Angus Mcintosh (A.K.A Farmer Angus), is on a quest to promote a regenerative agricultural system that is beneficial not only for your health and the environment, but also for the animals involved and the economy. You read right, burgers can be good for your health!
I was privileged to spend the day with Farmer Angus and was given the opportunity to meet the livestock, pick fresh vegetables and build my own grass-fed burger, writes Cape {town} Etc’s James Redman. An experience that shed some light on important facts that we all should bite into.
Farmer Angus is based at Spier Wine Farm in Stellenbosch where his agricultural initiatives are thriving. Angus is deeply concerned with the state of our nation’s health due to the harrowing fact that the vast majority of South Africans are consuming poisonous, genetically modified (GMO) food products on a daily basis.
These modified products contain glyphosate; a carcinogenic herbicide used to kill weeds and broadleaf plants that compete with crop growth. Furthermore, the meat we consume is pumped with hormones and anti-biotics in an attempt to grow livestock bigger and faster whilst keeping it disease-free (a challenging task when placed against the horrific conditions these animals are confined to).
*The following PETA video is not for sensitive viewers. It contains graphic scenes of animal cruelty and suffering.
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The bottom line is that this agricultural sector does not care about the health of the planet, its consumers, or the animals involved, as the farming procedures are all geared towards capitalistic gain.
Farmer Angus stressed the severity of anti-biotic resistance in South Africa as a result of eating these contaminated meat products, and sees it as his duty to educate people by raising awareness. In doing so, he hopes to promote a movement that is based in regenerative agricultural practices, producing animal products that are anti-biotic and hormone free.
Cue your healthy burger!
Farmer Angus showed me how his regenerative farming practices work, all of which were based on rotational grazing. The first stop on the farm was at the ‘egg-mobiles’; mobile chicken houses used to fertilise the soil.
The egg-mobiles coup hens who lay their eggs inside of these large trailer-like structures. The doors to the egg-mobiles remain open permanently so that the hens can graze as they please, fertilising the land in the process. A wholesome cycle (that’s actually just practical).
The egg-mobiles are moved every single day of the year, preventing over-grazing and allowing the soil to regenerate. Regenerative farming practices can reverse climate change by rebuilding the soils organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity, resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving water cycles.
Carbon drawdown, is the process of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locking it away for decades or centuries in plants, soils, oceans, rocks, saline aquifers, depleted oil wells, or long- lived products like cement.
When asked if his chickens were free-range, Angus responded in saying that the use of that term is very misunderstood from a consumer perspective. Here’s why:
Consumers believe that free range chickens roam happily in a pasture like the chickens at Spier do, but this is so far removed from the truth. In reality they are crammed in large immobile warehouses, standing in their own faeces, completely overgrazing and destroying the soil beneath them.
Next up we visited the pigs.
Like the chickens, the pigs also play a role in regeneration. Angus referred to the pigs as his tractors that we eat when they’re done working. These happy hogs turn up the soil and fertilise the land much in the same way as the chickens do, only with a significantly larger amount of force and a whole lot of grunting.
Angus’ pigs are the only pigs in the country that are glyphosate free and are cured without the use of poisonous nitrates and phosphates.
Finally, we met the cows, who are also part of the rotational grazing scheme.
Moving keeps the animals and soil healthy. Angus stresses that commercially farmed cattle get sick due to nutrient deficient soil as a result of over grazing. The cows at Spier are happy and healthy just like the soil they fertilise beneath them.
Angus’ cows also treat themselves to what is called a ‘free-choice-mineral-lick’, a kind of mineral buffet stacked with all the important nutrients the cows need to stay healthy. These animals are intuitive enough to know exactly what they might be lacking, and simply visit the lick for a quick top up.
In 2013, Farmer Angus became the first person in the world to sell carbon credits for increasing the carbon contents of the pastures where the cattle graze.
Farmer Angus strongly agrees with a statement made by Wendell Berry saying that, “We are all farmers by poxy.”
By choosing to purchase and consume GMO, hormone and anti-biotic free products, you make an active decision to improve your own health, the health of the planet, and refuse to support an industry that is viciously cruel to the animals it oppresses.
Visit Farmer Angus’ website to find out more about his incredibly delicious grass-fed burger patties here: www.farmerangus.co.za
Book for upcoming farm tours with farmer Angus at Spier:
- Dates: 20 February, 20 March, 17 April
- Email: [email protected]
Harvest your own organically grown vegetables at Spier:
- Dates: Monday to Friday
- Cost: R150
- Bookings: www.spier.co.za
Better yet, head over to Spier to pick your own garnish and collect some delicious Farmer Angus patties. Buns? Vadas Smokehouse and Bakery (also located on the Spier property) has you covered.
WATCH:
Also read:
You can now harvest your own fruit and veg at Spier’s new food garden
Pictures: James Redman, Cape {town} Etc
