Beyond the Field: Cooks Venture Project
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Hazelnut Planting / Photo Credit: Cooks Venture
Beyond the field: Cooks Venture Project
Broad scale agroforestry project on 17 poultry farms across the midwest
* Our “Beyond the Field” Series highlights select projects Fields Without Fences is working on to further regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, agroecology, environmental renewal, and permaculture within our state, region, and beyond.*
One of the larger projects we've been working on beyond our fields this spring is taking shape across 17 partner farms in the midwest. Cooks Venture, a meat wholesaler based in Arkansas approached our sister organization, Restoration Agriculture Development (RAD), to design and implement an agroforestry iniative across existing farms in their network to enhance biological diversity, poultry health and wellbeing, and environmental integrity.
More about the project from Cooks:
“Happy Earth Day! Did you know that by being a customer of Cooks Venture you are part of an ancient practice called silvopasture?
Great! But what is silvopasture? Within the practice of agroforestry — mixing trees with agricultural production — silvopasture integrates trees, pasture, and forage into a single system. Incorporating trees particularly improves land health and significantly increases carbon sequestration.
We’re thrilled to share our work with the visionary Mark Shepard. He and his RAD (Restoration & Agricultural Development) team worked with us in early April to plant 20,000 young hazelnut trees on our partner chicken farms, and back in 2020, we planted 9 small orchards including pear, stone fruits, and the rare, heirloom Arkansas black apple alongside hazelnuts and chestnuts on our property in Northwest Arkansas.
Research suggests that pastures strewn with trees sequester five-to-ten times as much carbon as those of the same size that are treeless, storing the carbon in both biomass and soil. Our new plantings will sequester over 960,000 pounds of carbon in the coming year!
Carbon aside, the advantages of silvopasture are considerable, including aerial predator protection, sun and heat protection, biodiversity and pollinator habitats, and forage from fruit and nuts, as well as increased insect activity.
And this is just the beginning! We’re on a mission to improve the lives of people, animals, and the planet through food and regenerative agriculture. We will continue to plant trees annually on both our farms and partners’ farms as a key piece of our regenerative agriculture program, reporting annually on the progress, growth, and carbon sequestration on these lands.”
