Regenerative Explained
Regenerative agriculture is a philosophy or way of thinking about agriculture through an alternative lens than that of the current mainstream. Acknowledging that growing food and managing land is not all about purchasing inputs and selling goods produced. Rather we farmers are an integral part of a complex web that sustains all life on earth. A web that includes interconnected natural cycles that have gone on for millions of years! The minerals, water, air, plants, animals, insects, fungi and yes even humans are all a part of this complex system!
The modern westernized mentality has created separation from humans and the rest of nature. This way of thinking and living has exploited and depleted what was once an abundant and balanced ecosystem. Many of the ecological and environmental disasters of this age are a result of human mismanagement and utter disregard for nature.
Regenerative ag is a way of going back to our roots and tapping into the deep knowledge of our indigenous ancestors while also using modern day technology and science to deepen our understanding of how our management practices are affecting the land and environment for better or for worse. Regenerative ag is all about increasing organic matter and building up topsoil rather than depleting it. Its all about enhancing biodiversity in the soil and above it including in the streams ponds, rivers lakes and even the oceans. It is about capturing carbon and other toxins out of the environment and storing them safely in the soil. Respect for all life including our livestock and human relationships means having the most humane animal welfare practices and also creating happy healthy lives for ourselves, our employees and our community. Acknowledging the mistakes and the success of our present and past is important for our growth and understanding of how our management effects the land and environment in the short and long term. Using scientific research enables us to verify ideas and intuitions that we have from our own experience and observations and helps us become even better stewards of our land and the planet. Regenerative agriculture begins with the soil on one piece of land but it is a global movement with a common goal of restoring our connection to nature and healing the deep wounds that have been inflicted by our modern day extractive societies.
We have developed some guiding principles for our own farm that help us make management decisions and evaluate our best practices in real time on the farm. Keep in mind there can be many more principles and there is no one size fits all regenerative solution as everyone’s circumstances are different in different parts of the world.
1. Learn From History: There is so much to learn by studying the mistakes of the past and restoring the knowledge and practices of our indigenous ancestors who worked with nature to produce food and sustain civilizations for thousands of years.
2. Build Organic Matter: Organic matter is probably the single most straightforward way to test if your practices are actually making a positive or negative impact on the land…the goal is to increase organic matter which means that you are building top soil rather than depleting it!
3. Clean Water: Simply put, water is the source of all life. Clean water is crucial to supporting a healthy ecosystem. This means ensuring minimal runoff and erosion on our land and keeping our water clean all the way from our streams and ponds to our rivers, lakes and oceans.
4. Enhance Biodiversity: Under the soil there is more life than above (think mycorrhizal fungi, nematodes, earth worms, bacteria and so much more)it so providing lots of habitat for the web of life in the soil is foundational and just as important is providing abundant habitat and food for all the wildlife above the ground (insects, birds, plants, rabbits, deer, turkey, foxes etc.) is part of our role as regenerative stewards of the landscape. Every living thing serves a unique purpose in the complex web of life and when we lose this diversity the chain is broken and the whole system suffers.
5. Respect for Life: This certainly includes our livestock and giving them the best life possible but also includes wildlife as well as humans! Our own quality of life, that of our employees and of our community are all crucial to the long term success of our operations. The human element cannot be overlooked as we are the managers of this complex system and without our management the system will no longer be serving the purpose of growing an abundance of nourishing foods for the human population to be sustained.
6. Capturing Carbon: This is less of a principle but more of a foundational pillar. Taking carbon and other toxins out of the atmosphere was not even one of our original goals but as it turns out climate scientists have been finding that on a global scale the ecosystem service might actually be just as valuable as the food that we are producing and the biodiversity that we are promoting! Amazing!!
