Regenerative Agriculture
If you’ve ever tried your hand at growing a few plants at home I’m sure you’ve run into quite a few ideas from both useful and sometimes not so wanted sources. Whether you'‘re looking to grow a few herbs in a windowsill, a small garden of tomatoes , peas, and lettuce, or a full market garden or full scale farm it’s inevitable that anyone and everyone will tell you exactly the best way to do it. All advice aside, there are a few main camps that just about everyone one way or another will find home in. For simplicity sake we can focus on large scale “traditional” commercial farming, organic commercial farming, and regenerative farming. There are many more, and these three camps contain many of their own subsets as well, so dig deeper if you find interest in the different ways to feed yourself, your community, and the world!
The newest form of agriculture is arguably also the oldest form as well. Regenerative agriculture as a concept began to grow in popularity around the 1980’s when the Rodale institute coined the term. The concepts and practices, however, date back to the origins of organized human agriculture around 12,000 years ago. So what the heck? How can the origins of food growing also be it’s newest addition? It’s easy to do actually. It’s human nature to want to grow, improve, and push for innovation in all aspects of life. That is a good thing! The problem is that along the way we seem to have lost track of where we came from and even where we were trying to go in the first place.
Commercial large scale farming and agriculture is exactly what you know and probably picture when asked to think of a farm. Acres and acres of land plowed with a tractor and planted with rows and rows with either corn, soy, wheat, tobacco, or cotton as far as the eye can see. Possibly a large industrial irrigation system spraying water and/or fertilizer across the fields as well. The practices of using tractors to till the fields, and synthetic pesticides to protect the crops both began to take center stage around the 1920’s and 30’s. Mono-cropping began slightly prior in 1901. Mono-cropping (monoculture) is the practice of planting one specific crop without variation. Hence the rows of corn covering the extent of the horizon across the mid-west.
So what’s the big deal with traditional large scale farming? Well, a few things actually. First of all, the practices of spraying and mono culture cropping are fundamentally flawed in the lack of connection to the earth’s natural ecosystem. Think about it- have you ever seen anywhere in nature an area where ONLY one plant was growing? I highly doubt it. Nature doesn’t like to be naked. She wants to clothe herself in plants and organic materials to protect and nurture the soils, microbiome of the planet, and the ecosystems of life above ground.
When we mono-crop with a “cash crop” such as corn or wheat, we are breaking the mold of the plant growth and adaptation that has proven itself effective over millions of years. To put a bandage on the consequences of that choice we spray herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides to preserve our single crop growth. If you want to know how pesticides in particular can affect not only the soil, but our own lives as a species and society, then check out our blog post about saving the bees on our journal page.
Herbicides and fungicides kill off much more than the presumed harmful or hindering pests in our plots and fields. These chemicals can not pick and choose which life is beneficial or harmful, so they simply kill it all. The issue comes with the cascading affect that loss of variability in soil life causes. The soil is the backbone of our planets health more than any other aspect. Without a healthy, lively, and thriving underground ecosystem in our soils the ability for life to continue in that space dies out as a consequence. That includes the vertebrates that eat and live off of that life… like us.
Okay, so let’s just not spray then! We’ll go organic. Using poly cultural planting techniques that mimic the natural growing systems of natural growth, the need for spraying practically- if not altogether- disappear. Soil life teeming and happy again!
Well yes and no… Going organic is an amazing transition, and is a huge step in the right direction. In fact, if all farming and gardening took the same step the world as we know it would shift dramatically towards a more fruitful and thriving future for us and the life around us- but why stop there?
Regenerative agriculture inherently includes organic. Not all regenerative farms are certified as organic as it can be incredibly expensive and much more complicated than the new regenerative farmers can take on yet. The main difference that separates the two are the use of machinery and most specifically the act of tilling the fields. Most organic farms will still utilize the tractor for field work such as tilling where large metal blades will dig the earth up and stir it around. The purpose is to remove weeds, oxygenate the soil, create a fluffy medium for plants, and prepare the ground for direct seeding or transplanting. Less obvious but no less prevalent uses for tilling include the accomplished feeling a farmer gets from a visual change accomplished after a long days work as well as the aesthetic demands of land owners, who may know little to nothing about farming and soil ecology.
There is a real and recognizable sense of accomplishment and fulfillment from a freshly tilled field with no weeds and a recognizably fluffy soil structure. I get it! I know how good I feel looking at a freshly fluffed up planting bed. I also can deeply sympathize with farmers working on leased or borrowed land. It isn’t entirely up to you how the land should be cared for, and it’s quite terrifying to think of the prospect that your livelihood could be taken away in a matter of minutes. This is a disconcerting truth of more small scale organic farms than you’d think. Land owners want to see that the land they own is well cared for and they have chosen a good farmer to utilize the asset properly. They want to see a beautifully fluffed up, weed free, and prepped bed when they drive by. They don’t want to see weeds or leftover crop debris because “it looks neglected”. No land owner wants to loan out their land to someone who “neglects it”.
