What’s Regenerative Farming and Who Cares?
Farmland is becoming barren because chemicals are killing the soil.
Soil isn’t just a pile of brown dirt. It’s a living ecosystem. And when you spend decades dusting it with chemical fertilizer and herbicides to get a huge yield, you start killing off the good things that support life. We know so little about the soil microbiome that we’re only now understanding the balance that’s needed to support healthy plants and livestock.
What happens when the dirt is dead?
· Erosion – water just runs off the top without getting soaked in where it’s needed.
· Nutrition – our food just isn’t as nutritious anymore because there’s not enough natural vitamins and minerals for plants to suck up by the roots.
· Boredom – the taste is gone and food is bland. Carrots taste like water. Strawberries taste like cardboard.
· Pollution – the soil can no longer sequester carbon or support biodiversity.
But soil can be regenerated. That’s where the term “Regenerative Farming” comes from.
Agricultural practices can bring back healthy soil instead of stripping it away. And when the soil is a living breathing ecosystem, the affects reach beyond the farm to the health of our environment. By combining ancient farming practices with modern technology, farmers can rebuild the soil and our surroundings. Working with the environment instead of against it, farmers can integrate livestock and produce with naturally occurring plants and animals to build something better for the land and for people.
What happens when soil is regenerated?
· Delicious – food tastes like grandma’s garden again because seeds are getting what they need to thrive. The nutrient content is through the roof, which results in richer, deeper flavours you forgot you missed. Speaking of which…
· Nutritious – plants and animals receive nourishment from companion crops, natural foods, a diverse diet, and good old sunshine. In the end, that creates more nutritional density for the foods we eat.
· Carbon Sequestered – plants sink carbon into the soil, where its converted to sugars to feel microscopic life.
· Water Retention – the soil’s web of life sucks in and retains water, reducing the need for irrigation and holding in the soil instead of it eroding away.
· Biodiversity – life isn’t wiped out to farm. Birds, bugs, microbes, critters, plants, and livestock all have a role to play.
Restored farmland is one of the ways we can heal the earth and get a better quality of life for ourselves and our farmers.
We care about good food with a greater impact. And we hope you will too.
