Regenerative Farming
This past week I watched two great documentaries that changed the way I think about farming. Having grown up in Nebraska and spent a lot of time driving around rural areas, my idea of farming was spring planting, fall harvest, cows brought in to graze the fields in the winter, then starting the cycle over. But this is not the way we used to farm, nor is it sustainable. Kiss the Ground, the first documentary I watched, raises awareness of how damaging our current method of heavy till farming is to the soil. It depletes the nutrients and leads to loss of topsoil. Nearly one-third of all topsoil is gone and is estimated to be completely depleted in 60 years. This has caused desertification, the process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture. The map below shows the impact this has already had on the U.S. Nearly half the western half of the country is highly vulnerable to desertification, made more apparent by this years wild fires.
Desertification vulnerability showing most of the western half of the U.S. highly vulnerable (Source: USDA)
Better practices for managing soil is important because its the microorganisms in soil that hold carbon. Plants sequester the carbon, but its the soil that does the real work. This matters greatly because even if we stop producing carbon today (an impossible task), our legacy load (the carbon already in the atmosphere) is at 1,000 gigatons. This level of carbon in the atmosphere is so high that plans to just reducing our emissions is not enough. We have to find a way to draw the level down, a task that soil is excellent at performing.
While it may seem that we have an abundant supply of soil, the type of soil changes whether it can actually rise to the occasion. Tilling destroys soil, therefore most of our soil in the U.S. is prohibited from doing its job. This is where regenerative farming comes into play. This form of agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. Regenerative farming principles include:
No tillage
Diverse cover crops
In-farm fertility (using cattle and compost to fertilize)
No pesticides or synthetic fertilizers
Multiple crop rotations
This form of farming does not lead to profit loss, but actually increases it. While it may require more thought and planning to know what fields cattle should graze and when, it has actually led to farmers increasing profits significantly after switching. Regenerative agriculture could lead to a $1 billion increase annually, not to mention a significant increase in the amount of carbon sequestered and the top soil preserved.
This is where the second documentary comes in. The Biggest Little Farm documents the journey of one couple starting a regenerative farm north of Los Angeles. I loved watching this documentary because it showed the real struggle this couple went through to build the farm into a beautiful and productive venture, but it clearly was worth it. Every challenge, whether it was gophers, slugs, coyotes, or birds, allowed them to create a solution to the problem that benefited the farm. By using cover crops in their orchards they helped build up the soils to produce better fruit. The sheep grazed on the cover crop keeping it mowed and fertilized it with their droppings. When the cover crop drew in massive army’s of slugs, they brought in their ducks for a nice feast. By using layers of management they were able to turn the dry, depleted dirt back into rich, productive soil. Their nutrient rich soil made a great home for earthworms which improved the drainage and created a more stable soil. This benefitted them during a significant rainstorm where neighboring fields washed out, but their land absorbed the water avoiding any damage.
Since I had never heard of this approach to agriculture I assumed it was a niche approach that only smaller farms attempted. A quick search brought me to RegeNErate, a movement in my home state of Nebraska that works to bring this concept to more farms. Farmers in Nebraska and across the nation are realizing how they farm can have a substantial impact on climate change considering agriculture accounts for 24% of carbon emissions.
When so much is at stake it will take every industry trying new methods to reduce and draw down carbon. Agriculture has an opportunity to not only contribute to reductions, but to bring farming back to a more sustainable and productive operation. The flooding across the Midwest and droughts in the west are proof that our modern approach to single crop, heavy till farming is not the way forward. Government incentives that encourage separation of cattle and crop only make the situation worse. Why subsidize farmers to grow corn, soy, and hay when 70% of it goes to feed cattle. Instead, a diverse field can be managed using cattle that builds up better soil to create a more productive harvest. It is time to follow the lead of farms like Apricot Lane that create an ecosystem within their 214 acres of land. We need to begin supporting farmers using regenerative agriculture, not the old way of single crop production.
