Regenerative Agriculture

So what is regenerative agriculture when it comes to our food? We’re starting to hear the word regenerative more and more, but is it just another buzzword or does it have real meaning? So let’s dig into this.

Regenerative agriculture is a farming model that really aims to improve the environment, soil, nutrition, our health, animal welfare, and communities. The goal of this is to form an agriculture that goes beyond doing no harm to the land but actually improves the land and helps to make it better for generations to come. This is done through methods like permaculture and organic farming practices, and it includes things like conservation, tillage, cover cropping, crop rotation, composting, mobile pasture, cropping, agroforestry, and so much more.

Most of us have heard the term organic, which means that it can’t be sprayed with industrial herbicides, pesticides, or even synthetic fertilizers. So what is the difference between organic and regenerative farming? Well, a lot of organic farmers do take care of the soil and add back to it. It’s not always guaranteed in organic farming that this will always be the case. You can still have an organic farmer that grows monocultures or uses too much organic fertilizer that ultimately destroys the soil. So regenerative farming takes it one step further where care for the soil is actually built into the definition.

Groups like Regeneration International have been trailblazers in this area and really have created concrete definitions providing support to farmers and organizations around the world. According to them, true regenerative agriculture doesn’t allow for the use of synthetic toxic pesticides or herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, GMOs, factory farming, tilling, or clear cutting the land that really are important ecosystems. By removing these toxic methods from our food systems and using practices that lead to healthier soil and increased soil carbon matter, we see a lot of benefits in many different ways.

In essence, what we’re really trying to do is work with nature instead of against it, and that’s why a switch to regenerative agriculture can show us so many beneficial items like we can produce more food that’s more resilient to climate events like droughts and flooding. This is because when we’re increasing soil organic matter, the soil can actually hold onto more water and absorb it better, so it’s more efficiently used. In cases of extreme weather and climate change, which we’re seeing more and more, yields on organic farms actually show significantly higher yields and more consistent yields than conventional farms.

We can decrease greenhouse gas emissions and actually help to reverse climate change. Currently, our food system is really responsible for the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are being released, and in fact, regenerative agriculture can do the opposite and be a part of the solution. Instead, when we strengthen our soils and grow, and by diverse ways, plants capture carbon from the air as a part of photosynthesis and release oxygen, we all hear about trees doing that, but that carbon can actually be stored in the soil where we see a lot of benefits for our nutrition, for soil health, and even microbe health.

We can also further protect our environment because biodiversity is preserved in this type of farming and encouraged, and it’s that idea of working with nature instead of against it. It really allows us to utilize nature’s defenses. We can revitalize local food economies, and they’ve essentially disappeared in many ways with the push to conventional farming where we’re growing monocultures of the same crop. People don’t have access to that local food economy where you can go to a farmer and pick up produce.

And now, as more and more farmers shift towards regenerative farming, we are opening that back up and creating greater access to produce instead of just commodity crops. We can also preserve traditional knowledge, and we have to remember that a lot of these farming techniques are from indigenous learnings around the world, and practicing this type of farming that is traditional, that knowledge is being preserved and taught to future generations, and that’s really, really powerful.

There are so many more benefits. It’s really endless, and that’s why it’s important to try and protect these farmers that are dedicating their lives to nurturing our soil and growing the food that we depend on. There’s a huge push right now from corporations more than ever to co-opt this term of regenerative agriculture. Companies like Bayer that produce genetically modified seeds and herbicides like Roundup that have actually been linked to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are ironically now doing campaigns and even documentary series on how they promote regenerative agriculture and are supporting farmers.

In doing so, we cannot give into this type of greenwashing that is really becoming prevalent, and instead, we have to do our research. We have to find out what’s real and what isn’t, and we do have to continue to support these amazing farmers that are doing their best for us and the environment. One thing is clear, our soil is the key to our health and the key to the health of the environment. For too long, we have fought with nature instead of working with it. And the solutions really do lie in realizing we are not separate, but instead we’re a part of this ecosystem that we inhabit.