Can Regenerative Agriculture Really Heal Humans And The Planet? (2024)

FAQs

Can Regenerative Agriculture Really Heal Humans And The Planet? ›

Regenerative agriculture sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide, reversing industrial agriculture's contributions to climate change. Regenerative practices such as no till farming and cover cropping are reducing erosion and water pollution, and in turn, producing healthier soils.

Regenerative agriculture offers some benefits, even if it falls short on many of its claims. Research shows that it can boost soil health and in some cases can be profitable for farmers.

Regenerative farming on 40% of the world's cropland would save around 600 million tons of emissions. This is around 2% of the total, equivalent to the footprint of Germany.

Difficult To Do on a Large Scale

Regenerative farming is also difficult to do on a mass scale. The need for crop rotation limits how many types of produce can be grown at one time. Plus, adopting holistic grazing techniques requires greater land mass than traditional agriculture.

Regenerative agriculture can also deliver more equitable land and food access across communities worldwide.

Focusing only on soil carbon on a given farm or ranch, without taking account of the GHG footprint and impact of off-farm fertility and feed inputs and how that feed was grown, creates a “regenerative” illusion that practiced at global scale would do little to nothing to shift the disaster of our current industrial ...

The current high erosion rates throughout the world are of great concern because of the slow rate of topsoil renewal; it takes approximately 500 years for 2.5 cm layer of fertile topsoil to form under agricultural conditions.

The Rise of Regenerative Agriculture

In the 1990s, Regenified founder Gabe Brown fell into this holistic style of agriculture due to struggles on his North Dakota family farm.

Robert Rodale (pictured) coined the term "regenerative organic" to describe a holistic approach to farming that encourages continuous innovation and improvement of environmental, social, and economic measures.

In fact, Rodale Institute reported in a white paper, that the enormous amount of recent data on soil carbon sequestration shows that regenerative agriculture “could drawdown more than 100 percent of annual CO₂ emissions.”

Why is regenerative agriculture controversial? ›

Lack of Knowledge and Understanding: One of the primary challenges is the limited understanding of the risks and rewards associated with regenerative agriculture practices. Additionally, the lack of local information and resources makes it challenging for farmers to navigate the implementation process.

Organic farming serves as an important step toward reducing chemical inputs, but regenerative practices offer a broader and more proactive approach to fostering ecological balance and resilience. The choice between the two ultimately depends on the extent to which farmers aim to heal and enrich the land they cultivate.

The opposite of regenerative agriculture is conventional agriculture—which involves fields of only one crop, spraying pesticides, and separating animals into crowded feed lots.

According to Dr Kristine Nichols, a soil microbiologist and regenerative agriculture expert, of the 900 million arable acres in the U.S., only about 1.5% is being farmed regeneratively.

Farmers have been doing so for up to 8000 years, but since the beginning of the 20th century, man-made, synthetic fertilizers have helped secure food for a fast-growing world population. In fact, we're now past the point of being able to survive without it.

From grazing and land management services to value-added products and agritourism options, there are plenty of opportunities to generate income while improving the health of your land and community.

Notably, after learning more about regenerative agriculture, 73% of consumers agreed they would be more likely to trust retailers and brands that implement regenerative agriculture programs, and 72% agreed that they would be more likely to purchase from them.

The study found that the farms with regenerative practices were 78% more profitable than conventional plots. This increase in profitability was the result of two main factors: input costs and end markets.

Regenerative agriculture techniques

By keeping living roots in the soil, cover crops reduce soil erosion, increase water retention, improve soil health, increase biodiversity, and more. They can be planted during harvest time or in between rows of permanent crops.