A Healthier Planet Starts with Regenerative Agriculture

These days, the world is engaged in a serious discussion about how to create positive change on our agricultural lands, particularly how to leave them better than we found them and, in some cases, even repair some of the damage we've done. Today's forward-thinking farmers are paving the way to a reimagined industry, developing systems to build soil fertility, sequester carbon and increase biodiversity to help regenerate the earth.

Beyond "reduce, reuse, recycle," regenerative agriculture is the way forward for our planet, at least according to an increasing number of farmers and ranchers. It's about old ways becoming new again and relying on Mother Nature to do what comes, well, naturally.

Regenerative farming is not new; in fact, it's pretty old. Long before early American settlers established homesteads in the Midwest, bison once foraged these plains, aerating soil and dispersing native grass seeds with their hooves while naturally fertilizing the soil. The land lived in perfect balance with the animals, taking what it needed from them and giving back lush, grassy, green pastures for their next grazing season.

How is the Regenerative Organic certification different from the USDA Organic certification?

Regenerative Organic certification is overseen by the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA), a nonprofit that uses the USDA Certified Organic standard as a baseline. From there, the ROA adds important criteria and benchmarks for regenerating soil health, sustaining animal welfare and producing social fairness. Regenerative organic agriculture aims to meet these criteria through practices like cover cropping, crop rotation, minimal soil disturbance, composting, and rejection of chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Research has also shown that even traditional organic farms tend to have more fertile soil, more biodiversity, use less energy, and produce fewer carbon emissions and hazardous chemical runoff than non-organic farms. Both Organics and Regenerative Organics alike are great choices to support the health of the planet.