Regenerative agriculture is a farming system that focuses on improving soil health and decreasing adverse effects caused by agricultural practices. There still isn’t one single definition of what regenerative farming entails, but the system usually includes practices such as minimal soil disturbance, diverse crop rotations, green fields year round, and minimizing synthetic inputs. Read more about how Agroganic works with regenerative farming principles HERE.

The goal of regenerative farming is to improve soil health and minimize adverse effects from traditional farming practices. This leads to many environmental benefits such as increased CO2 storage and better conditions for biodiversity above and below ground.

There is no single definition of regenerative agriculture but the system usually includes practices such as minimal soil disturbance, diverse crop rotations, green fields year round, and minimization of synthetic inputs. It may also include livestock integration, agroforestry, precision farming, companion crops and more. Read more about what definition Agroganic works with HERE.

No, plowing cannot be considered a regenerative practice. Regenerative farming aims to improve soil health by letting natural processes take over and the key to making this happen is minimizing soil disturbance. Plowing destroys soil structure, releases CO2 from the ground, and decreases soil biodiversity. If plowing is conducted at any point after converting to regenerative agriculture, the system is reset, and many of the benefits, such as the soil structure and the CO2 stored in the ground, are lost. Read more about direct drilling HERE.

While some small scale farms are able to farm without pesticides, most large scale regenerative farmers rely on some form of chemical input to maintain yields. At Agroganic, we believe that the detrimental effects of insecticides on biodiversity outweigh the benefits and thus discourage any use of these. We recognize however, that some amount of fungicides and herbicides are necessary, especially in the transitional phase while the natural processes become strong enough to take over. Read more on why roundup is used in regenerative agriculture HERE.

You can become a regenerative farmer whether you started as a conventional or organic farmer. Usually, large scale regenerative fields are not organic because of the use of some amount of synthetic input. Organic farmers are usually not regenerative because they rely on soil disturbance to combat weeds.