Beyond Sustainability Regenerative Agriculture Takes Aim at Climate Change by Yvette C. Hammett
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ost people have never heard of regenerative agriculture, but there’s plenty of talk about it in the scientific and farming communities, along with a growing consensus that regeneration is a desirable step beyond sustainability. Those that are laser-focused on clean food and a better environment believe
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regenerative agriculture will not only result in healthier food, but could become a significant factor in reversing the dangerous effects of manmade climate change. This centers on the idea that healthy soils anchor a healthy planet: They contain more carbon than all above-ground vegetation and regulate emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
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“We have taken soils for granted for a long time. Nevertheless, soils are the foundation of food production and food security, supplying plants with nutrients, water and support for their roots,” according to the study “Status of the World’s Soil Resources,” by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Most of the world’s soil resources, which also function as the planet’s largest water filter, are in fair, poor or very poor condition, the report states. Tilling, erosion and chemicals all play significant roles in soil degradation. Regenerative agriculture seeks to reverse that trend by focusing on inexpensive organic methods that minimize soil disturbance and feed its microbial diversity with the application of compost and compost teas. Cover crops, crop and livestock rotation and multistory agroforestry are all part of a whole-farm design that’s intended to rebuild the quantity and quality of topsoil, as well as increase biodiversity and watershed function. “True regenerative organic agriculture can improve the environment, the communities, the economy, even the human spirit,” says Diana Martin, director of communications for the Rodale Institute, in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Rodale, a leader in the organic movement, has been carrying the global torch for regenerative agriculture since the 1970s, when Bob Rodale, son of the institute’s founder, first began talking about it. “He said sustainability isn’t good enough. In the U.S., we are depleting our topsoil 10 times faster than we are replenishing it. We only have 60 years of farmable topsoil remaining,” says Martin. The institute is working with corporate brands in conducting a pilot project on farms around the world to certify food as regenerative organic. It has three pillars that were created with the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program: soil health; animal welfare; and social justice, the latter because people want to know that workers are being treated fairly, Martin says. “In some ways, we felt the organic program could do more, so we introduced the regenerative organic certification. It is a new, high-bar label that is very holistic,”
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