ASH CLOUD
by Ash Sweeting
Latest episode
We don’t need a perfect answer. We need a reliable answer with Tom…
We don’t need a perfect answer. We need a reliable answer with Tom…
About this podcast
This is series of conversations discussing global food sustainability with guests who bring a deep understanding of the environmental and cultural challenges facing our society and creative ideas on how to address them.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 87 episodes
- We don’t need a perfect answer. We need a reliable answer with Tom Sturgess, Methane Mitigation Ventures · 50 min · Season 1 Episode 88Consumers will pay a premium for climate-friendly red meat, but not the way you’re thinking about it. This premium is not a mark-up on any single purchase. It’s customer loyalty…
- Profitable climate solutions for small holder farmers with Devdut Dalal Mitti Labs · 49 min · Season 1 Episode 87Rice feeds more people than any other crop, and it is grown in a way that is quietly expensive. Globally, a third of all groundwater extraction goes to rice farming. And because…
- Government policy to address today's food system challenges with Robert Bonnie former Undersecretary of Agriculture, USDA · 45 min · Season 1 Episode 86Managing and mitigating risk runs through my whole conversation with Robert Bonnie. Since the Dust Bowl, USDA policy, the Farm Bill and especially crop insurance have given US…
- Beef sustainability, methane, and efficiency with Tom McDonald, US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef · 48 min · Season 1 Episode 84Beef sustainability frequently gets framed as something imposed on the ranchers and the industry from outside—regulatory requirements, consumer pressure, climate obligations…
- Feed efficiency on pasture: The next frontier with Matt Beck, Texas A&M · 41 min · Season 1 Episode 85The beef industry has spent decades optimizing feed efficiency in one place: the feedlot. Genetics have been selected for finishing performance, cattle are placed on feed at…
- Why telling people to eat less meat will never work - and what we can do instead with Bruce Friedrich, The Good Food Institute · 56 min · Season 1 Episode 83Meat consumption has risen every single year that the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has been measuring. Despite warnings about climate impacts spanning over a…
- Regenerative agriculture with Anastasia Volkova, Regrow Ag · 50 min · Season 1 Episode 82Forty leading global food and agriculture companies recently declared their commitment to regenerative agriculture. This unprecedented industry alignment signals that the sector…
- Feed efficiency and methane emissions with Ermias Kebreab, UC Davis · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 81The poultry and swine industries have transformed feed efficiency over the past two decades. Through systematic improvement in nutrition, enzyme utilization, and animal genetics…
- Artificial Intelligence, the need for reliable data, and where it will have the greatest impacts on agriculture with Aidan Connolly, Agritech Capital · 55 min · Season 1 Episode 80Artificial intelligence is advancing at an astonishing pace—improvements measured in five-thousand-fold increases from week to week according to AI researchers at Singularity…
- Building a company that leverages biological complexity to improve livestock productivity with a reduced climate impact - Tom Williams Number 8 Bio · 43 min · Season 1 Episode 79“I’m yet to meet a grazier that doesn’t want a 5-15% feed conversation ratio improvement.” says Tom Williams, CEO of Number 8 Bio. Producers motivated by not losing 10% of their…
- Building resilient agrifood systems across conflict zones and climate stressed regions with Bram Govaerts, CIMMYT · 59 min · Season 1 Episode 78The green revolution resulted in unprecedented improvements in the efficiency and productivity of food production. Recent decades of increasingly globalized free trade has…
- Leading US beef sustainability with Steve Wooten, Beatty Canyon Ranch · 1 h 1 min · Season 1 Episode 77The journey toward sustainable beef production in the United States began before the term "sustainability" entered common usage. Today we are joined by Steve Wooten, a rancher in…
- Data driven livestock production for feed efficiency with Andrew Freshwater Clear Creek Pastoral Co. · 49 min · Season 1 Episode 76Feed efficiency remains one of the biggest gray areas and least understood aspects of livestock production. Yet understanding how much grass a cow consumes to produce a calf or a…
- Cow feed efficiency, the greatest area of untapped potential for beef production, with Matt Wilson West Virginia University · 54 min · Season 1 Episode 75Feed efficiency, despite its importance from both an environmental sustainability and farm profitability perspective, remains one of the biggest gray areas and least understood…
- Investing in regenerative agriculture, the food system, and metabolic health with Carter Williams - iSelect Fund · 52 min · Season 1 Episode 73There is a huge amount we can learn from understanding the connections between soil health, food production, and human metabolic health. Over the last 50-60 years, modern…
- Breeding for profitable, efficient, locally adapted and sustainable cattle with Troy Rowan University of Tennessee · 47 min · Season 1 Episode 74Currently beef cattle production faces a profitability challenge driven by rising feed costs and efficiency gaps. For cow-calf operations, particularly where producers operate on…
- Low cost, locally produced zero emissions nitrogen fertilizer with Frere Byrne PlasmaLeap Technologies · 36 min · Season 1 Episode 72Over the last century our food systems have become increasingly reliant on synthetic nitrogen. This nitrogen fertilizer is mostly made through the energy intensive haber-bosch…
- Addressing the Climate, Agriculture, Landscape and Food Security Nexus through policy with Tobias Gräs Danish Agriculture and Food Council · 50 min · Season 1 Episode 71Denmark made headlines in 2024 as the first country to implement a carbon tax on livestock emissions. The country's ambitious 70% emissions reduction target by 2030 includes…
- Animal health as a climate solution with Nick Wheelhouse, Edinburgh Napier Univeristy · 52 min · Season 1 Episode 70Animal Health as a Climate and Food Security Solution In this episode of the Ash Cloud podcast, we explore an often-overlooked opportunity in the fight against climate change…
- Global food security, innovation, and the investment gap with Maximo Torero UNFAO · 1 h 3 min · Season 1 Episode 69The cost living is an increasing global challenge. Food inflation in 2023 was 13.6%, however food prices increased by up to 30% in many low income countries. Currently 60-80% of…
