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Introduction!

Using regenerative farming and ranching practices creates dense and diverse living soil and retains the necessary and important photosynthesis, microbial, and fungal activity. The result of these practices is an elevated and sustainable level of farm profits while enhancing the farms’ ability to sequester atmospheric carbon and excessive rain, improving drought resilience and profitability.

The long-term goal is achieved by increasing the frequency and diversity of living plant roots, which hold the soil profile open for maximum carbon sequestration opportunities and produce microbial biomass that actually forms soil. Sequestering carbon in the soils will draw down the levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-absorbing gases in our atmosphere, reducing the levels of greenhouse gases.

Definition and Principles

When people talk of regenerative farming, most people believe the term refers to a particular farming method. Not true. Regenerative farming has a philosophy, a set of principles, and generally a positive relationship with the environment. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, no list of rules, only a concept: that the system will improve with the necessary stimulus and maintenance by enlightened human intervention.

This unit covers the philosophy of regenerative farming and the principles that apply to any form of Regenerative farming is a broad set of farming and ranching practices that allow not only for the sustainable renewal of the resources used while farming but also simplify the restoration of other things such as wildlife habitat, aquifer recharge, and protection against fire.

This is important because microbial life in a gram of soil includes over 50,000 species and about a billion individual microbial organisms. Studies have shown that animals kept in confinement and fed plants grown on soils depleted of these important microbes are much more likely to develop diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and reduced ability to reproduce. regenerative farming.

The principles may be applied in combinations that suit the specific needs and economic feasibility of those practicing regenerative farming. Some of the practices and concepts described may not have been totally proven, but people practicing regenerative farming are open to change and improvement and will reject things that they feel are no longer relevant.

The overriding guiding principle of regenerative farming is to use the natural capacities for repair, vitality, and resilience of farmland systems, with consideration of their landscape and land use context, as the basis for sustainable farming.

At its simplest level, regenerative farming looks at striving to create and maintain a farmland system that is itself renewable, natural, and largely self-reliant on integrating processes and patterns found in nature. However, regenerating damaged farmland systems almost always requires some form of human intervention, stimulus, and/or decision on careful management and governance practice. In doing so, though, regenerative farming aligns with general principles of conservation such that interventions are designed to improve farmland resources by avoiding pollution and ecosystem degradation of the air, water, and soil while maintaining or improving scenic, recreational, and historical resources and public access and other public benefits.

Abstract: Agriculture can be restorative or degenerative; it can contribute to global warming or mitigate it; it can enhance ecological systems or degrade them. Nearly 99% of present human food is derived from agriculture. Acre for acre, agricultural lands are the most productive in the world and arguably the most destructive.

The global target of 50% of all lands dedicated to natural resources restoration was set at a major summit in 2012. What portion of agricultural lands could be designated as committed to the restoration of natural resources? Studies we reviewed reported results derived from 207 regenerative farms on six continents in 40 countries measured in square kilometers or hectares.

The farms, working with their regional ecosystems, almost always regenerated soil, water, and ultimately biodiversity resources. About half also mitigated global warming and underlying climate changes. Globally, these regenerative farms may have a tremendous impact, increasing yields of up to 182 crops or animal products by over 100%, sequestering warming gases at 25.5 tCO2e ha-1 yr-1, or mitigating the Mid-Range Scenario for warming on agricultural lands at 14 tCO2e ha-1 yr-1.

These results suggest that a surprisingly large portion of agricultural lands might be so designated under the Treaty on Biological Diversity at a significant conference in October 2020.

Defining Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that increase biodiversity, enrich soils, improve watersheds, and enhance ecosystem services. It seeks to capture carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil.

Grains, cereals, and oilseeds produced in this way lack synthetic chemicals, pesticides, and fertilizers, reducing water use by replenishing carbon-depleted soil with the highest grade of compost and high levels of organic matter.

Regenerative agriculture is highly beneficial for the health and well-being of bees and wildlife species of all kinds, enhancing overall biodiversity in the plants and soil and delivering wildlife habitat and carbon-rich porous soils with enhanced nutrient value. Regenerative agriculture provides these benefits without releasing concentrated pesticides or synthetic chemicals produced by large-scale factory farms.

Regenerative agriculture seeks to reverse this process in order to restore life below ground, helping to stabilize the climate while making it climate-resilient.

However, even if carbon capture were not a focus, soil would still be the center of regenerative agriculture owing to the numerous benefits of healthy, verdant, living soils. These countless diverse bacterial, fungal, and other microbial organisms fulfil diverse functions all necessary for effective carbon cycles, nutrient cycling, pollution control, and even regulation of pest populations. Therefore, all farmland should be treated as regenerative farmland. Regenerative agriculture also includes other farming practices that intercept carbon in the atmosphere and sequester it in aboveground biomass, including grass-fed, pastured, and other holistic, diversified systems.

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