Regenerative Agriculture

As a chef I used to judge an ingredient at the back door. Now I know the judging starts in the field. Tired soil grows tired food, and no technique at the stove fixes that.
— Chef Brian

The quick take

About 95% of our food is produced in soil, and about a third of the world's soils are already moderately to highly degraded.^[1]
Regenerative agriculture is farming that leaves the land healthier each year: less tilling, living roots in the ground, more diversity and fewer synthetic chemicals.
Healthy soil stores carbon, holds water and grows more nourishing food. That's why it matters for the climate, for farmers and for your gut.
You can practice it at home, even in a pot on a windowsill. See "Bring it home" at the bottom of this page.

Understanding Healthy Soil

HEALTHY SOIL from The Lexicon on Vimeo.

Healthy soil is alive. A single teaspoon can hold more microorganisms than there are people on Earth.^[2] These fungi, bacteria and tiny creatures break down organic matter, make minerals available to plant roots, build soil structure and help the ground soak up and hold water. And soil forms incredibly slowly: it can take over 1,000 years to form a single centimeter.^[1]

Picture a bustling city beneath your feet. Bacteria are the factory workers, breaking down leaves and roots into nutrients. Fungi are the highways and delivery trucks, carrying water and minerals to plant roots. Earthworms are the construction crew, digging tunnels so air and rain can move through. And plants are the farmers' market, trading sugars they make from sunlight for the nutrients the city delivers. When the city is thriving, everything above ground thrives too.

What Is Regenerative Agriculture?

Regenerative Agriculture Infographic Animation from James Wilson on Vimeo.

Regenerative agriculture is a way of farming that "improves the resources it uses, rather than destroying or depleting them." Instead of treating soil like dirt that holds plants up, it treats soil as a living system. The goal is to rebuild soil organic matter and biodiversity, which in turn helps the land hold more water, store more carbon and grow healthier crops. As soil health improves, farms also become more resilient to drought, flooding and extreme weather.

The core principles

Beyond Organic: Regenerative Agriculture from Cafe Gratitude on Vimeo.

Disturb the soil as little as possible. Minimize or eliminate tilling. Plowing is like an earthquake running through that underground city: it tears apart fungal networks, collapses the tunnels and exposes stored carbon to the air.
Keep the soil covered. Bare soil is like skin left out in the sun all day: it bakes, cracks and washes away in the rain. Plants and mulch act as sunscreen and a blanket.
Keep living roots in the ground as much of the year as possible. Roots are how plants feed soil life, so no roots means no groceries for the city.
Grow diversity. Many kinds of plants support many kinds of soil life.
Integrate animals through planned, rotational grazing.
Reduce synthetic chemicals and let biology do more of the work.

Regenerative agriculture principles

Regenerative practices

These principles show up in many different practices, including:

No-till gardening and farming: planting without turning the soil over, which protects soil structure and the fungal networks living in it.
Cover crops: fast-growing plants that cover the soil between main crops. They prevent erosion, feed soil life, cycle nutrients and add organic matter.
Perennial crops: plants that live for many years, like fruit trees, berries and perennial grasses. Their deep roots hold soil in place and help it absorb water.
Agroforestry: growing trees alongside crops or pasture. Trees add shade, windbreaks, habitat and carbon storage, and help hold water in the landscape.
Shelterbelts, buffer strips and pollinator plantings: rows of trees, shrubs and flowers that protect fields and support beneficial insects.
Managed grazing: moving livestock through smaller sections of pasture so plants have time to recover and grow strong roots, while manure feeds the soil.
Compost: turning food, plant and animal waste into rich organic matter that feeds soil life and reduces the need for synthetic fertilizer.
Mulch and crop residue: covering the soil with straw, wood chips or leftover plant material to keep it moist, cool and alive as it breaks down.
Biochar: a stable form of charcoal made by heating plant material with very little oxygen. Added to soil, its porous structure acts like a coral reef for microbes: a single spoonful has a huge internal surface area full of nooks where microbes live and where water and nutrients are held. It also locks carbon away for a long time.
Water-wise design: shaping the land with swales, ponds and contours to slow down, spread and store rainwater.

The underground internet

Most plants partner with mycorrhizal fungi, threadlike fungi that wrap around and grow into plant roots. The fungi act like an extension cord for the roots, reaching far into the soil to gather water, phosphorus and other nutrients, and trading them to the plant for sugars. In forests, these fungal threads can link the roots of many trees together, which is why people call it the "wood wide web."

How trees secretly talk to each other, from BBC News.

How trees talk to each other, forest ecologist Suzanne Simard at TED.

The partnership between roots and fungi is well established. How much trees actually share and "communicate" through these networks is still an active scientific debate, with some researchers arguing the popular story has gotten ahead of the evidence.^[10] Either way, the lesson for gardeners is the same: protect the fungi by tilling less and keeping living roots in the ground.

Why Regenerative Agriculture Matters

Comparing agricultural practices (Kiss the Ground)

For the soil

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 33% of the world's soil is moderately to highly degraded by erosion, loss of organic matter, nutrient depletion, compaction, salinization and chemical pollution.^[1] Because soil forms so slowly, protecting and rebuilding the soil we have is one of the most important things we can do for future generations.

