User:Steminist04/Regenerative agriculture

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Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to food and farming systems. It focuses on topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, improving the water cycle, enhancing ecosystem services, supporting biosequestration, increasing resilience to climate change, and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil. Practices include recycling as much farm waste as possible and adding composted material from sources outside the farm. Regenerative agriculture is not a specific practice itself. Rather, proponents of regenerative agriculture utilize a variety of other sustainable agriculture techniques in combination.

Regenerative agriculture on small farms and gardens is often based on philosophies like permaculture, agroecology, agroforestry, restoration ecology, keyline design, and holistic management. Large farms tend to be less philosophy driven and often use "no-till" and/or "reduced till" practices.

Origins
Existing section

Recent Developments (since 2010)
While the term has existed for decades, regenerative agriculture has increasingly showed up in academic research since the early to mid 2010s in the fields of environmental science, plant science, and ecology. As the term expands in use, many books have been published on the topic and several organizations started to promote regnerative agriculture techniques. Allan Savory gave a TED talk on fighting and reversing climate change in 2013. He also launched The Savory Institute, which educates ranchers on methods of holistic land management. Abe Collins created LandStream to monitor ecosystem performance in regenerative agriculture farms. Eric Toensmeier had a book published on the subject in 2016.

However, researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands found there to be no consistent definition of what people referencing "regenerative agriculture" meant. They also found that most of the work around this topic were instead the authors' attempt at shaping what regenerative agriculture meant.

In 2019.... (sections added by others on academic research centers)

Several large corporations have announced regenerative agriculture initiatives in the last few years. In 2019, General Mills announced an effort to promote regenerative agriculture practices in their supply chain and paid the non-profit Kiss the Ground to run educational events on regenerative agriculture in agricultural communities that support General Mills. However, the effort has received criticism from academic and government experiments on sustainability in farming. In particular, Gunsmoke Farm partnered with General Mills to transition to regenerative agriculture practices and become a teaching hub for others. Experts from the area have expressed concerns about the farm now doing more harm than good, with agronomist Ruth Beck stating that "Environmental marketing got ahead of what farmers can actually do".

In 2021, PepsiCo announced that by 2030 they will work with the farmers in their supply chain to establish regenerative agriculture practices across their approximately 7 million acres. In 2021, Unilever announced an extensive implementation plan to incorporate regenerative agriculture throughout their supply chain. VF Corporation, the parent company of The North Face, Timberland, and Vans, announced in 2021 a partnership with Terra Genesis International to create a supply chain for their rubber that comes from sources utilizing regenerative agriculture. Nestle announced in 2021 a $1.8 billion investment in regnerative agriculture in an effort to reduce their emissions by 95%.

Principles
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There are several individuals, groups, and organizations that have attempted to define what the principles of regenerative agriculture are. In their review of the existing literature on regenerative agriculture, researchers at Wageningen University created a database of 279 published research articles on regenerative agriculture. Their analysis of this database found that people using the term regenerative agriculture were using different principles to guide regenerative agriculture efforts. The 4 most consistent principles were found to be, 1) enhancing and improving soil health, 2) optimization of resource management, 3) alleviation of climate change, and 4) improvement water quality and availability.

Notable Definitions of Principles
The organization The Carbon Underground created a set of principles that have been signed on to by a number of non-profits and corporations including Ben & Jerry's, Annie's, and the Rodale Institute, which was one of the first organization to use the term "Regenerative Agriculture". The principles they've outlined include building soil health and fertility, increase water percolation and retention, increasing biodiversity and ecosystem health, and reducing carbon emissions and current atmospheric CO2 levels.

The group Terra Genesis International based in Thailand, and VF Corporation's partner in their regenerative agriculture initiative, created a set of 4 principles, which include: (cite existing 4 and 26)


 * "Progressively improve whole agroecosystems (soil, water and biodiversity)"


 * "Create context-specific designs and make holistic decisions that express the essence of each farm"
 * "Ensure and develop just and reciprocal relationships amongst all stakeholders"
 * "Continually grow and evolve individuals, farms, and communities to express their innate potential"

Carbon Sequestration
Conventional agricultural practices such as plowing and tilling release carbon dioxide (CO2) from the soil by exposing organic matter to the surface and thus promoting oxidation. It is estimated that roughly a third of the total anthropogenic inputs of CO2 to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution have come from the degradation of soil organic matter and that 30-75% of global soil organic matter has been lost since the advent of tillage-based farming. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with conventional soil and cropping activities represent 13.7% of anthropogenic emissions, or 1.86 Pg-C y-1. The raising of ruminant livestock also contributes GHGs, representing 11.6% of anthropogenic emissions, or 1.58 Pg-C y-1. Furthermore, runoff and siltation of water bodies associated with conventional farming practices promote eutrophication and emissions of methane.

Regenerative agriculture practices such as no-till farming, rotational grazing, mixed crop rotation, cover cropping, and the application of compost and manure have the potential to reverse this trend. No-till farming reintroduces carbon back into the soil as crop residues are pressed down when seeding. Some studies suggest that adoption of no-till practices could triple soil carbon content in less than 15 years. Additionally, 1 Pg-C y-1, representing roughly a fourth to a third of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, may be sequestered by converting croplands to no-till systems on a global scale.

