Regenerative. I'm sure you've been noticing the increasing attention this term in getting in agriculture these days. But what sets apart regenerative from organic and sustainable?
The word “sustainable” outside the context of the environment doesn’t sound very appealing. The dictionary defines it as “able to be maintained at a certain rate or level.” Sustainable gives the notion of just getting by. When we apply this to the way we manage the environment, soils and global trade - there is a sentiment towards reducing harm and our global footprint, but it resigns us to deterioration. We are removed from nature. We tiptoe around - disconnected, stumbling to maintain and feeling sorry. It operates to segregate problems and patch on solutions that put us one step forward and two steps back. Sustainable agriculture has the potential to cut down on resources and maintain our land for future generations of farming. But for how long? Can it rebuild soil? Habitat? Can it truly give back? Can it make the earth better then we found it? Looking around, it seems blatantly clear that sustainability isn’t cutting it; we can’t sustain and expect to survive in our current state. The stakes are too high. We need to do better - we need to regenerate.
Organic can have a very wide range of meanings. We have the little Market Gardener down the road who pours their soul into every leaf of spinach, spends the night in the chicken coop to make sure the hens are safe, who holds the soil and earthworms sacred, who plants for bees, and touches every seed. On the other end of the spectrum, we could have Big Ag down in California who tills the soil even more to keep down weeds, who sprays “natural” pesticides effecting your health (not to mention the bees), who pays their workers $7/day, who has never seen an earthworm and whose chickens have never seen sunlight. If you think about it – the fact that we even need an organic label is a tragedy. And in large, what we have defined to be organic is deeply disturbing. In industrial agriculture, organic has lost meaning; the bar is not set very high. If we are comparing it to conventional practices, organic on any level is a huge step up. But often, the goal is not health, not for you and not for the soil.
Regenerative is an approach that brings everything in and put ourselves within nature. We can leave it better then we found it. We are a continuation of the soil that our food is grown in. The goal is not just to “sustain” but to restore lands with our food production and bring benefit to all who passes through – the soil, animals, workers, communities, plants and bees while cooling the planet. It increases biodiversity, improves water sheds and enhance ecosystem services which in turn increases productivity and creates a resilient system.
One that can stand up to pests, disease or a year of drought. The key components of regenerative agriculture are keeping roots in soil, rotating crops, introducing cover crops, bio-diversity, the use of perennials and incorporating livestock. And it's doesn't only take into account farming practices but trade and labour too. It's a whole systems approach. The benefits are pest control/balance, thriving bird and pollinator populations, carbon sequestration, water retention, building and retaining topsoil, higher yields, resilient landscapes and thriving communities.
It is important and worthwhile to ask the questions of how do food systems operate? How do ecosystems operate? What cycles have been going on since the beginning of time and to contrast it to our current large-scale systems. We will quickly find that ecosystems thrive off of biodiversity, off of no waste, closed loop systems where the "waste" of one element is the need of another. A wholistic approach where everything is integrated.
Regenerative farming is beyond organic. I think it's time to reframe our lenses to also ask not only "Is it organic" but does it regenerate?
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