For the climate

Soil holds more carbon than the atmosphere and all the world's plants combined. Many cultivated soils have lost 50 to 70% of their original carbon, much of it released into the air.^[3] You can think of soil carbon like a savings account: plowing and bare fields keep making withdrawals, while roots, compost and cover crops make deposits. Regenerative practices can help rebuild that balance. Scientists are still studying how much carbon can be stored and for how long, but more carbon in the ground means healthier, more fertile soil either way.

Soil organic matter, the living and decaying plant and microbial material in soil, is the heart of this. It improves soil structure, feeds soil life, holds nutrients and helps soil act like a sponge. Think of the difference between a kitchen sponge and a brick. Pour water on a sponge and it soaks in and stays there; pour it on a brick and it runs off, taking dirt with it. Healthy soil with plenty of organic matter behaves like the sponge, soaking up heavy rain and holding it for plants during dry spells. Degraded soil behaves like the brick.

For our food

Plants rely on soil fungi and bacteria to help unlock many of the minerals they take up. Comparing USDA data from 1950 and 1999, researchers found measurable declines in some nutrients in 43 garden crops.^[4] Several factors are likely involved, including crop breeding for size and yield, but many soil scientists believe living, mineral-rich soil is part of growing more nourishing food. That's also why we call the gut the soil inside us.

For farmers

Regenerative farming can lower input costs over time, as healthier soil does more of the work that fertilizers and pesticides used to do. Farmers who have made the switch often share stories like these:

"Evans and Addison Hooks, who grass finish our cattle in Georgia, saved approximately $100,000 in input costs during their first year of conversion to Regenerative Farming."
— Ron Joyce, Joyce Farms

"Compared to our neighbor, we have easily three and a half times more forage growing per acre. I can carry three and a half times more cows on the same five thousand acres."
— Dr. Allen Williams, rancher

Farming is also stressful, demanding work, and farm families face real financial and mental health pressures. Practices that reduce costs and build resilience can make a meaningful difference.

Chemical Agriculture

Farmers have always replenished their soil, traditionally with manure, compost, fish and other natural materials. Synthetic fertilizers became widely used after World War II, and by 1990 US farmers were using about 20 million tons a year.

Crops need macronutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) in larger amounts and micronutrients (such as boron, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium and manganese) in smaller amounts. Synthetic fertilizers deliver a few of these quickly, but they don't feed the living soil, and overuse can run off into rivers and lakes and add to greenhouse gas emissions. Nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas, is largely released from nitrogen fertilizer applied to soil.

Pesticides is a broad term for chemicals designed to kill or control living things that compete with crops: herbicides for plants, insecticides for insects, fungicides for fungi and more. The US uses roughly 1 billion pounds of pesticide active ingredients each year.^[5] Glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, has become the most heavily used weed killer in history.^[6] These chemicals don't only affect their targets; they can also affect beneficial insects, soil organisms and waterways.

Chemical-intensive farming can also affect the air and water of the communities around it. California's San Joaquin Valley, one of the most intensively farmed regions in the country, has some of the worst air pollution in the nation.^[7]

Monsanto vs Farmers from Mathieu Asselin on Vimeo.

Food Security

You may have heard that we have "only 60 harvests left." Researchers have found no scientific basis for that number; soil lifespans vary enormously from place to place.^[8] But the underlying concern is real: in many regions, soil is being lost faster than it forms.

Who grows our food matters too. Small family farms produce about a third of the world's food on just 12% of its farmland,^[9] and they are often the keepers of local seeds, traditional knowledge and diverse, resilient growing systems. Supporting regenerative, local and family farms helps keep that knowledge and diversity alive.

"Poor land leads to poor people. Poor land leads to increased frequency of flooding and drought."
— Allan Savory

A Message on Collective Responsibility

The Collective Karma of Climate Change | Sadhguru from Sadhguru on Vimeo.

Bring It Home: Regenerative Living for Everyone

You don't need a farm to practice regeneration. Here's how to start:

Grow something. Herbs on a windowsill, a few pots on a balcony or a small bed in the yard. Use living soil, not just bagged dirt.
Feed your soil, not just your plants. Add compost, worm castings, biochar or mycorrhizal fungi to bring your soil to life.
Keep soil covered. Mulch your garden beds with straw, leaves or wood chips.
Compost your food scraps. Turn waste back into soil.
Skip the synthetic sprays and welcome beneficial insects and pollinators.
Buy from regenerative and local farms when you can. Farmers markets and CSAs are a great start.
Eat a wide variety of plants. Diversity on the farm and diversity on your plate go hand in hand.

Shop Dig In → · Learn about permaculture → · Watch soil films →

Sources

Further reading: The Need to GROW (film); Kiss the Ground; Mark Shepard, Restoration Agriculture; Andrew Mefferd, The Organic No-Till Farming Revolution; Eric Toensmeier, The Carbon Farming Solution.

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