When Army Maj. Eric Czaja thinks about America’s military readiness, he doesn’t just think about soldiers, weapons or strategy. He thinks about soil. 

“We are grazing for national security,” Czaja says. “We are creating installations that can withstand the punishment we dish out in our training. We can do that with livestock as a tool.” 

Czaja leads the Regenerative Grazing Open Air Lab (R-GOAL) at the Naval Postgraduate School, a proof-of-concept initiative launched in September 2024 on 2,500 acres at Camp San Luis Obispo, California. His mission? To prove that adaptive multi-paddock grazing doesn’t just build healthier ecosystems in nature, it also enhances military effectiveness among the troops. 

Read more from Noble Research Institute here.

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