Source: What Is Regenerative Agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture is a sustainable method of farming that can replenish nutrients in the soil while combating climate change. Regenerative agriculture is a modern name for the way farming was practiced for centuries, before the onset of industrial agriculture in the early 20th century. Returning to those traditional practices is gaining momentum as a way of reversing the damage done to the climate and soil that we all depend on for our food and survival. https://309b2f24a98d5ab0339e96dab137118e.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
The world runs on topsoil. It is the source of 95% of our food.1 Yet the world’s topsoil could be gone within 60 years without significant changes to the way we grow food.2 For centuries, American farmers relied on the natural fertility of the soil to produce food. In the early 20th century, however, chemical fertilizers became necessary to maintain that fertility. Industrial agriculture depends on constant inputs of chemical fertilizers to keep the soil productive.
Types of Regenerative Agriculture Practices
While it might seem like a new term due to a growing shift in farming techniques, regenerative agriculture includes a diverse range of practices that have been used by farmers for decades, even centuries.
Crop Rotation
Crop rotation is as old as agriculture itself but has been largely abandoned in favor of monocropping, the growing of a single crop on the same soil year after year. In the early 20th century, the pioneering agricultural scientist George Washington Carver began advocating crop rotation after watching farmers in the American South deplete their soil from planting only cotton in their fields. Carver encouraged them to alternate cotton with legumes like peas, beans, and peanuts, all of which return nitrogen to the soil.
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