Regenerative Agriculture

I’m wondering how many of you are familiar with this term.

Regenerative Agriculture (RA) is an outcome-based food production system that nurtures and restores soil health, protects the climate and water resources and biodiversity, and enhances farms’ productivity and profitability. According to Google.

This is not the mono-cropping that has been destroying the soil and caused the dust bowl. Farming like that, one plant at a time, over and over again is going to suck the soil dry. Then clear the land of trees and grass to grow a crop that wasn’t designed to grow there, well that’s just a recipe for trouble and disappointment.

Without going into a ton of detail, terms and splitting hairs Regenerative Agriculture doesn’t take more from the environment than it puts in. Often the environment wins.

There are different ways to achieve this. My favorite though are the methods that make use of sheep, cattle, goats and even chickens. A well managed piece of land will produce food for both animals and people. Use of sheep and cattle become a win for the environment because weeds and other pests are controlled without the need of chemicals and carbon is actually drawn down from the atmosphere and into the soil, where we want it, because the animals are there.

I’m going to share the same Fibershed link I did last week. They have talked to many farmers and ranchers in California and Oregon who have been ranching and farming like this long enough to have the statistical data to back up that sheep, cattle and goats are much of the answer to the carbon issue.

Aside from helping the carbon issue these animals, when not on feed lots, can mitigate the overgrowth of the undergrowth that becomes so devastating in a wild fire. There is a program, I can’t remember in which state, that on the grounds of the correctional facilities, the trustees, rotate goats through. This keeps the grounds safe and looking nice, gives the inmates a job and sense of purpose while serving their time and utilizes the goats for something they were made for.

Next week I will share a movie that shows this method of farming, ranching in action.

Happy making!