Climate Impact Of Regenerative Agriculture
Though some cultures around the globe have practiced restorative land management for centuries, the more dominant cultures ignored holistic practices that took soil health and ecosystem function into account.
During the Industrial Revolution, the pace of soil degradation sped up as more landscapes were rapidly transformed using machinery and synthetic fertilizers. Large mono-crops of corn and wheat were produced to feed hungry people during the two world wars. Some of these innovations were incredibly positive for making lots of calories, but there were troubling long-term consequences.
Highly functional, complex ecosystems were stripped of biodiversity and the soil was stripped of organic matter. This set the stage for soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, less nutrient density in our food, flooding, droughts, and more carbon in our atmosphere.
Due to the majority of human land management practices and our growing population, we are experiencing soil degradation and desertification at an alarming rate. Rich living soil has been turned into dysfunctional dirt. Drylands now cover about 46% of the earth’s surface, and around 9% of those drylands face severe desertification. In the last 40 years, we have lost about 1/3 of our arable land.
This is both unnecessary and avoidable and must be stopped.
The loud voices of lobbyists for commercial interests are waving false flags like blaming cattle for releasing methane whilst ignoring that nitrous oxide gets released from the soil by the widespread use of artificial nitrogenous fertilizers especially in large scale, broad acre cropping. These commercial interests ignore the successful work done by farmers using natural practices like cover cropping which draw carbon into the soil and allow soil microbes to produce the necessary nitrogen for plant growth.
It is time for all farmers to stop and question the messages being sent by mainstream agricultural corporations and ask whose interests they are serving.
Already regenerative farmers, land custodians and regenerative thinking consumers all are wary of vested interests and thus have a very important role to play in restoring living soils. Over the decades, Farming Secrets has encouraged the use of natural inputs such as composts, compost teas and natural products such as seaweed to create healthy living soils and subsequently healthier plants, animals, and humans. This is seen in the List of The Ten Must Do’s which were written to reveal the most important practices for farming regeneratively and in tune with nature. To read the list please visit here: https://www.farmingsecrets.com
They comprise a basic list of successful practices for any farmer to increase his soil health. Of these 10, there are 3 that are absolutes for your future success:
- Keeping 100% soil cover
- Maintaining biodiversity
- Minimal disturbance of the soil
Ref: Ref: Karen Rodriguez, Kiss The Ground