7. Collaboration: Regenerative ag is a global movement of folks with the common goal of healing our soils, water, climate, human health and the overall health of our planet for future generations to enjoy! But on a more local community level collaboration between farmers, food processors and community organizations is super important! Creating replicable cooperatively owned farming business models will help to spread prosperity and opportunities for a variety of different types of people to work together and support each other. This will help break the age old wealth gaps and consolidation of power and money by taking away the need for mega corporations owned by the ultra-rich and instead spreading the wealth more evenly across the countryside. Too often we see folks getting into regenerative ag with the “American dream” of independence and self reliance and within 5-10 years they get completely burnt out and dis heartened by the enormity of the work, the struggle of a steep learning curve and the lack of community support and markets to sell their goods. Collaboration and cooperative models are crucial for the widespread and long term success of the Regenerative Agriculture movement.
So how does this translate into real life management decisions and best practices on our own regenerative farm? When setting goals and making plans for our land management and production we consider all of our regenerative principles and can use them as a test, does this idea pass all of the categories? If its failing in one area that means something need to shift because its important to remember that we are working with an interconnected web and when one piece of this web is broken the whole system suffers.
Examples of systems that fail the test:
- Animals raised in confinement do not pass the respect and love for animals or the quality of life for people. This also fails the biodiversity enhancement test and often leads to other ecological failures such as polluting water ways. FAIL FAIL FAIL
- Spraying herbicides, Pesticides and petroleum based fertilizers or the use of heavy tillage and monoculture production all fail pretty much every category! Loss of biodiversity in the soil and above, loss of organic matter and top soil, increased runoff and pollution to the waterways. Intensive fossil fuel use (so adding to the carbon in the atmosphere rather than capturing it in the soil. Reliance on big ag and the petroleum monopolies. Fail fail fail so many fails!
- Industrialized multi national farming operations rarely pass due to extractive methods, pollution, poor working conditions, exploitation of labor and the top down control of money and power by the very rich. Big ole Fail. (there are a few exceptions to this but they are very few, one example is Pasturebird owned by Purdue)
- Livestock overgrazing pasturelands and standing in creeks ponds and rivers cause erosion of the topsoil and pollution of the waterways so livestock need to be managed properly in order to pass the test. Also feeding ruminates grain products is an unnecessary use of an intensive form of agriculture (grain production) because ruminants are designed to thrive on just pasture!! Likewise feeding animals grain that is produced using main stream production methods fail the test even if those animals are being rotated on pasture properly…we must think big picture here!
Examples of methods that pass the test:
- Mimicking nature by rotating livestock on pasture and leaving long rest periods and incorporating a diversity of perennial plants ensures that the ground is always covered and lots of habitat for all kinds of wildlife. This kind of grazing system achieves all the goals and principles in a wonderfully well-balanced way!
- Crop rotations, cover cropping, perennial planting, native grasslands, intercropping, low till and no till methods of preparing the soil are all examples of vegetable and cropping methods that meet all the requirements and goals of regenerative agriculture.
- Using livestock in crop/pasture rotation to build fertility is an example of cycling nutrients in a regenerative system that requires little inputs and enhances the ecosystem.
- Cooperative and collaborative models such as aggregating other local regenerative products through a shared marketing/ sales channel, working with local processors of value added products such a milling grains, meat processing, food preservation, baking, creameries etc., creating a network of local farmers that support each other share equipment, knowledge and services…these are the kinds of relationships that a regenerative system need to grow and thrive for generations to come!
There is no silver bullet, no perfect solution and everyone’s circumstances are different in a world that is constantly changing. So we will continue to learn and adapt as we strive to be the best stewards of land and producers of food possible. No doubt our guidelines and principles will shift over time as well. But no matter what the core belief is the same…every single thing that we do as humans has an impact on the planet either a positive or negative. The regenerative mindset is that we want to do as much good as possible and when our practices do cause harm we acknowledge that, learn from it and make a new plan to fix the problem. One day I believe that this new mindset and way of approaching agriculture could completely replace current main stream agriculture resulting in a much healthier and more stable planet where humans once again can interact and participate in nature and enjoy all the bounty and wonder that it has to offer!