08/06/2025
Some animals do still do better in a confined environment rather than just running free in nature, but the point is so many no longer have the connection with where their food comes from, how it's raised and what it's been given
When I was a young boy, my father always kept a sheep or two in the backyard. They would graze quietly, and when Easter came around, we celebrated the cycle of life, and it was always delicious.
My father learned this from his parents, and he passed it down to me. It was simply a part of living, something natural, something real, but somewhere along the way though, that knowledge was pushed aside, tucked away under the banner of health and safety. We were told we couldn’t live like that anymore, not allowed to farm our own animals, or allowed to live off our land the way generations before us had done, without being buried in paperwork.
Of course, on paper, we can still keep a sheep or a few chickens on our property. It’s not illegal. But the truth is, it’s getting harder and harder. The rules and conditions are different everywhere you go. One council might allow a sheep if you have enough land, another might say no altogether or bury you in paperwork and permits and regulations until you give up. They call it health, safety, biosecurity and I get it, to a point, but the end result is the same. Fewer and fewer people are raising their own animals or growing their own food, and that knowledge our ancestors once possessed is slipping away with every generation.
When I look back and compare the two ways of life, I can’t help but point to the white elephant in the room. There is plenty of science now to show that nothing improves soil health better than animals on pasture, sheep, chickens, a cow if you’ve got the space. They graze, they mow, they fertilise, and they cultivate the soil all in one motion. No synthetic fertilisers, no chemical inputs, just good, wholesome manure going straight from the animal to garden, the way nature intended.
Today, our gardens have shrunk to the size of a pathway where the sun barely reaches, and the soil we do have is anything but fertile. We don’t farm our own animals anymore we don’t have to close the carbon loop in our backyards anymore. Instead, it’s all done for us, wrapped up neatly in some plastic and handed/sold back to us. Bu**er me, what a mess. We have stripped away the lifestyle that kept us connected to the land. We have sterilised our surroundings and convinced ourselves that we are fragile beings who need to be protected by more chemicals, more interventions.
From where I sit, there are major flaws in the system. Just look at the carbon footprint. How is it better for the environment to mass-breed livestock in confinement, pump them full of treatments to keep them alive in unnatural conditions, ship their feed in from faraway places, truck them to be processed, package, freeze, store, transport again, and sell them to us, so we can drive to buy it, drive home, and then freeze or cook it ourselves? We all know the answer to that, it’s not better. It’s a ticking time bomb, wrapped in plastic.
Now, compare that to the old ways, a sheep or two in the backyard, a few chickens scratching about. Fence off the veggie garden, scoop up the manure now and then, throw it over the beds, and let nature do her work. No miles travelled, no pollution, no middlemen. Just life, feeding life. Simple, honest, and clean, the way it was always meant to be.
We can’t turn back time and undo the shrinkage of our properties. That chapter is behind us. But what we can do is support the farmers who are still doing it right, the ones who raise their livestock out on paddocks, not in cages. Farmers who work with the seasons and the soil, not against it. It’s a shift the industry needs to consider seriously if we are ever going to heal the land and ourselves. And the more we support these good farmers, the more we encourage better farming habits for the future.
The message here isn’t to scare or shame, but to awaken. To remind us that there is a better way, a way we already know deep down. To make us stop and think about where we are getting our food and fertiliser, what we are putting into our soils, and ultimately what we are putting into our bodies. The truth is, nature had it right all along. It’s us who have strayed, but we can always find our way back.
Maresi! 👍
