Before modern farming introduced tilling and synthetic chemicals, indigenous cultures used nature's original design to grow food and fibers. Today's industrialized approach has left our soils depleted of nutrients and the essential microbial life that makes soil work best for the entire ecosystem.
Regenerative Agriculture returns us to nature's design to protect and restore soil, heal earth's ecosystems, conserve and provide clean water, healthy food, equity, and a sustainable climate and future.
Regenerative farming practices such as no-till/low-till, composting, crop rotation, cover cropping, removing/reducing synthetic inputs, and rotational livestock grazing help improve soil health, increase nutrient-dense food production, and protect our lands.
The regenerative community supports each other because we know these efforts help us all. We are excited for the day when regenerative farming is the norm, the regenerative economy touches all parts of our lives, and farmers are recognized for the heroes they are.
Here at A Greener World, we define Regenerative Agriculture as a set of planned agricultural practices that ensure the farm or ranch is not depleted by agricultural practices, and over time the soil, water, air, and biodiversity are improved or maintained to the greatest extent possible.
Regenerative agricultural principles focus on restoring and enhancing soil health by using principles that create more diverse soil microbiological communities. Regenerative farming practices allow food growers to create an ideal subterranean home for soil microbes that, in turn, deliver nutrients to plants, improve soil function (including fertility and water infiltration), and increase the nutrient density of the food they produce—at far less cost than conventional farming practices.
Conversely, modern conventional agricultural techniques, which are deeply embedded in the operational farming methods of most agricultural producers today, rely on expensive and often dangerous synthetic inputs that diminish soil health and reduce the nutrient density of our food.
With regenerative organic agriculture, we can rehabilitate soil, respect animal welfare, and improve the lives of farmers. We can sequester carbon, build healthier communities, and reap more nutritious and abundant yields.
In practice, regenerative organic agriculture can look like cover cropping, crop rotation, low- to no-till, compost, and zero use of persistent chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
Regenerative agriculture focuses on restoring the health of the entire ecosystem. It promotes biodiversity, soil health, water conservation, and climate resilience.
Practices used in regenerative farming include minimizing soil disturbance, maintaining living roots, keeping armor on the soil, building biodiversity, and integrating livestock.
The goal is to produce nutritious and high-quality food while also contributing to the overall well-being of the environment, ecosystem, farmers, and our communities.
Regenerative systems improve the environment, soil, plants, animal welfare, health, and communities.
The opposite of Regenerative is Degenerative. This is an essential distinction in determining practices that are not regenerative.
Agricultural systems that use Degenerative Practices and inputs that damage the environment, soil, health, genes, and communities and involve animal cruelty are not regenerative.
Regenerative agriculture takes a systems-based, holistic look at the land being stewarded and applies various principles with the goal of making the land more productive and biodiverse over time.
In most situations, improving soil health and function is the key to improving productivity and biodiversity. One of the key components of healthy soil is organic matter, which is anything that is alive or was once living, such as a plant root, an earthworm, or a microbe.
Why Regenerative?
Most people are unaware of the impact agriculture has on our planet. The way we currently grow the majority of our food, fiber, and fuel is damaging our planet’s ecosystem at an alarming rate through loss of topsoil, loss of biodiversity, desertification, habitat destruction, and air and water pollution.
Conventional agriculture is a massive contributor to climate change. This is not a new phenomena but has been going on for thousands of years, due to a poor understanding of how soil and ecosystems function. Our current large-scale “conventional” agriculture systems are degenerative, destroying the natural systems that we need to survive on this planet.
Regenerative Agriculture looks to not only stop damaging our ecosystem but improve it, all while continuing to produce our food, fiber, and fuels. Regenerative Agriculture does not have a single, agreed-upon definition. However, most experts would agree that it focuses on improving soil health by moving carbon from our atmosphere back into our soils using a variety of agricultural management practices that work in alignment with natural systems.
At its core, regenerative agriculture is about giving more than we take. That same principle can be applied to any aspect of our surrounding ecosystem, including both human and natural resources, our communities, and the capital resources that are needed to maintain a business.
Regenerative agriculture is an alternative approach to conventional and industrial agriculture that instead values diversity in all its forms, quality over quantity, interbeing, farmer empowerment, true wealth, and more—all driven by the goal of restoring health to the land and the people who walk it.
