What is Regenerative Agriculture?
Regenerative practices restore and protect, rather than deplete and harm, ecosystems and nutrient cycles. Modeled after natural cycles, they help yards, gardens, and farms mimic, as well as care for, their wild counterparts. Industrial farms and conventional lawns tend to be removed from natural cycles- one or two plants are grown in tracts of tilled, infertile soil; nutrients are added in excessive quantities via synthetic fertilizer; water runs off of unprotected soil, stripping top soil off with it; pesticides are applied to kill organisms which have natural predators. All of these actions have downstream consequences in the shape of toxic algae blooms in local waterways, plummeting ground-water sources, a drastic depletion of readily available top-soil, increased atmospheric carbon, and less nutritious food.
Regenerative methods reconnect growing spaces to cycles, which can actually end up creating less work for the caretaker of the space over time and keeps the consequences of industrial growing from seeping into the adjacent, wild spaces. Employing these methods in your yard and garden can ultimately create less work for you over time, particularly when perennial plants are involved, and help you care for your local environment, merely through caring for your own yard. These practices also create more nutrient-rich, healthy soil, which is passed on to you through the health of your plants and the food they produce.
Examples of regenerative practices:
There is always more to learn about the environment and our connection to it and there is a multitude of phenomenal resources out there. If you want to dive in further, consider checking out some of our favorites:
Regenerative methods reconnect growing spaces to cycles, which can actually end up creating less work for the caretaker of the space over time and keeps the consequences of industrial growing from seeping into the adjacent, wild spaces. Employing these methods in your yard and garden can ultimately create less work for you over time, particularly when perennial plants are involved, and help you care for your local environment, merely through caring for your own yard. These practices also create more nutrient-rich, healthy soil, which is passed on to you through the health of your plants and the food they produce.
Examples of regenerative practices:
- No or limited tilling
- Adding compost, cover crops, and mulch to growing spaces
- Rotating crops
- Increasing biodiversity through companion planting, native plant beds, and pollinator plants
- Space, time, and interest permitting- the incorporation of animals into growing cycles
There is always more to learn about the environment and our connection to it and there is a multitude of phenomenal resources out there. If you want to dive in further, consider checking out some of our favorites:
- Your local Tribal Nation's research and science Departments. Ours are the Swinomish and Samish Nations.
- Dr. Lydia Jennings aka The Soil Nerd
- The First Nations Development Institute
- Indigenous Climate Action
- The Rodale Institute
- The Savanna Institute
- Project Drawdown
- Kiss the Ground
- Natural Resource Defense Council