What is regenerative agriculture?

Some of you might have asked, “what is regenerative agriculture?” while reading my chapter 1 blog post. In a very simplified nutshell, regenerative farming is exactly what it sounds like.  It is the use of farming and grazing practices that give back to the soil what the process of farming consumes. 

Industrialization of farming

Over the course of many decades, massive industrial farming facilities have replaced grandpa and grandma’s farm.  Modern industrial farming has taken the traditional concept of farming, which many of us might still bring to mind when thinking of farming, and turned it into a mega-machine.  This machine has become a highly efficient, and extraordinarily robotic process. It removes all factors from the equation aside from profit and convenience and has become known as “big ag.” or big agriculture. 

Industrial farming makes it possible to grab that $5 roasted chicken from the supermarket deli when you’re too tired to cook. It is also the reason those oddly pale and typically tasteless strawberries are available at Christmas, at a minimal cost.  It is now, so easy to mass-produce meat and produce, that the cost of food has gone down over time.  Unfortunately, like so many other things that seem too good to be true, this industrialization has had some severe unintended consequences.  Sadly, those consequences have created a crisis for our land and farmers. 

The problem is…

Industrial practices involve using colossal equipment to till the soil and harvest the crops.  This sounds perfectly logical.  However, the unintended result has been the destruction of the topsoil. In the tilling and harvesting processes, plant roots and other organic matter and nutrients are destroyed and removed. This results in several undesirable scenarios. The first is drought destruction. The organic matter acts as a sponge to soak up and hold rainwater. When the sponge is destroyed, the soil can’t absorb or hold water, the inevitable result is runoff, erosion, and finally, crop destruction. Rainwater rolls off of the land and straight into the waterways. In areas where rainfall is already scarce, this is a particularly serious problem.

Compounding the loss of organic matter in the soil, oxygen, and other nutrients are also lost. Oxygen is important to the health of the plants as well as other life within the soil. Life within the soil includes earthworms, fungi, and microbes that benefit crops. Nutrients are lost as fewer and fewer farmers graze animals on the land. Instead, farmers opt for huge industrial meat farming facilities. Animal grazing offers many benefits to the land, one of the most important being the natural fertilizer they produce and distribute. The logical answer to this problem is to just replace those nutrients, right?  Synthetically manufactured chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides are shipped and applied in confounding volumes to the depleted soils.  While on a superficial level this makes sense, the practice has created another cascade of negative consequences.

Side note

Extensive information exists regarding the consequences of the use of synthetic chemicals and fertilizers. However, that is for another day. I will mention that this practice is almost completely a waste when the soil is unable to absorb water. When it rains the water rolls off of the land like it’s a duck’s back, taking with it all of those chemicals.  Here is a great resource for finding out more about this:  https://www.nrdc.org/stories/industrial-agricultural-pollution-101

Collateral damage

The ramifications of these practices have devastated countless farms and livelihoods around the world. The land has been depleted and is no longer able to support life. Family farms that have been in operation for decades or even centuries are disappearing in droves. Farmaid.org is a good place to learn more about this issue: https://www.farmaid.org/blog/fact-sheet/understanding-economic-crisis-family-farms-are-facing/  This is also a good cause if you’re inspired to do something about the problem.

Industrial agricultural practices have also contributed to global climate change. The destruction of organic matter allows for the release of carbon, previously trapped within the soil, into the atmosphere.  The use of machinery. The manufacturing of synthetic products. The hauling of products both on and off the land. All of this results in additional carbon release.

So what now?

Depressing right?  Well, yeah.  But not hopeless.  Although regenerative agriculture is not a new concept, it has been slow to take root, so to speak.  The reasons for this are many.  Too many and too complex for me to theorize upon.  However, some of the common barriers include the following. Cost– many believe the changes require substantial investment in “re-tooling” the farm. In actuality, switching to regenerative practices is typically less expensive.  Time– may require a significant time investment in learning new practices.  Fear of ridicule– many traditional farmers believe regenerative farming is a “hoax” or that it is a fad.  

