You may have heard all the buzz about regenerative agriculture or ‘regenerative farming’. But what is it, how does it differ from organic farming, and why should we be using it to grow our own food?
Use no-dig gardening and fruit protection bags (over netting, which can trap birds and wildlife). Learn how to create pet-safe gardens (use humane slug/snail deterrents).
Avoid facing indoor foliage to gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
Regenerative farming simply uses a set of principles to restore soil health, which is good for food, good for nature and good for native wildlife and birds. Some ‘organic farming’ methods claim to use regenerative farming, but this is not always the case.
For example, an organic farmer may use ‘organic methods’ to kill weeds. A regenerative farmer is more likely to use methods that natural deter weeds in the first place, through no-till methods.
Good soil smells sweet and attract worms (who do most of the work) which is why no-dig farming methods are popular (spades and forks can harm underground creatures). You can even use no-dig methods to plant trees (leaving soil undisturbed around the root).
The 5 Principles of Regenerative Farming
The organisation Groundswell is at the heart of promoting regenerative farming methods, and has developed 5 principles for all farmers to use:
- Don’t disturb soil. By using no-dig methods and avoiding heavy ploughing and chemicals, good soil can recover.
- Keep soil surface covered. This is where good mulch and layered gardening helps, to avoid disturbance from rain, sun and frost.
- Feed living roots. This keeps underground networks healthy, where plants turn carbon dioxide into sugars. Cover crops is the best way to do this, to avoid bare soil.
- Grow diverse crops. Monocultures (that grow the same crops on land each year) end up needing chemicals, but regenerative farming uses crop rotation and companion planting (crops are grown together to deter unwelcome visitors).
- For livestock farming, have free-range grazing animals. Even if you’re not vegan, all sustainability experts say that everyone needs to eat far less meat.
Regenerative Farming = Better Soil
Soil releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide, so no-dig farming and regenerative agriculture can help to stop this. Keeping trees intact also helps to reduce flooding.
Due to dispersing seeds, more trees even increase rainfall, very important if using climate smart agriculture in drought countries like in Africa.
Ploughing less leads to more biodiversity, healthier food and better animal welfare. 72% of UK land is used for agriculture, and 15 million acres at at risk of degradation due to intensive farming methods.
Kiss the Ground is a US film (narrated by ex-Cheers actor Woody Harrelson who is now a climate campaigner). Available for free school screenings, it shows how regenerative farming and restoring good soil is one of the best ways to reduce climate change and restore healthy food and farming systems.
100 Million Acres is a common project, to restore our soil in the US, transforming 10% of the USA’s millions of acres of land over to regenerative farming. It would be great is someone set up a similar project in England.
We have visions in England of farmers tilling the soil, grazing animals, and driving tractors. But in fact this is what is causing Co2 to go into the atmosphere, and no-till farming is the better for soil and food, and to stop carbon emissions.
We may need to (sea-freight) import bananas. But we don’t need to import apples, pears or oat milk!
Ceres Rural is a regenerative agriculture consultancy, that can help you transition over. Or even consider transfarming over to grow oats!
Devon’s eco-retreat centre of Embercombe is one of the first places to showcase regenerative farming. This 50-acre rewilding estate includes a lake, mature woodland and scrub, meadows and orchards, all home to badgers, foxes, birds, rodents, snakes, trees and wild flowers. It also offers an in-depth rewilding course.
Why Free-Range Supports Regenerative Farming
At present, most farmland worldwide is used to grow crops (like maize for animal feed) or biofuels. But we could solve world starvation by growing high-protein food crops for humans in developing countries (teff is high in protein and needs little water, ideal to reduce famine).
The UK presently has almost 2000 intensive (factory) farms, where aside from animal welfare issues, antibiotics are used that result in poor human health too.
Animals raised on regenerative farms have better lives as they have natural space and shelter, eat natural foods (like grass) and are looked after by small-scale farmers, who know what they are doing.
Eating local also has beneficial effects in a country where we import almost half our vegetables and nearly 90% of fruit (often from countries using intensive systems, due to lack of fresh water).
Local organic food means less plastic packaging, less oil (25% of road traffic is from lorries driving food from central distribution houses to big supermarkets) and better welfare (some farmers are transfarming over to profitable crops like oats, leaving remaining animals to live out their lives in peace).
