineywoods Cattle because they are much more heat tolerant to conditions in North Carolina, they are disease and pest resistant and will eat and thrive on forages that many commercial breeds such as Angus, do not. They eat wild herbs, shrubs, vines and trees as well as grass, a varied diet that they have been used to eating for centuries. The Pineywoods keep the under-story of our woods cleaned out and allow the trees to grow stronger. They also help control kudzu which is an invasive vine that can choke out native plants. In fact they love kudzu so much that they will eat it before they browse other forages.
- Our soil is filled with a living array of diverse microbes that we call the soil microbiome. When spraying herbicides or pesticides on plants, it leaches into the soil and disrupts and can kill these microbes. We think of the soil as a living-being that needs to be nurtured, not poisoned. Just like humans, soil, and the plants that grow in it, thrive when they have a healthy microbiome. As part of feeding our soil, we amend it with our own concoction of probiotics - that we ferment with ingredients on the farm - and add to the organic compost that we spread in the garden.
Current projects to improve ecological health at Ozark Akerz include but are not limited to:
- Pineywoods Cattle improving forest health by eating invasive plants like kudzu, brambles, poison ivy etc
- Encouraging Milkweed stands for Monarch Butterflies
- Introduction of Native plant species to grow a Food & Medicine Forest
- Improving Soil microbiome by planting cover crops and amending with raw milk to add Lactobacillus
- Growing Native perennial foods, e.g. Indian potatoes aka. ground nuts (Apios Americana)
- Increasing Dung beetle population for healthy pastures and cows
- Organic straw in the chicken house + Organic hay bales = topsoil, worms and fertilizer in garden and Food & Medicine Forest
- Biodiversity - Over 500 species of plants, insects, birds, mammals, mollusks etc verified
- Sustaining Forest for a 800 tons of carbon capture annually
Learn more about our animal welfare and regenerative farming practices
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Farmer Sue
"I have always been interested in how nutrition affects health, doubly so since my fight with cancer. I'm very disheartened by the lack of flavor and nutrition in today's food and have struggled to find flavorful food like I ate as a kid on the farm in Missouri. That is what drove me to start Ozark Akerz. The positive feedback we're getting about the amazing flavor of our wild-foraged Pineywoods Heritage Beef and is so encouraging! I want to make it less of a struggle for people to find flavor and it looks like we're making that happen!" |
Farmer Mike
"I could never have imagined how much our personal concept of sustainable farming would evolve. It's all about establishing an understanding of 'local', and that includes the soil, the animals (wild and domestic), the plants (native or sowed), the insects, the weather and their relationship to each other. Our practices have evolved from sustainable (maintaining) into regenerative farming, based on the understanding of these relationships, they comprise our local ecosystem." |
Learn more
Learn more about our regenerative farming practices on our blog or YouTube channel or view beautiful photographs of the farm. Have fun and enjoy Grazing Against the Machine with us!
Learn more about our regenerative farming practices on our blog or YouTube channel or view beautiful photographs of the farm. Have fun and enjoy Grazing Against the Machine with us!
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