Regenerative agriculture

Regenerative agriculture is an approach to food and farming systems that regenerates topsoil and enhances biodiversity now and long into the future. Regenerative Agriculture improves water cycles, enhances ecosystem services, increases resilience to climate fluctuation and strengthens the health and vitality of farming and ranching communities.

Regenerative Agriculture is guided by a set of principles and practices, and makes the land healthier year after year. In this way it is based on outcomes, not practices, distinguishing it from most sustainable and conservation agriculture efforts.

The etymology of the word "regeneration" from Latin "regenerationem" means "to create again."

The current global practice of Regenerative Agriculture is based on applied and scientific research carried out by several international communities, including: organic farming, permaculture, agroecology, agroforestry, restoration ecology, Keyline design, and Holistic Management.

There are several specific lineages of thought and practice that have contributed to Regenerative Agriculture.

In the 1980s, the Rodale Institute was the first organization to begin using the term ‘Regenerative Agriculture’. Rodale Publishing formed the Regenerative Agriculture Association, which published books in 1987 and 1988.

Robert Rodale spoke at several conferences, famously saying:

“By marching forward under the banner of sustainability we are, in effect, continuing to hamper ourselves by not accepting a challenging enough goal. I am not against the word sustainable, rather I favor regenerative agriculture.”

However, the Rodale Institute stopped using the term in the late 1980s, and it appears sparingly (in 2005 and 2008) until they released a white paper titled ‘Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change’ in 2014. A summary of the paper states, “Simply put, we could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions with a switch to widely available and inexpensive organic management practices, which we term 'regenerative organic agriculture.'” The agricultural practices described are crop rotation, compost application, and reduced tillage, very similar to most organic agriculture.

From 1990 to 2010, regenerative agriculture was most explicitly developed within the permaculture community. Influenced by the work of regenerative business pioneer Carol Sanford and the design and development work of Regenesis, the ecological systems approach of permaculture led to the expansion of regenerative agriculture to include whole farm design, multi-story agroforestry, and rotational livestock integration. In permaculture, a regenerative farm is one where biological production and ecological structure are growing increasingly more complex over time, but yields continue to increase while external inputs decrease.

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Wikipedia