Las Dos Hermanas • Argentina
By Janis Blackschleger, October, 2014
By Janis Blackschleger, October, 2014
Grass, Water, Cows from The Perennial Plate on Vimeo.
https://vimeo.com/91929288:” In Argentina, beef is a way of life. But over the last few decades, the traditional methods of raising cows on grass has faded away, only to be replaced by the feedlot model. At Las dos Hermanas Ranch, they maintain the old ways of managing the grass, the water and the cows.”
At Las dos Hermanas Estancia, today a 4,000 hectare mixed organic farm and cattle ranch in the Province of Córdoba, valued Argentinian cultural traditions thrive by managing the grass, water and cows in new, ecologically sound, and sustainable ways.
While the story of the estancia dates back to the 1890s — then a tract of land known as Fortin Las Tunas — the spark for Los Dos Hermanas to evolve to what it is today was lit in the 1960s. When the two sisters, Rachel and Pamela Schiele, read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. The sisters realized the farming being done at 2H was harming the environment, and began to make changes. In 1984 they achieved cessation of all uses of insecticides, and later herbicides, and were certified as organic in 1992.
Foundation Rachel & Pamela Schiele registered as a UK charity in 1994, to continue the two sisters’ vision in perpetuity: to ensure “Conservation of flora, fauna and the soil in the central pampas region of Argentina, by farming commercially on organic principles and promoting field research and education.”
While the story of the estancia dates back to the 1890s — then a tract of land known as Fortin Las Tunas — the spark for Los Dos Hermanas to evolve to what it is today was lit in the 1960s. When the two sisters, Rachel and Pamela Schiele, read Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. The sisters realized the farming being done at 2H was harming the environment, and began to make changes. In 1984 they achieved cessation of all uses of insecticides, and later herbicides, and were certified as organic in 1992.
Foundation Rachel & Pamela Schiele registered as a UK charity in 1994, to continue the two sisters’ vision in perpetuity: to ensure “Conservation of flora, fauna and the soil in the central pampas region of Argentina, by farming commercially on organic principles and promoting field research and education.”