 In any case, the fact is, many traditional farmers who have exhausted all other avenues and options in attempts to save their farms are starting to warm up to regenerative farming practices. These unfamiliar practices are giving farmers a way to save their legacies. Regenerative practices allow many to continue doing what they love while repairing the damaged lands.

No-till crop management, cover crops, rotational planting and grazing, natural fertilizers produced by the animals themselves, and composting the byproducts of the farm. These are only a few of the practices defining regenerative agriculture.

Regeneration

No-till farming involves planting and harvesting crops with minimal disturbance of the valuable organic matter within the topsoil.  This not only increases water absorption but also provides a more nutritive and healthier growth environment for the crops.  In turn, this means that the need for adding junk to the soil decreases.

Cover crops are just what they sound like.  They provide cover for the soil between plantings, allowing the soil to retain more water and more of the sun’s energy.  To grossly oversimplify, the sun powers photosynthesis in the plants. In this process, carbon is removed from the atmosphere, and oxygen is produced.

Composting and using animal waste on the land replaces lost nutrients and microbes. Many of these nutrients are removed naturally, by the crops and livestock themselves, in the growth process.  This not only helps regenerate the soil but eliminates waste and pollution produced in the manufacture and transport of synthetic products. 

Bonus

Eliminating the use of chemical pesticides has obvious benefits including potentially stemming the mass decline in bee/pollinator species.  Moreover, the use of chemical pesticides has had major not so great effects on human health. Alas, that is also for another day, another post.

Managing and rotating livestock grazing protects the soil and allows the natural distribution of the organic by-products (poop and pee) of grazing.  Additionally, this type of livestock management can increase pasture and livestock productivity, while reducing the numbers of pests and pathogens otherwise present. This, in turn, reduces the need for hefty doses of preventative antibiotics and other medications livestock receive under industrial farming conditions.

Why isn’t everyone doing this?

All of this seems like a win-win, right?  These practices most certainly offer us a branch out of the quicksand we have inadvertently landed in. However, they also require work and commitment.  After all, the reduction of work is precisely what industrial agriculture does.  It isn’t just “big ag.” that is guilty of this. This is what we aim to do each and every day with the research and development of new technology and products.  We have ALL become fully accustomed to and reliant upon our conveniences.  A reliance which becomes embarrassingly clear when the toilet paper aisle is stripped bare, our phone battery dies, and the power goes out, leaving us in the dark, unable to wipe our backsides, and incapable of ordering more TP on Amazon.

What I am trying to say, basically, is the same thing grandpa used to always say. “If it seems too good to be true…” Or was it, “Thinking is the hardest work there is. That’s why nobody does it”. No wait, he used to always say, “nobody gets out of here alive”.  Damn, that can’t be it.  Oh, hell, I don’t remember.  The point is, nothing good comes easily. We have to begin to think about the consequences of our actions!

Want to know more?

Still, wondering what is regenerative agriculture or just want more info? There are many folks, vastly more qualified than I, who have written books. Books on regenerative agriculture, books on sustainable farming practices, books on the plight of the family farmer. There are many books!

Entertaining and informative YouTube channels dedicated to these subjects are plentiful.  If you desire to learn more than the simplified tidbits, I have given you here, I encourage you to do it! 

To name just a few, but certainly not all of the authors I recommend I would include Joel Salatin, Allan Savory, Allan Nation, Gabe Brown, and Mark Shepherd.  Take a gander and let me know what you think, or add your favorites to the list below. Here is a link to Regeneration International if you’re in the mood as well as the other links that appeared throughout the post. 

And, if you haven’t already read the wildly entertaining blog post that spawned this article check it out!

https://regenerationinternational.org/why-regenerative-agriculture/

Understanding the Economic Crisis Family Farms are Facing

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/industrial-agricultural-pollution-101

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