Ag Is the Answer Fomenting the Regenerative Organic Agriculture Revolution
How we choose to feed and clothe ourselves and our families is an important decision we face every day, both for our own health and for the planet’s. Most food and textiles today are produced using industrial practices that reduce biodiversity, decimate soil health and contribute to climate change. In fact, modern agriculture produces more greenhouse gases than all the cars, planes and trains in the world. We started Patagonia Provisions, Patagonia’s food company, because we believe food can and should be part of the solution to the environmental crisis. Through Provisions, we’ve found that regenerative organic agricultural practices—which don’t require chemical fertilizers or pesticides, rebuild soil health, use less water and hold more carbon in the ground than conventional agriculture—can be a powerful part of that solution. The same is true for the production of cotton, hemp and wool for fiber. In 2014, research by the Rodale Institute estimated that, “if current crop acreage and pastureland shifted to regenerative organic practices, 100% of the annual global CO2 emissions could be sequestered in the soil.” With Provisions, we partner with like-minded farmers, ranchers and fishermen who are working to take better care of our planet. We use the sourcing of our ingredients to support the switch to regenerative organic agriculture, regenerative grazing and selective-harvest fishing. It turns out that the best new ways to produce food and textiles are often the old ways, which, not surprisingly, focus on working with nature instead of against it. Our support of these new-old techniques drove many of the environmental initiatives we started this past year. They included: Patagonia Case Competition Scaling regenerative agriculture practices is a tall task, and who better to solve it than our future leaders? Each year, Patagonia works with the Center for Responsible Business at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, to host a graduate school case competition. This year’s competition tasked more than 80 interdisciplinary graduate-school teams from across the Field of barley at The Bread Lab, Washington. KIM BINCZEWSKI
13