REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE 101
What to Read + Watch
For those of you wondering what this regenerative agriculture conversation is all about, here is a non-exhaustive list of my go-to resources on the topic. I guarantee once you start digging in, the world will open up.
But before the list, my journey.
I found my way into the world of regenerative agriculture through the business I co-founded in 2006, Teatulia Organic Teas. My visionary business partners started a 3,000 acre tea garden from scratch in the Tetulia region of Northern Bangladesh. At the time, a process called rocklifting was blighting the area and starving the people. With rocklifting, rocks are dug up and collected for concrete, destroying the land, the topsoil and consequently once-thriving ecosystems. This region was quickly turning into a desert.
My partners deduced that by using deep organic farming methods, guided by the teachings of Masanobu Fukuoka, they could grow a tea garden & reverse the damage that was being done to the environment while employing thousands of women in the community. The secret was replicating the conditions in which tea grew best in nature. Nothing more. No chemical pesticides or fertilizers, minimal unnatural irrigation, use of cover crops, mulch & indigenous shade trees and utilization of compost & vermicompost to enrich the soil. They were successful with this Do Nothing Farming Method. I was in.
I am thrilled that today more and more people and companies are starting to discover and champion regenerative ag. In this time of change, instability & fear, it is a bright light of true hope & possibility — it can, literally, save people and the planet.
By restoring soil health through intentional farming & grazing practices, the carbon sequestration potential is actually great enough to reverse the damage to our atmosphere & capture the carbon we have emitted (Rodale Institute White Paper, 2020). And the food produced is nutrient rich and tasty as hell. The miracle is in its simplicity. No tilling, cover crops, crop diversity, rotational grazing, etc.
I remember a trip to our tea garden a few years ago reflecting on our groundbreaking farming practices when I caught myself and realized, wait — this is how it has always been done & how it is meant to be done — the gee whiz science got in the way! This is nothing new at all. It is ancient, elemental, holistic, nourishing & right.
Why does it matter? Regenerative ag is the polar opposite of conventional agriculture, which is how the bulk of our food is produced today. Read & watch, and you’ll understand the key elements of conventional farming and why it is wreaking such havoc on people and the planet.
What can we do? Learn & start making noise. Vote with your dollars supporting businesses that make better choices for all of us. Tell all of your friends to educate themselves, and raise your voice so business leaders, politicians & policy makers hear loud & clear that it is time to fix our food system.
TO WATCH:
- How to Fight Desertification and Reverse Climate Change: Allan Savory’s TED Talk
- Kiss the Ground
- The Biggest Little Farm
- Eating Animals
TO READ:
- Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan — This book literally changed my life.
- Organic Manifesto by Maria Rodale — A brilliant primer on how we got here.
- Perilous Bounty by Tom Philpott — A deep dive into California and Midwestern modern agriculture and the crash course we are on. Still reading this one…
- The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan — The dust bowl. 4–5 generations on and we are making the same mistake again.
- Regenerative Agriculture and the Soil Carbon Solution White Paper by the Rodale Institute.
- Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in One Generation and Project Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken
- Learn about the Tree Equity Score and the importance of trees to our planet and our communities.
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