Green rebranding: Regenerative agriculture, future‐pasts, and the naturalisation of livestock

• DOI: 10.1111/tran.12555
• Publication Date: 2022-06-11T10:44:24Z
• Authors: George Cusworth; Jamie Lorimer; Jeremy Brice; Tara Garnett
• Keywords: Naturalisation; Rebranding; Temporalities; Anthropocene

Anxieties around the relationship between livestock agriculture and environmental crisis are driving sustained discussions about place of beef dairy farming in a sustainable food system. Proposed solutions range from 'clean-cow' intensification to 'no-cow', animal free futures, both which encourage disruptive break with past practice. This paper reviews alternative proposition regenerative that naturalises production by invoking justify future, nature-based solutions. Drawing on fieldwork UK, it first introduces two most prominent strands this green rebranding cattle: naturalisation ruminant methane emissions optimisation soil carbon sequestration via use grazing animals. Subsequent thematic analysis outlines three political strategies post-pastoral storytelling, ecological baselining probiotic model bovine biopolitics perform naturalisation. The conclusion assesses potential risks approach grounding geographies temporalities agricultural transition Anthropocene: an epoch time is out joint natures multiple non-analogue, such they provide slippery contested grounds for