What’s Regenerative Agriculture?
Leaving the land healthier than before.
Regenerative agriculture focuses on rebuilding organic matter and living biodiversity in soil, which produces increasingly nutrient-dense food year after year — while rapidly sequestering excess atmospheric carbon underground to reverse climate change.
Why is this the future of food production?
Because sooner or later we’ll have to start living within the capacity of our planet. The sooner we start the sooner we’ll reap these benefits:
- topsoil regeneration (soil is the digestive system / gut lining of the planet)
- improving the water cycle (e.g. replenishing groundwater)
- enhancing ecosystem services (think: bees)
- sequestering carbon from the atmosphere
- increasing resilience to climate change
- increasing biodiversity (nature knows best: e.g. ladybugs eat aphids)
Image borrowed from Kiss The Ground
This 20 minute video shows farmers taking back control of their lives and producing real food while restoring their land.
Radical? Not really…
Primarily it’s about better management practices. It borrows from a pre-industrial form of cultivation, updated and improved with better scientific understanding of soil, water and the relationships in natural ecosystems.
Another big bonus: enlivening rural communities and empowering farmers to create thriving farms while reducing corporate control of the food system. The amazing Dr Zach Bush is doing this with Farmer’s Footprint - a coalition of farmers, educators, doctors, scientists, and business leaders working to create community and help farmers transition to regenerative ag. Zach’s podcast with Rich Roll explains more about Farmer’s Footprint and links farming with health, planetary evolution and why we’re all here at this pivotal point in human history.
If you’re a farmer, have a listen to Graeme Sait from Nutri-Tech Solutions (AUS). He explains soil health in great detail.
“The same carbon that’s a villain in the atmosphere is a benefit in the soil” - Ryland Engelhart
Want some quick inspiration?
Easy - just watch these short videos from Kiss The Ground. I love their vision:
“Earth is thriving because humanity is in balance with all living systems. Reverence and interconnection are the foundation of our relationship with nature. Our participation in ecosystem regeneration is restoring the health of soil, water, the atmosphere, and communities. Humans have embraced their role as caretakers of the planet and each other.”
Joining the dots
For a masterclass in joining the dots of organic plant-based food, sacred commerce, regenerative agriculture and personal transformation, listen to Ryland Engelhart on Rich Roll’s podcast from 2019 or watch the video >>>
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