Regenerative agriculture is an emerging practice that seeks to promote sustainable agricultural practices that can counteract some of the destructive agricultural practices that contribute to climate change. I and other advocates for regenerative agriculture believe that these practices are a key strategy in the fight to reduce carbon pollution, prevent climate change, and maintain a reliable food supply for generations to come.
Regenerative agriculture is at its core a strategy to reverse the toll that industrialised farming has taken on the planet. One of the most important goals of this agricultural practice is to capture carbon in the soil and therefore reduce the carbon accumulating in the atmosphere. In doing so, we can slow, or eventually even reduce, the effects of climate change. Agriculture produces much of the man-made carbon in our atmosphere today, and it must play an equally significant role in ending carbon pollution.
In stark contrast to many modern day farming methods, regenerative agriculture aims to improve soil health through careful, gentle farming practices. One key factor, is rotating crops to allow the soil to retain a variety of nutrients and increase biodiversity in the soil. Maintaining that biodiversity is crucial to the overall health of our planet, and is a key to ensuring we can continue to grow a variety of crops and produce enough food to sustain humanity in the future.
I support other tenets of regenerative agriculture like limiting tillage. Plowing and tilling erode the soil and release carbon into the atmosphere. By disturbing the soil as little as possible, regenerative agriculture prevents the soil from losing valuable microbes that keep it healthy and allow for maximum nutrition density in plants.
Natural, sustainable agricultural practices limit the use of fertilisers, pesticides, and other chemicals that poison the soil and kill valuable microbes. I have seen the long-term benefits of limiting chemical use to maintain healthy soil that will continue producing quality, nutritionally dense crops for years to come.
Like other proponents of regenerative agriculture, I believe that when it comes to Climate Change it’s not enough to prevent further damage to the environment. Instead I know that the agricultural community must find ways to improve soil quality, promote biodiversity, and reverse the negative effects of Climate Change and industrialisation on the Planet.
