New Research Shows Practices From the Past Will Be Key to Future Soil Carbon Solutions

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Sometimes to go forward, you must go back

A new study from Colorado State University’s Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and and the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology found that regenerative practices—including integrating crop and livestock systems—were successful as long-term carbon storage solutions.

The paper, “Restoring particulate and mineral-associated organic carbon through regenerative agriculture,” was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The study was led by ecology Ph.D. candidate Aaron Prairie, along with two co-authors: research scientist Alison King and M. Francesca Cotrufo, professor of soil and crop sciences and Prairie’s advisor.

Their research presented a global systemic meta-analysis looking beyond the impact of regenerative agricultural practices on total soil organic carbon (SOC) alone, instead looking at two main pools.

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Organic Farmer Challenges Pesticide Company Representatives at Regenerative Agriculture Conference

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During a question-and-answer segment of the panel session, “Transforming and Innovating Your Business Model,” Erisman, owner of Odyssey Farm , asked representatives from Syngenta, BASF, and Yara North America: “Do you think farms can be regenerative by not buying anything you sell?”

Chad Asmus, sustainable ag product strategist at BASF, said: “Probably not, crop protection and biotechnology have a positive impact on implementing regenerative practices at scale.”

Asmus said not using inputs is possible but it is difficult when farming at larger scale.

Bryan Ulmer, global technical lead-value chain at Syngenta, said: “Moving to regenerative is not black and white. To maintain and improve productivity, inputs will be required.”

Ulmer said his company is investing in biological inputs to manage pests. “We are moving in the right direction,” he said.

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Overlooked and Underfoot, Mosses Play a Mighty Role for Climate and Soil

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It’s easy to miss the mosses, the ubiquitous green, silver and brown carpets that drape across nature’s surfaces, from forest to fen. It’s also easy to underestimate just how big a role these small but mighty organisms play in maintaining ecosystems and countering climate change.

A recent study in the journal Nature Geoscience looked into the contributions of mosses that grow on soil and found that they cover an estimated 9.4 million square kilometers (3.6 million square miles) of land — an area roughly the size of China.

On a global scale, soil mosses have the potential to add 6.43 billion metric tons of carbon to the soil, an amount roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 2.8 billion passenger cars, underscoring the substantial impact of these wee plants.

The researchers found several other benefits for soil covered with mosses versus bare soils. For example, mosses cycle higher amounts of essential nutrients through the soil, contribute to faster decomposition, and reduce the number of harmful plant pathogens in the soil.

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Eu and Tradin Organic to Boost Regenerative Organic Cocoa Production in Sierra Leone

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Tradin Organic, the global supplier to organic brands and retailers, has kicked off a 2.5 million project supported by the EU to scale its sustainable cocoa project in Sierra Leone. Over the next three years, our company and its consortium of partners will work on deforestation prevention and improving cocoa farmers’ livelihoods by further building regenerative agroforestry systems.

With a global workforce of more than 500 people, Tradin Organic is active globally and operates multiple factories, including a cocoa processing facility. In Sierra Leone, a team of 60 works closely with local partners and international experts to provide technical assistance to over 30,000 smallholder farmers. Tradin has received support from the RVO FBK and FVO funds and various clients like Navitas Organics and Herza Schokolade.

Over the past years, these partnerships let to set up an Agroforestry Project with Ecotop and a Child Protection Program with Child Fund.

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Bringing Regenerative Agriculture to Africa: Kenyan Farmers Are Enthusiastic but Need Better Packaged Info – New Report

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Regenerative agriculture is a common term among farmers in the global north today. A wide range of investors, corporations and innovations are all vying to play a role in the transition of the world’s acres to a method of farming that’s mooted to be able to improve soil health, increase yields long term, reverse desertification, protect biodiversity, sequester carbon and otherwise reduce the negative externalities of conventional, synthetic and chemical input-based agriculture.

In the global south, where farmers have not had the same access to high quality, and potentially damaging, fertilizers and pesticides, the regenerative agriculture movement has been slower. It’s also likely that in the absence of these inputs, several farmers may already be farming somewhat regeneratively, a farming approach and set of practices that indigenous populations have used across the globe for thousands of years.

