Regenerative Agriculture: Reviving Old Practices for a Sustainable Future

Companies are facing increasing regulatory and consumer pressure report robust sustainability metrics and targets. Consumers have become more educated about sustainability and are actively researching product claims and expose greenwashing. In response to these pressures, companies are increasingly adopting regenerative agriculture practices which offer a sustainable solution to progress their ambitious sustainability commitments.

What is Regenerative Agriculture?

Regenerative agriculture is an innovative approach to farming that blends age-old traditions with modern sustainable practices. It draws inspiration from indigenous farming techniques that work in harmony with nature to revitalize ecosystems and enhance biodiversity¹. This approach is not only about sustaining current resources but also about actively restoring and regenerating the health of our planet. More than half of the world’s agricultural land is degraded, resulting in $400 billion a year in productivity losses and posing a significant risk to future food security². Regenerative agriculture offers a crucial solution to this pressing issue by focusing on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, and enhancing ecosystem services³. At its core, regenerative agriculture aims to reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity, leading to carbon drawdown and an improved water cycle⁴.

Regenerative agriculture has a few main practices:,

• • No-till Farming: Avoiding tillage minimizes soil disturbance and promotes soil health⁵. This practice helps to preserve soil structure, reduce erosion, and enhance water infiltration.
  • Cover Cropping: Planting cover crops protects the soil, improves soil health, and suppresses weeds⁶. Cover crops also help to increase biodiversity and provide habitat for beneficial insects.
  • Crop Rotation: Rotating crops helps maintain soil fertility and control pests and diseases⁶. This practice also helps to break pest cycles and reduce the need for synthetic pesticides.
  • Composting: Adding compost to the soil improves soil health and provides nutrients⁷. Compost adds organic matter to the soil, enhancing its water-holding capacity and nutrient content.
  • Reducing Chemical Inputs: Regenerative agriculture prioritizes the use of natural inputs and minimizes reliance on synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides⁶. This helps to protect soil health, biodiversity, and water quality.
  • Integrating Livestock: Incorporating livestock into farming systems enhances nutrient cycling and improves soil health¹. Livestock grazing can be managed to mimic natural grazing patterns, promoting plant growth and soil fertility.

Each of these practices can be adopted independently, or paired with one or all other regenerative agricultural practices. Regardless of which practices are adopted, the aim is to reduce the negative planetary impact of farming, which can be exacerbated by conventional farming practices, and preserve the land for years to come.

The Challenges Regenerative Agriculture

While regenerative agriculture offers numerous benefits, it’s important to acknowledge potential disadvantages. It can take several years to see significant improvements in soil health and yields. Some practices, such as rotational grazing and cover cropping, can be labor-intensive, requiring careful planning and management⁸.

In most cases, the transition from conventional to regenerative farming practices involves a high upfront cost for the farmer, of which the return on investment may not be seen for years. While there are incentives from organizations like the USDA that can support the transition to regenerative farming practices, the initial cost for the farmer is often a barrier to adoption.

Soil health & carbon sequestration

Regenerative agriculture practices enhance soil health by increasing soil organic matter, improving soil structure, and promoting beneficial microbial activity¹⁰. Healthy soils are more resilient to extreme weather events, such as droughts and heavy rainfall¹¹. The world’s soils store several times the amount of carbon as the atmosphere, acting as a natural “carbon sink.” However, globally, soil carbon stocks have been declining due to factors like land conversion and overgrazing. Regenerative agriculture aims to restore soil carbon by utilizing the carbon that plants have absorbed from the atmosphere¹². Regenerative practices like cover cropping and reduced tillage help maintain soil integrity, preventing carbon release and promoting carbon storage¹³. Agriculture is a major contributor to climate change due to deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, making carbon sequestration a crucial aspect of regenerative agriculture¹⁴.

A key benefit to more widespread adoption of regenerative agriculture is that of soil health and it’s sustainability for future generations. Conventional farming practices such as tillage and intensive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides can lead to soil degradation and a decline in productivity. Regenerative agriculture is purported by advocates as a solution to these issues that focuses on enhanced soil health and carbon sequestration⁹. Carbon sequestration is the most preferred method for large companies looking to reduce their footprint and meet their sustainability goals.

