Why Regenerative Agriculture?

WHY REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE?

“The Earth was a dead rock - a black, brown, grey rock - spinning around the sun with water on one side and ice on the other and an atmosphere poisoned with carbon gasses. And then, somehow, life started, and through the cycles of nature - the plant cycle, the microbial cycle, the water cycle, the carbon cycle - it turned that rock into a beautiful blue, white, and green planet and that change was because those cycles nature yielded an abundance. Us humans, through industrial agriculture, are able to break those cycles - and when we do that, it begins the process of turning that beautiful planet with a favorable atmosphere and a moderate climate back into a dead black brown and grey rock. Animal impact, just like plant and microbial impact, were an essential part of that transformation - and you simply can’t do it without it.”

That’s what Will Harris, a regenerative farmer at White Oak Pastures, said to me last week when I asked him to describe the importance of regenerative agriculture. We can look to history to know that Regenerative Agriculture - which mimics those natural ecological cycles - is the only way forward, because it’s the only way we got here in the first place.

Over the last year, I’ve had the chance to speak to some of the most intelligent, impassioned, and inspiring people I’ve ever met - many of whom are in this room. I’ve found that there are people all over the globe working in this direction and as I’ve dug deeper, I’ve only found that it’s expanding.

The most empowering and advantageous thing about regenerative agriculture is that it doesn’t lie in the hands of new technology or mass machinery or even large-scale government initiatives - it belongs to the people.

And to me, it’s these people - farmers, chefs, soil scientists, winemakers, writers, fashion designers, bread bakers, connectors, and so on - that have made what used to feel like an insurmountable problem - climate change, food security, livelihood - feel more promising than ever. 

- Katy Anne Severson, Food & Travel Writer, and writer on Regenerative Agriculture