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Will Regenerative Agriculture Be the Hottest Trend in 2023?

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You can try and ignore it all you want, hoping everything will return to normal. Still, it’s impossible to ignore that not only do we now live in volatile, unpredictable, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) times but it is now being said we are in the midst of a so-called ‘polycrisis.’

In the polycrisis the shocks are disparate, but they interact so that the whole is even more overwhelming than the sum of the parts.

In such dark and uncertain times, it is tempting to bury your head and double down on what you know best, but this could be the worst thing to do. VUCA times require resilient mindsets and bold, brave, resilient businesses.

There is one system that has proved to be resilient for millennia – nature. We can learn from nature’s incredible resilience and adopt the principles that have allowed her to thrive through catastrophic events and dramatic climatic changes.

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Regenerative Organic Soil Gets the Best of Both Worlds

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Gillian Flies and Brent Preston own and operate The New Farm, a vegetable farm that provides high-quality, organic produce to fine restaurants and specialty retail stores in the Toronto and Collingwood areas. Cool-weather greens and root vegetables grow on the 20 farmed acres located in the Niagara Escarpment. Gillian and Brent’s approach to farming is “regenerative organic,” a relatively new sustainable farming method that is based on the Regenerative Organic Certificate developed by the Rodale Institute.

While some consider regenerative and organic practices to be one and the same – as it was in the 1930s when “regenerative” was first coined by one of the founders of organic agriculture – the Canadian Organic Standards are not always prescriptive when it comes to practices that are gaining momentum among regenerative enthusiasts, such as conservation tillage and integrating animals. Nevertheless, both regenerative and organic principles are rooted in the same common practice: building soil health.

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Should Regenerative Agriculture Follow Organic’s Path?

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The organic movement forged a path for a federally recognized standard for food. Should regenerative follow its course?

Regenerative agriculture has been the buzzy theme in agriculture for a few years with big investments from big food companies starting in 2020. Big food companies have created programs to engage their suppliers and fund a transition to regenerative practices such as no-tillage, cover cropping, crop and livestock rotation and pollinator-friendly habitats. Private label certifications such as The Savory Institute, the Rodale Institute and A Greener World, have popped up in the last three years, adding a veneer of respectability to such changes. But it’s still the wild west, and these developments haven’t resulted in a shared standard or even a definition that everyone agrees upon.

There isn’t a consensus on what is considered regenerative, how to correctly enforce those changes and how to measure the effects.

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Secrets of the Soil Podcast with Regen Ray – The Power of Photosynthesis: Maximizing Plant Health and Soil Regeneration with Andrè Leu

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The capture of carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight to make glucose, the essential molecule of life. The other chapters discuss how all other molecules of life, including carbohydrates, proteins, and hormones, are built from glucose, and how maximizing photosynthesis is the key to building healthy cells and regenerating soils. The book also covers the importance of managing cover crops and weeds, as well as balancing minerals to ensure optimal plant growth. The author stresses that dead plants and bare soil do not photosynthesize, and that the more plants put in an area, the better, even if they are regarded as obnoxious weeds, as they provide the most organic matter and molecules of life. The author also discusses how managing water and nutrients is essential in growing healthy plants, and how nutrient deficiencies and excesses can be corrected to ensure optimal plant growth.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE

Regenerative Research: Tillage & No-Till Systems

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Issue Summary: Can we regenerate the land if we also voluntarily disturb it? The question is at the core of the conversations around tactics in regenerative agriculture, which is challenging the paradigms related to field preparation.

No-till systems are often introduced to accomplish goals around increasing soil biology and fungal networks, rotating cover crops with cash crops, and running less machinery across the land (lower diesel fuel costs). Some lightly tilled systems and strip-till systems also report the ability to grow biology, balance chemistry and build biodiverse ecosystems.

What is tillage?

Tillage is a centuries-old agriculture practice that farmers use to remove plant life from their fields, break up hardpan and crusty layers, and help incorporate fertilizers.

What is no-till, exactly?

It is exactly what it sounds like: a conservation-based farming system that leaves the soil undisturbed. Instead, successful no-till managers use living, biodiverse crops.

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