What’s Regenerative agriculture?

Regenerative agriculture–also called carbon farming–is a toolkit of farming practices that actually improve ecosystem and soil health, rather than depleting it. They actually help to slow down and even reverse the global warming trends, rather than contributing to them.

 

 

Unlike conventional agriculture, which usually involves synthetic chemicals and fertilizers that kill soil life, and practices like heavy tilling with releases carbon into the atmosphere…

And even unlike organic farming, which does not necessarily improve soil health and store carbon, as as it still often involves the same heavy tilling and monocropping as conventional farming…

Regenerative farming grows abundant food and the raw materials for other human needs with minimal tilling or not tilling at all; increasing fertility through cover crops, crop rotations, compost, and animal manures instead of chemicals; and well-managed animal grazing systems. 

It’s not high-tech, it’s not costly, it’s not hard to do. And yes, if you’re concerned about climate change, here’s some good news for you:

“The good news is that tried-and-tested, shovel-ready, regenerative food, farming, grazing and land use practices, scaled up on billions of acres of farmland, pasture and forests, combined with zero emissions and a renewable energy economy, can draw down and sequester enough excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into our soils, forests and wetlands to reverse global warming.” – Organic Consumers Association

Besides helping to re-stabilize the climate, regenerative farming practices increase soil fertility, improve the soil’s capacity to percolate and hold water, increase the nutritional value of food, and preserve biodiversity. In other words, they provide solutions to some of the biggest problems facing humanity right now.

 Here are just some of the practices in the regenerative farming  toolkit.