An Introduction To Regenerative Agriculture

 

Watch this video on how regenerative agriculture can help farming and improve the ecosystem by World Wildlife Fund International

 

by Heather Ring, Mercer Island Parent and ACES member.

 

What we eat is intensely personal. Our choices are based in pleasure, health and wellness, lifestyle, culture, income, convenience, religious beliefs and more. Furthermore, how food metabolizes in the body corresponds to how we feel, grow, repair and perform and is unique to our genetics, lifestyle and health history.

 

However we choose to eat, whether vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian, omnivore or even carnivore, we can eat sustainably and reduce our environmental impact.

 

It is widely acknowledged that while cheap for consumers, factory farming of meat, dairy and eggs, also called industrial agriculture or CAFOs (concentrated animal feedlot operations), are inhumane and destructive. It’s bad for the environment, bad for human nutrition and the health of those living in proximity of these farms, bad for animals and bad for workers. The production of soy- and corn-based animal feed involves extractive monoculture grown with petrochemical-based fertilizers and pesticides which are then present in the animals, in humans through consumption and left behind in the soil. Animals are fed diets unnatural to their species in the name of speedy growth to market. The meat, dairy and eggs produced in CAFOs are nutritionally inferior to those produced sustainably while suffering throughout the production chain is undeniable.

 

The cost of factory farmed foods at retail is artificially low through government subsidies and a lack of oversight. Taxpayers pay again in the healthcare system when people fail to thrive on these types of foods over time as they correlate with metabolic diseases like obesity, heart disease and cancer in conjunction with other lifestyle choices, to say nothing of personal suffering as people don’t feel good due to inferior diet quality.

 

While the vast majority of animals raised for food in the United States are still factory farmed, there is a growing and better way for consumers of animal products which should also be of heightened awareness to plant-based eaters for healthier, more nutrient dense fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes.

 

Regenerative agriculture is in essence an ancient, natural way of farming resembling nothing of a factory farm. It is a symphony of life sustaining all participating living organisms whether human, animal, plant or soil microbe. It doesn’t take more than it gives and actually draws carbon from the atmosphere back into the soil through photosynthesis, a process affectionally referred to as a carbon sink. Plants and animals produced for consumption on a regenerative farm are among the most nutritionally dense available which all begins with soil health.

 

“Regenerative agriculture describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverses climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity— resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle. Specifically, regenerative agriculture is a holistic land management practice that leverages the power of photosynthesis in plants to close the carbon cycle, and build soil health, crop resilience and nutrient density.

 

“The loss of the world’s fertile soil and biodiversity, along with the loss of indigenous seeds and knowledge, pose a mortal threat to our future survival. According to soil scientists, at current rates of soil destruction (i.e. decarbonization, erosion, desertification, chemical pollution), within 50 years we will not only suffer serious damage to public health due to a qualitatively degraded food supply characterized by diminished nutrition and loss of important trace minerals, but we will literally no longer have enough arable topsoil to feed ourselves. Without protecting and regenerating the soil on our 4 billion acres of cultivated farmland, 8 billion acres of pastureland, and 10 billion acres of forest land, it will be impossible to feed the world, keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, or halt the loss of biodiversity.

 

“The key to regenerative agriculture is that it not only “does no harm” to the land but actually improves it, using technologies that regenerate and revitalize the soil and the environment. Regenerative agriculture leads to healthy soil, capable of producing high quality, nutrient dense food while simultaneously improving, rather than degrading land, and ultimately leading to productive farms and healthy communities and economies. It is dynamic and holistic, incorporating permaculture and organic farming practices, including conversation tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, composting mobile animal shelters and pasture cropping, to increase food production, farmers income and especially, topsoil.” (i)

 

So what can you today to eat better for yourself and the environment? (ii)

 

1. Limit your meat intake.

Consider capping your consumption at 1 to 3 ounces of meat or poultry a day and your consumption of all animal products to no more than 10 percent of total calories. For most people, this one strategy will reduce meat intake by more than half. Replacing meat with legumes, tubers (such as potatoes), roots, whole grains, mushrooms, bivalves (such as oysters), and seeds offers the most environmental benefit for your buck.

 

2. Choose sustainably raised meat, if possible.

Feedlot animals are often fed corn and soy, which are generally grown as heavily-fertilized monocrops. (Monocropping uses the same crop on the same soil, year after year). These sorts of heavily fertilized crops lead to nitrous oxide emissions, a greenhouse gas, but crop rotation (changing the crops that are planted from season to season) can reduce these greenhouse gasses by 32 to 315 percent. Cattle allowed to graze on grasses (which requires a considerable amount of land), on the other hand, offer a more sustainable option, especially if you can purchase the meat locally.

 

3. Eat more meals at home.

Homemade meals require less packaging than commercially-prepared ones, and they also tend to result in less food waste.

 

4. Purchase locally-grown foods.

In addition to reducing transportation miles, local crops tend to also be smaller and more diversified. Veggies grown in soil also produce fewer emissions than veggies grown in greenhouses that use artificial lights and heating sources.

 

5. Slash your food waste.

As food rots in landfills, it emits greenhouse gasses. “Wasted food is a double environmental whammy,” explains Andrews. “When we waste food, we waste all of the resources that went into producing the food. When we send food to the landfill, it generates a lot of greenhouse gases.”

 

In summary, the foods we choose can either help or harm. It’s exciting that with a little effort, we can make a positive choice regardless of diet to reduce our carbon impact and improve health. Food from production to waste combines as a sector to generate the single greatest environmental impact, even more than transportation or energy (iii), so it’s important we are informed.

 

Resources:

Online Learning


Books

 

Video

 

Shop

 

 

i.   Regen-Ag definition, regenerationinternational.org

ii.  Precision Nutrition The Modern Diet Dilemma

iii. Project Drawdown

 

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