So what to do? For those who want to go no-till but are under a lease or otherwise not fully in control of land management there is really only a couple options. Suck it up for a few years while you save up for your own land where you can make all the decisions, or create a well planned out and precise presentation to spark the conversation with the land-owner about soil ecology. Best case you teach them and they agree with the transition to no till. Worst case they refuse and all you can do is utilize as many no-till principles as possible such as cover cropping, deep mulching, and human scale systems with as minimal tillage as possible.
If you’re ready to make the next step from organic to regenerative there are some exciting principles and practices that directly increase soil health and ecology that set regenerative agriculture apart from any other form of farming at any scale. These principles include- but are not limited to- cover cropping, human scale systems, mulching, poly-cultural planting, and various other smothering and mowing techniques. A personal favorite resource is the book The No- Till Organic Vegetable Farm by Daniel Mays. He goes over the ins and outs of the what, why, where, how, and when for all things regenerative in the commercial and home scale farm and garden world.
Cover Cropping is exactly what it sounds like- crops that you use to cover the ground that hold the space when your commercial/ harvest producing crops are not in that planting space. These are season dependent crops such as Winter Rye, Buckwheat, Clover, Oats, Peas, Grasses, and so much more. By utilizing these as an intentional weed planting, we actually smother out and stop the germination of unwanted weed seeds. Thereby protecting soil ecology with plant life clothing the soil as nature intended while keeping weeds suppressed without tilling them under once they’ve grown up. Tilling weeds under to kill them will actually make the problem worse as it stirs up dormant weed seeds from under the soil’s surface to be exposed to light and germinate as a fresh bed of weeds.
Once the ground is ready for planting, the cover-crops can be taken care of with a little forethought using smothering techniques. Using a mower to cut up the above ground green growth and lay it flat over the bed followed by a thick layer of mulch such as leaves or compost will kill off and decompose the covercrops without tilling up the soil or leaving the ground bare. After some time passes you can transplant directly into the bed by pulling the mulch layer back or planting directly into it in the case of a plant based compost mulch. If direct seeding, simply use the handy hard rake to pull back the mulch and direct seed from there. Replacing the mulch can be time dependent based on the type of directly seeded crop.
Mulch comes in many different forms. All of which have different uses, and many can easily be mixed and matched or swapped out entirely as access shifts from season to season and year to year. Well-composted leaf mulch is a perfect mulch cover for planting beds. As the leaves decompose, they become a compost layer that bugs and worms till back into the soil. Wood mulches work well as a cover for paths and borders. Wood mulches take much longer to break down- 2 to 4 years, so are more suited for a longer term smothering plan. Straw and hay are great choices as well, but can certainly bring in weed seeds to your beds depending on how it was harvested. Straw needs to be added at a much thicker depth as weeds can more easily grow up though the spaces between the dry blades.
Mulches solve a seemingly endless list of challenges found on the farm. From soil moisture levels to weed suppression and protecting plants from issues with soil contact, mulch is a wonderful concept to incorporate into any size of vegetable production.
Human scale agriculture may seem impossible or intrinsically heavy in manual labor. That comes from a misunderstanding of how agricultural systems can work in a much more “hands off” system. The forest really doesn’t need much of any help to produce massive quantities of green growth and an abundance of sustenance for living creatures to enjoy. Growing vegetables is very similar if modeled after the natural ecosystems around us. Keeping tractors and other large machines out of our vegetable beds eliminates compaction and opens opportunity for increased planting spaces.
Essentially, human scale means no heavy machinery in the fields, and the majority of the work that needs done being completed by human hands. We as humans have historically always played a major hands-on role in our personal food production and care. There is something special about playing an integral part in the sowing, growing, harvesting, and preparing of the food that you eat. Knowing where and how your food got to your plate gives it a little extra power to cultivate health and nourish your body as well as the growing community who share the experiences together.
Apart from food production is the uplifting and soul soothing experience of having your hands in direct contact with a biologically healthy bed of soil. Studies have shown direct correlation between the health and variability of soil biology and the wellness and overall health of the humans around it. Remember how back as kids we all played in the dirt? There’s a reason that seemed so compelling and fun at the time- it’s vital for lifelong health and wellness in all living beings to be in touch with the ecosystems of life in our soils.
The world we live in is so complex and teeming with life that it can seem overwhelming to try and understand it all in the pursuit of regenerative agriculture. At the end of the day it all really boils down to copying the blueprint that mother nature has perfected over millions of years. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but merely get it rolling in the right direction again. Together we can create an abundance of life, community, and nourishment in our very own backyards one worm at a time.
For more information on how to get involved with Love & Sunshine Farm’s regenerative mission, check out how to join our CSA or Produce box options. Every purchase directly benefits the regeneration of our soils, communities, and planet as well as the humble honey bee as shown through our blog post on “saving the bees”. Check that out through the link on the bottom left.
