What Is Regenerative Agriculture?

A method of raising plants and animals that helps rebuild soil, regenerative agriculture helps draw down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and slow climate change. In general, farms practicing this technique raise a variety of livestock species and planted crops to nurture soil health.

Animals roam relatively freely outside and are rotated among different fields to “rest” the land and spread their manure (and its microbes) more evenly. The variety of plants helps increase microbe diversity and reduce nutrient depletion in the soil plots where they’re grown.

These farms also use cover crops to protect the soil during the off-season; this provides the soil with another source of microbes and diverse plant matter.

In all, these practices help regenerative farms build soil instead of depleting it, which is what monocultures and factory farms typically do. And healthy soil supports healthy plants and animals — not to mention a healthier future. For more on regenerative agriculture, visit www.regenorganic.org.

This originally appeared in “What’s Up With Fake Meat?” in the October 2020 print issue of Experience Life.