Big Give: Your Donations are Doubled

This week, your donations have double the impact, thanks to Big Give. If you have ever considered donating, or have £1 to spare, now is the time to do it. This week, Big Give will be doubling your donations as part of their Green Match Fund.

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Grain-fed norm

Around 70% of a typical British beef cattle herd’s diet is grass. But many beef animals are also fed grain for part of their lives to provide them with the additional nutrients they need to grow. This can take the form of cereals like barley, wheats, oats, imported soya, or food waste products including brewers grains, potatoes, broken biscuits, or tortillas.

Environment

The production of grain-based feed for animals impacts the environment through the oversupply of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous, impacting soil health and pasture diversity.

But soil under healthy pasture holds more carbon and is more weather resilient than soil under cereal crops.

Where food waste is depended upon, this raises the question of whether we should make food waste an integral part of the food system, rather than something we must prevent. (See the Food Waste Hierarchy.)

Nutrition

Each day that a beef animal spends eating grain, its supply of omega-3 fatty acids diminishes, resulting in reduced omega-3 in the final product.

When taken off pasture and finished on grain, they lose their valuable store of ALA (Alpha-Linolenic Acid) and other fatty acids essential for human development.

Flavour of your steak

Steak with white fat, marbling, soft texture, and mild, sweet flavour.

Pasture-raised alternative

Grazing animals don’t need grain to grow and can happily thrive on 100% pasture, unlike you and me. Pasture includes forage crops, grass, herbs, wildflowers, and clovers.

Environment

Low-input grazed land is more species rich and contains more legume and forb species than high-input grassland. It is also associated with taller pasture structure.

Above ground, this supports a diverse range of wildlife: from invertebrates, such as butterflies and bees, to mammals and birds. Remove grazing animals, and biodiversity is lost.

Below ground, expect improved soil moisture, carbon, nitrogen, and abundance of soil invertebrates. Plus, nutrients and organic matter returned to the earth in dung ensure that the soil remains healthy and fertile.

Nutrition

Meat from pasture fed animals equals lower total fat, increased omega-3, conjugated linoleic acid, vitamins A and E minerals like zinc, iron, phosphorous, sodium and potassium — that’s the good stuff we need in our diets.

FACT: 100g of pasture-only reared beef provides 18% of an adult male’s recommended daily intake of 27 key nutrients.

Flavour of your steak

Steak with yellow fat. The richness and depth of flavour reflects the landscapes the animals were grazed on: each product has its own unique ‘terroir’, just like wine or cheese.

Farmers make the difference

When farmers take the leap away from farming convention towards a pasture-based system — no matter where they’re starting from – they need the support and experience of other farmers who are already there.

And that’s what we’re all about.

We support any farmer to move towards profitable, pastured farming through on-farm events, evidence, a community, online learning and one-on-one mentoring.

We offer a community of the like-minded, dispelling myths and misconceptions to realise our vision that grazing animals power the regeneration of landscapes, economies, food cultures and communities.

Last year, PfL:

Reached 60,000+ people at speaking events
Delivered 213 events
With 2,827 attendees
Trained 93 farmers as mentors
Connected with 166 mentees

Now, we need your help.

Farming is at a crossroads. The depletion of Nature, Climate Change weather extremes, media misinformation, supermarket monopoly and government policy mean farmers are at breaking point.

But, there is an alternative. Pasture based livestock farming is both possible and profitable and that’s why we are asking for your support to accelerate our work with farmers.

This week, your support has double the impact

If you have ever considered donating, or have £1 to spare, now is the time to do it. This week, Big Give will be doubling your donations as part of their Green Match Fund.

£4 = learning resources and materials for farmers

£40 = 1 hour of one-on-one mentoring

£400 = farm walk for 30 attendees

“I have probably gained more timely, relevant and actionable information from this group than all of the other tools put together.” Andrew Hattan, Member and Farmer at Low Riggs Farm

“You have truly given me confidence and hope that farming can be a force for good, can be enjoyable and should be more than doing the day-to-day, engaging and seeing people and the world for what it is.” Mentee, North England