As food and beverage companies turn to regenerative agricultural practices to make a positive environmental impact and move closer to their sustainability targets, the main benefits are around farmer engagement and support, ingredient sourcing, and product labeling. Appealing to the environmentally conscious consumer is crucial for these organizations as consumers become more educated on the topics of sustainability. Responsible sourcing and growing practices offered by regenerative agriculture has certainly piqued the interest of these sustainability-forward consumer bases. Sourcing ingredients for their products from farmers who implement regenerative agricultural practices at farm-level, financially incentivizing farmers to convert from typical farming practices to regenerative ones, and the ability to claim the positive carbon impact in their reporting are all reasons food and beverage companies are increasingly interested in regenerative agriculture.

Here is an example of a regenerative agriculture program relating to dairy production in Ireland.

It is likely that the adoption of regenerative agricultural programs and use in products will continue to be widely adopted across the food and beverage industry as companies work to meet their climate commitments. A reminder that often, achieving progress against sustainability targets requires humanity to go back to age-old practices to keep the Earth healthy and bountiful for future generations.

• References
  1. What is regenerative agriculture? – Syngenta Group, accessed January 13, 2025, https://www.syngentagroup.com/regenerative-agriculture
  2. What is regenerative agriculture? – The World Economic Forum, accessed January 13, 2025, https://www.weforum.org/stories/2022/10/what-is-regenerative-agriculture/
  3. Regenerative agriculture – Wikipedia, accessed January 13, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_agriculture
  4. regenerationinternational.org, accessed January 13, 2025, https://regenerationinternational.org/why-regenerative-agriculture/#:~:text=What%20is%20Regenerative%20Agriculture%3F, and%20improving%20the%20water%20cycle.
  5. To combat climate change: Promote regenerative agricultural practices, accessed January 13, 2025, https://farmland.org/promote-regenerative-agricultural-practices/
  6. Regenerative Agriculture – Chesapeake Bay Foundation, accessed January 13, 2025, https://www.cbf.org/issues/agriculture/regenerative-agriculture.html
  7. Regenerative Agriculture 101 | Green America, accessed January 13, 2025, https://www.greenamerica.org/healthy-soil-cool-climate/regenerative-agriculture-101
  8. 16 Examples of Regenerative Agriculture – Gaia Technologies, accessed January 13, 2025, https://gaiacompany.io/examples-of-regenerative-agriculture/
  9. Regenerative Agriculture—A Literature Review on the Practices and Mechanisms Used to Improve Soil Health.
  10. The Impact of Regenerative Agriculture on Soil Health: Learn the Stats, accessed January 13, 2025, https://goodcitizencoffee.com/blogs/newsletter/the-impact-of-regenerative-agriculture-on-soil-health-learn-the-stats
  11. Cultivating Abundance: The Transformative Impact of Regenerative Agriculture on Soil Health, accessed January 13, 2025, https://www.sustainableagriculture.eco/post/cultivating-abundance-the-transformative-impact-of-regenerative-agriculture-on-soil-health
  12. Regenerative Agriculture: Good for Soil Health, but Limited Potential to Mitigate Climate Change – World Resources Institute, accessed January 13, 2025, https://www.wri.org/insights/regenerative-agriculture-good-soil-health-limited-potential-mitigate-climate-change
  13. How Regenerative Agriculture Can Help Reduce Carbon Emissions – Zevero, accessed January 13, 2025, https://www.zevero.earth/blog/regenerative-agriculture-reduce-ghg-emissions
  14. Regenerative Agriculture: Healthy Soil Best Bet for Carbon Storage – EASAC, accessed January 13, 2025, https://easac.eu/news/details/regenerative-agriculture-healthy-soil-best-bet-for-carbon-storage
  15. How regenerative agriculture programs can enhance water conservation and resilience, accessed January 13, 2025, https://www.indigoag.com/blog/how-regenerative-agriculture-programs-can-enhance-water-conservation-and-resilience