But after more than a century of land theft, racist polices, and discrimination, that number is closer to 45,000 today-out of an estimated 3.4 million farmers, according to census data from the U.S. These systems compartmentalize natural resources and focus on the yields of individual crops.īack in 1920, there were nearly one million Black farmers in the United States. “We need agriculture that does not lose our carbon and does not deplete our people.”īy contrast, the industrial agricultural system that dominates Western food and fiber supply chains incentivizes practices that promote soil erosion at a rate of 10 to 100 times higher than soil formation nutrient runoff and harmful algal blooms in freshwater and coastal systems and monocropping and other threats to local biodiversity, including critical pollinators. “We need to realize that working landscapes provide not just products but also ecosystem services like carbon sinks, water recharge, and evolutionary potential,” says Leonard Diggs of Pie Ranch, an incubator farm where he teaches regenerative agriculture. Practitioners take a broader view of their role in the world, especially in terms of soil and nutrient cycles. Regenerative Agriculture Is a PhilosophyĪt its core, regenerative agriculture is farming and ranching in harmony with nature. Sharma is part of the team from NRDC’s Nature program that interviewed more than 100 regenerative farmers across the United States to inform recommendations on creating a food system that can help fight our climate crisis. “The regenerative agriculture movement is the dawning realization among more people that an Indigenous approach to agriculture can help restore ecologies, fight climate change, rebuild relationships, spark economic development, and bring joy,” says Arohi Sharma, water and agriculture policy analyst at NRDC. In fact, Indigenous communities have farmed in nature’s image for millennia. It’s important to appreciate that this is not a new idea and not all who practice these principles use the label.

Ag source labs soil health testing