What is Regenerative Agriculture, Really?

What is Regenerative Agriculture?

We practice regenerative agriculture at Crenshaw Cru, and we support it by buying fruit from farmers who practice it. But recently I was overwhelmed by a visit to California's almond country in the Central Valley - one of the world's bread baskets - and began to wonder how aware everyone else is about the stark difference between the agriculture that we've had for the last 50+ years, and regenerative agriculture.

The image below shows two ways not only of growing almonds, but of seeing the world, of choosing to live. One of these ways embodies ancient wisdom. The other dives headfirst into folly. I took both of these photos on the same day, on adjacent ranches. 

Aside from the differences in tree age and the fact that one is a later-blooming variety of almond, the big, unmistakable, and stark visual difference is the ground... the soil. One is full of life, and the other is lifeless.
 

Bad and Good News

First, the bad news is that the vast majority of agriculture in America, and the world, looks like the bottom picture. That lifeless soil is intentional, and it is made that way by tillage and herbicides (like RoundUp) and other pesticides.

I arrived at the top ranch on a windy day, and when I got out of my car I noticed a thick haze in the distance that reminded me eerily of a heavy smog day in LA. 

"What's that haze?" I asked my host.

"Erosion," they answered. "That's our soil."

By "our" soil, they meant all of ours, not theirs specifically (in fact you can see from the photos that they were likely contributing much less soil to that hazy sky than the many other ranches around them).

Soil is our legacy. There are estimates now that suggest we lose 4 or 5 bushels of topsoil for every bushel of food produced. That's a one way street with a dead end. 

If you aren't buying organic, the bottom picture is where your almonds and almond milk comes from. The difference between regenerative organic and conventional vineyards looks very similar. 

The good news is that the top farm exists. It's a 1,500 acre ranch in the middle of the Central Valley, showing what is possible at a large scale. It's the world’s first regenerative organic certified almond farm, named Burroughs Family Farms.

If you look closely, you may notice the irrigation lines are in the trees in the top picture, while they run along the ground on the bottom orchard. That's because the top farm (Burroughs Family Farms) integrates sheep in the orchard.

Sheep eat the grass and other cover crops, poop and pee and generally fertilize the soil, and provide a second food product and income stream from the same piece of land... all while creating healthier, more nutritious almonds, and reducing input costs like herbicide and fertilizer. 

In regenerative systems the benefits compound. This is why we can renew our farmlands so quickly with regenerative agriculture, even after decades of degradation. 

The outcomes of regenerative agriculture include increased biodiversity, enriched soils, improved watersheds, and enhanced ecosystem services (aka greater health and happiness to all creatures, ourselves included, who live off of these systems). But how do I know if a farmer is practicing regenerative agriculture?
 

The Principles of Regenerative Agriculture

1. Eliminate or Minimize Tillage/Disturbance

Every time we plow, disc, rip, or spray herbicides on the soil, we release carbon into the atmosphere, break soil fungal networks that provide water retention and nutrient transfer, and create imbalance in the microbiology. The less we can do this the better.

2. Keep Soil Covered At All Times

A very important step to improving soil health is keeping plant litter/organic matter on the soil. Allowing a layer of plant material to accumulate on the soil has significant benefits including: 

• Better moisture retention 

• Increases habitat for soil biology that will cycle nutrients better 

• Mitigates soil temperatures 

• Protects against erosion 

3. Keep Living Plants and Roots In The Soil

If there are green, photosynthesizing plants in vineyards, orchards, and fields, they are capturing carbon from the atmosphere, using it to grow products, and feeding the soil microbiology. They allow for faster water penetration, and prevent erosion.

4. Diversity

Different plants mineralize different nutrients, so it is incredibly important to maintain as much diversity wherever possible. Similar to people, a diverse diet in foods may increase your health and wellbeing. Diversity of plants in the soil leads to a healthier farm and a more nutrient dense harvest. 

A diversity of plants provides beneficial habitat for birds, animals, and insects which bring balance to the ecosystem and prevent pests from becoming dominant. 

A diversity of people and cultures and perspectives broadens and deepens our understanding of our farm, provides greater resources for problem solving, and helps our ideas be more balanced as well. 

5. Animal Integration

Whether it's cats and chickens like we've had at Crenshaw Cru, or sheep, pigs, cows, goats, ducks, geese, rabbits, and llamas - animals and birds bring fertility, profitability, pest control, and joy to the soil and the people who live from it (that's all of us). Animals are a key component to rapidly restoring soil health, but they must be well managed. Animal mismanagement can lead to unhealthy animals and degraded soils. The key to most animal management is to move them often onto areas that they haven’t been on long enough for the plants to have re-grown lushly.

6. Remove or Reduce the Use of Synthetic Pesticides/Herbicides/Fungicides

Building a regenerative agriculture ecosystem is about enhancing life. "Cides" and the mentality that inevitably accompanies them are about killing. These chemicals and this mentality seeps into every aspect of a farm, and the wider environment. They destroy the biological systems necessary for resilience and health. 

7. Build and Nurture Relationships

As you may have begun to see, these principles transcend agriculture and really begin to creep into the realm of physical, mental, and social restoration. That's because when you begin to understand how to grow the best grapes, or the best food, you come to realize that everything in the ecosystem of the farm is connected, and it is connected to everything and everyone else on earth. 

What it means to be a successful regenerative farmer includes not only economic viability, avoidance of debt, money removed from negative cycles like industrial chemical production and pharmaceutical production and put instead into feeding healthier communities, but also things like joy, happiness, and quality of life. You might call these things the "ends" of regenerative farming, but they are also the means. 

This regenerative vineyard is a safe space.

How can you practice regenerative agriculture in your own ecosystem?