Fence Rows and Gut Health: A Macro Look at Microflora

The similarities between diverse ecologies never cease to amaze me. One area of life may seem to be totally unrelated to the next, but upon reflection, we notice that an extremely simple truth connects the two. Observing and understanding the simple and visible helps us grasp the complex and obscure. So it is with fence rows and gut health.

I recall with some chagrin my days as a young farmer in the early 90s. My wife, Dawn, and I took over the farm from my parents immediately upon returning from our wedding trip in August of 1990, and as a still wet-behind-the-ears 20-year-old, I naturally looked to those older and more educated for answers. Agricultural university experts, extension agents and the always helpful Monsanto reps seemed like trustworthy sources of information and advice. Since they all agreed, there seemed to be no need to look further.

And in relation to fence-row management, they did all agree. It was all about achieving the most perfect kill. Monsanto’s patented glyphosate herbicide Roundup was the most effective killing agent to be had. No grass or weeds were too tough. Roundup would kill everything— which was great, because vegetation, especially thistles growing on the fence line, was the enemy. They were “pathogenic” plants, and had to be eradicated. This was progress! We were defeating the enemy through anti-vegetation technology. And the fence rows became vegetation-free zones, just as we wanted them.