Regenerative grazing management, particularly adapative multipaddock (AMP) grazing, has been shown to reduce soil degradation compared to continuous grazing and thus has the potential to mitigate carbon emissions from soil. Crop rotation and maintenance of permanent cover crops help to reduce soil erosion as well, and in conjunction with AMP grazing, may result in net carbon sequestration. One study suggests that total conversion of livestock raising to AMP grazing practices coupled with conservation cropping has the potential to convert North American farmlands to a carbon sink, sequestering approximately 1.2 Pg-C y-1. Over the next 25-50 years, the cumulative sequestration potential is 30-60 Pg-C. Additions of organic manures and compost further build soil organic carbon, thus contributing to carbon sequestration potential.

Nutrient Cycling
Soil organic matter is the primary sink of nutrients necessary for plant growth such as nitrogen, phosphorus, zinc, sulfur, and molybdenum. Conventional tillage-based farming promotes rapid erosion and degradation of soil organic matter, depleting soil of plant nutrients and thus lowering productivity. Tillage, in conjunction with additions of inorganic fertilizer, also destroys soil microbial communities, reducing production of organic nutrients in soil. Practices that restore organic matter may be used to increase the total nutrient load of soil. For example, regenerative management of ruminant livestock in mixed-crop and grazing agroecosystems has been shown to improve soil nutrient cycling by encouraging the consumption and decomposition of residual crop biomass and promoting the recovery of nitrogen-fixing plant species. Regenerative crop management practices, namely the use of crop rotation to ensure permanent ground cover, have the potential to increase soil fertility and nutrient levels if nitrogen-fixing crops are included in the rotation. Crop rotation and rotational grazing also allow the nutrients in soil to recover between growing and grazing periods, thus further enhancing overall nutrient load and cycling.

Biodiversity
Conventional agricultural practices are generally understood to simplify agroecosystems through introduction of monocultures and eradication of diversity in soil microbial communities through chemical fertilization. In natural ecosystems, biodiversity serves to regulate ecosystem function internally, but under conventional agricultural systems, such control is lost and requires increasing levels of external, anthropogenic input. By contrast, regenerative agriculture practices including polycultures, mixed crop rotation, cover cropping, organic soil management, and low- or no-tillage methods have been shown to increase overall species diversity while reducing pest population densities. Additionally, practices that favor organic over inorganic inputs aid in restoring below-ground biodiversity by enhancing the functioning of soil microbial communities. A survey of organic and conventional farms in Europe found that on the whole, species across several taxa were higher in richness and/or abundance on organic farms compared to conventional ones, especially species whose populations have been demonstrably harmed as a direct result of conventional agriculture.

AMP grazing can help improve biodiversity since increased soil organic carbon stocks also promotes a diversity of soil microbial communities. Implementation of AMP in North American prairies, for example, has been correlated with an increase in forage productivity and the restoration of plant species that had previously been decimated by continuous grazing practices. Furthermore, studies of arid and semiarid regions of the world where regenerative grazing has been practiced for a long time following prior periods of continuous grazing have shown a recovery of biodiversity, grass species, and pollinator species.

Policy and Politics
In 2021, the regenerative agriculture market gained traction after Joe Biden's Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made reference to it during his Senate Confirmation hearing. The Biden Administration wants to utilize $30 billion from the USDA's Commodity Credit Corporations to incentive farmers to adopt sustainable practices. Vilsack stated in the hearing, "It is a great tool for us to create the kind of structure that will inform future farm bills about what will encourage carbon sequestration, what will encourage precision agriculture, what will encourage soil health and regenerative agricultural practices."

During the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture's first hearing on climate change, Gabe Brown, a proponent of regenerative agriculture, testified about the the role of regenerative agriculture in both the economics and sustainability of farming.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/12/bidens-climate-change-plan-pay-farmers-to-cut-carbon-footprint.html,

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/17/climate/regenerative-grazing-cattle-climate.html

Criticism
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more on Allan critique from NYT article

"Just a buzz word" https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2021/02/28/regenerative-farming-is-just-a-fancy-name-for-farming-practices-that-have-been-around-a-very-long-time-in-canada.html

"Distracting from other things"

More sources:

https://mndaily.com/266004/editors-picks/university-researchers-explore-potential-of-microalgae-in-agriculture/

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/mars-cargill-put-nature-regeneration-goals-alongside-avoiding-climate-catastrophe

https://www.jswconline.org/content/jswc/71/2/156.full.pdf https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3184/003685017X14876775256165

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912420300584

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajes.12334?casa_token=XINKdb0YT8IAAAAA%3Am--VS9V_KJwFxIA9ZUrF7hlq1f40WWv4DsSYWdGfJSc1TEsteUXs5ex9EQ7l9DwUu7KUXugMGFu8vLKX

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02142-7

https://www.jswconline.org/content/75/5/123A.short