It is no coincidence that Thanksgiving occurs around the end of the harvest season. Our beloved farmers have toiled since spring to produce a harvest to feed and nourish us. We thank God for their vocation and efforts. As we know, though, farming is fraught with environmental and economic challenges.
Climate change is exacerbating these challenges, requiring farmers to adapt. One new and exciting adaptation is “regenerative agriculture” (RA), which promises a win-win solution of better crops and reduced atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) – a key contributor to global warming.
RA focuses on improving soil quality to make it healthier for crops, more resilient to weather extremes, and better for our planet because it locks CO2 into the soil. Some practices are well-known (think crop rotation), but research shows tilling damages the soil ecosystem far more than was realized. It disrupts the beneficial, symbiotic microbes and essential chemical reactions in root systems, thereby degrading the plants, land, and harvests, and releasing CO2 into the atmosphere.
Gardeners know healthier soil will produce healthier crops and more abundant yields. (Did you know a handful of healthy soil contains more organisms than all humans who have ever lived on Earth? Wow!) The same soil-focused attention at large scales, however, requires a rethinking of standard farming practices in favor of RA. These include:
- Reducing or ending tilling.
- Cover cropping to allow continual plant and root growth.
- Increasing crop diversity through rotation, which emphasizes non-standard, native plants.
- Organic annual cropping to reduce/eliminate industrial fertilizers and pesticides.
- Integrating livestock into cropland rather than keeping them separate.
- Moving livestock to graze new areas several times per day.
- Co-locating livestock, trees, and native perennial forage crops (silvopasturing).
These practices ensure deep, healthy, and resilient root systems, which also transfer CO2 into the soil. That’s a win-win! RA also makes economic sense. An RA-practicing farmer was asked what his non-RA neighbors thought of his approach. The question was posed during a severe drought. He responded, “Well, they think I’m a little crazy, but now they are selling their herds and struggling. My cattle have grass and are thriving.” A family farm win for RA!
This Thanksgiving, let us thank our farmers for their life-giving vocation and also advocate for healthy soil, improved yields, and reduced CO2 through RA. The C3 Team will share more information on RA in the coming months. In the meantime, use the buttons below to learn more