REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
Information taken from: https://regenerativefoodandfarming.co.uk
Regenerative farming has the potential to combat climate change by taking vast amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere through natural processes.
Its nature friendly methods allow wildlife to return to our countryside and improve the welfare of farm animals. Healthier soils mean healthier foods for us to eat and a landscape more resilient to floods and drought.
Our soils
Our soils play a vital role in carbon sequestration and, despite being seriously depleted by the actions of humans, they still store more carbon than the combined storage contribution of our atmosphere and all the vegetation on our planet.
At the same time, however, our soils also release massive amounts of carbon dioxide: around ten times more than the total release created by our current usage of fossil fuels.
It is clear, therefore, that we could have a critically important effect on the very future of life itself on Earth if we both store more carbon in our soils and release less carbon from our soils.
Mycorrhizal fungi and other microorganisms, help store carbon deep underground where it will stay unless it is disturbed by ploughing or erosion.
Regenerative agriculture offers this solution.
Further information: https://www.drawdown.org/sectors/food-agriculture-land-use
Restored Biodiversity
When we reduce damage to complex soil communities by ploughing less, covering our soils, stop killing soil-living organisms by spraying them with pesticides and reduce the use of synthetic fertilisers, nature can restore itself. A multitude of interdependent lifeforms and ecosystems can re-establish themselves. Healthy soils and watercourses result in more insects, worms and other micro-fauna which provide food for birds, small mammals, fish and reptiles. These in turn feed larger animals, and so on up the food chain and the complex web of life is restored.
Regenerative agriculture encourages the planting and farming of trees and mixed species as well as encompassing rewilding. These practices also provide a diverse environment in which more species can survive.
Increases resilience to more extreme weather
With more carbon/ soil organic matter and living roots in the soil plus increased plant cover, water is both absorbed and retained better. Each 1% increase in soil organic matter helps soil hold 20,000 gallons more water per acre.
So, when it pours with rain, much of the water is absorbed. On many conventional farms, the water runs off into roads, drains and watercourses, taking soil and chemical residues with it.
This in turn, reduces the risk of flooding in settlements downstream of regenerative farms, improves the water quality and biodiversity of local rivers and lakes. This moisture retention in the soil also enables resilience to drought conditions.
Other flood prevention strategies such as the reintroduction of old ponds and wet areas by blocking drains and introducing beavers, would also be deemed regenerative! Such strategies ultimately also increase biodiversity and capture carbon.
Greater food security
Regenerative agriculture is a whole system approach which not only helps heal our broken ecological system but also allows nature to give us more resilient crops, grown in healthier soils better able to cope with extreme weather, pests and diseases.
The climate has become more extreme and will increasingly do so, even as we reduce greenhouse gas emissions because so much has already been released. This means that food production everywhere will become harder and for many years already people have seen massive crop failures. Indeed, as temperatures rise and droughts increase, so does mass migration and the pressure upon more fertile regions. Also, as so much of our food comes from so few crops, ie wheat, maize and rice, often located in regions which are prone to heat waves and drought, we are extremely vulnerable to multi breadbasket failures.
It is vital that we don’t further intensify production for a growing population with chemicals as this will make a bad situation worse. Such chemicals disrupt our soils abilities to build and trap carbon as well as reduce a crop’s ability to cope with pests, disease and extreme weather. We need to support farmers to build soil to trap carbon and produce healthy food and enable their region to thrive.
Health Benefits
Health benefits of Regenerative agriculture or Regeneratively produced crops will, on the whole, be higher in nutrients, than those grown in soils lacking microbial life because these lifeforms break down material to make nutrients available for plants. If soil is healthy, the whole food chain is healthier and supports more life also.
Meat from cattle, sheep and poultry raised in more natural environments, on mixed pasture and amongst trees has a range of health benefits, as well as being a big contributor to carbon drawdown and biodiversity enhancement – whereas factory farming of animals has severely harmful effects on the planet and is less healthy.
Better animal welfare
Regenerative agriculture promotes the raising of farm animal outside on mixed pasture and especially pasture with trees. Here animals have a variety of grasses, herbs and other plants on which to graze and forage from. Such animals thrive as they live a more natural life than livestock kept in cramp, boring conditions indoors for much or indeed all their lives.
Regeneratively raised animals have more space in which to roam, they are therefore fitter, don’t require antibiotics as often and are probably happier. Regeneratively raised animals tend to integrate into a farming system where their meat, eggs, milk etc is a part, rather than the whole financial income.
Sadly, much of the animal produce sold in the UK does not come from animals that have had a happy, comfortable life but thankfully more people are growing aware of this. Healthier animals generally need more space, so we need to reduce our meat consumption. If, free range, organic, 100% Pasture Fed meat is chosen you are supporting healthier animals and consuming healthier food.