Regenerative Agriculture: Part 2

Regenerative Agriculture: Part 2

Tia Stajkowski

All of these problems pose a serious threat to global food security, but regenerative agriculture is a solution that addresses all of these issues. To solve the problem of tilling, we should stop tilling. The equipment to make this switch already exists; instead of turning the carbon out of the soil, no-till combines sow seeds while keeping the carbon in the ground. Carbon is the foundation of life, not only in us and the food we eat, but in the microorganisms that live in the soil and create a nutrient rich environment. Soil can sequester almost 4 times the amount of carbon as the atmosphere and all land plants combined thus working to combat climate change while promoting global food security. 

At the 2015 Paris Climate Summit, French scientists proposed a solution that would reverse climate change and feed the world. In order to accomplish these goals, the 36 signing countries are aiming to increase carbon content of the soil by 0.4% annually. This will result in global cooling via drawdown, which is the process of returning carbon to the soil. This plan suggests the implementation of polyculture farms to reverse the effects of monoculture. Growing many different species in the same field creates nutrient rich soil while also growing healthy food. This cycle of nutrients exists because different plants have different needs, so each species will deposit nutrients it doesn’t need making them available to other plants while simultaneously claiming unused materials from neighboring plants through the soil. A successful example of this in practice is the three sister crops of corn, beans, and squash used by the indigenous people of North America. When planted together, beans act as a nitrogen fixer allowing the corn to grow high and act as a stalk for the beans while squash spreads over the ground shading it to retain moisture. Polyculture is also economically resilient by diversifying investments in many different species. This means that if one plant fails to produce one season, the other crops will provide some income stability for the farmer. 

Living animals can further promote this biodiversity as well. Naturally cows don’t overgraze, so they will not harm the crops growing in the fields. When they eat grass, they only eat the blade leaving the roots to provide recycled carbon while supplementing the soil with their own waste. When all of these sustainable practices are used in conjunction, they create a naturally fertile environment for our food to be grown in leaving no need for liquid or synthetic fertilizers or any other toxic chemicals.

Regenerative agriculture also requires greater knowledge of the land you live on. As I have talked about before in other blog posts, there is a tremendous disconnect of people from land and food. A switch to regenerative practices implies a cultural shift away from commodifying land and instead fostering a relationship with it.