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By Eva Perroni
Transitioning to more sustainable forms of agriculture remains critical, as many current agriculture practices have serious consequences including deforestation and soil degradation. But despite agriculture's enormous potential to hurt the environment, it also has enormous potential to heal it. Realizing this, many organizations are promoting regenerative agriculture as a way to not just grow food but to progressively improve ecosystems.
<p style="">Drawing from decades of <a href="http://rodaleinstitute.org/our-work/farming-systems-trial/farming-systems-trial-30-year-report/" target="_blank">research</a>, regenerative agriculture uses farming principles designed to mimic nature. To build healthy soils and fertile, thriving agro-ecosystems, this approach incorporates a range of practices like agroforestry and well-managed grazing. Benefits of these practices include richer soil, healthier water systems, increased biodiversity, climate change resilience and stronger farming communities.</p><p style="">To celebrate the ongoing work of individuals and organizations dedicated to healing agro-ecosystems around the globe, Food Tank is highlighting these 17 organizations building a global grassroots movement for better agriculture.</p><p style=""><strong>1. </strong><strong><a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2017/07/international-permaculture-convergence-india/" target="_blank">Aranya Agricultural Alternatives</a></strong><a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2017/07/international-permaculture-convergence-india/" target="_blank"></a></p><p style="">Aranya Agricultural Alternatives organizes and strengthens rural farming communities in India to achieve food and nutrition security through permaculture farming practices. Sanskrit for "forest," Aranya promotes natural agricultural practices based on forests' self-regulating ecosystems. Aranya runs permaculture design courses and workshops as well as community-based projects focused on watershed and soil management, tree-based farming, diversified cropping, animal integration and seed saving.<br/></p><p style=""><strong>2. </strong><a href="https://grounded.co.za/" target="_blank"><strong>Grounded</strong></a></p><p style="">Grounded, an organization based in Cape Town, South Africa, partners with farmers across sub-Saharan Africa "to develop regenerative businesses [that] establish a healthier and more profitable balance between nature and agriculture, while shortening the value chain between producers and consumers." Their projects include restoring the natural biodiversity in the biodiversity hotspots of Madagascar, the Langkloof and the Baviaanskloof, as well as restoring natural migration routes of elephants in Zambia. Grounded is actively working to improve soil quality, increase the vegetation cover and add to the water table in these regions while promoting sustainable and profitable farming models.</p><p style=""><strong>3. </strong><strong><a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2016/12/promoting-soil-carbon-sequestration-kiss-the-ground-spotlight/" target="_blank">Kiss the Ground</a></strong></p><p style="">Kiss the Ground is a California-based nonprofit working to regenerate land and reverse climate change through <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/compost-at-home-2492036289.html" target="_blank">rebuilding healthy soil</a>. They create educational curriculum, campaigns and media to raise awareness and empower individuals to purchase food that support healthy soils and a balanced climate. Kiss the Ground also works with farmers, educators, NGOs, scientists, students and policymakers to advocate for regenerative agriculture, and help drive brands and businesses to develop more sustainable supply chains worldwide. Locally, they operate a community garden in Venice, California, demonstrating urban permaculture to volunteers and homeless youth.</p><div id="eef66" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="KRQWTW1576661915"><blockquote class="instagram-media"
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BWdNjjuHzn7/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Dr. Bronner's on Instagram: “5 ways you can help reverse climate change at home 🌎 1. Eat less meat, avoid factory farms & choose certified organic animal products…”</a></p>
</div></blockquote></div><p style=""><strong>4. </strong><a href="http://regenag.com/web/" target="_blank"><strong>RegenAG</strong></a></p><p>RegenAG is a community-based family enterprise providing farmers, professional organizations and communities with education and training to learn from the world's most innovative and effective regenerative agriculture practitioners in a wide range of fields. Their on-farm consulting and extension services teach farmers the knowledge and skills to significantly reduce inputs and effectively manage and monitor farm fertility though beneficial microbe capture and reproduction, water cycle repair, soil building and other holistic management strategies. RegenAg also holds courses, workshops and field days to showcase the success and trials of farmers who have adopted regenerative strategies on their farm.</p><p style=""><strong>5. </strong><a href="http://regenerationinternational.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Regeneration International</strong></a></p><p style="">Regeneration International (RI) provides information and resources that highlight the connection between healthy soil, regenerative agriculture and land use, food, health, healthy economies and climate change. These include a multilingual website and social media networks, an interactive online portal, consumer campaigns, events and international conferences. And every year, RI brings a delegation to the U.N. Climate Summit to raise awareness about the links between soil and climate. RI also engages in farmer training, through partnerships with Via Organica and its teaching farm and the Main Street Project's regenerative poultry project.</p><p style=""><strong>6. </strong><a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2015/04/organic-trumps-conventional-across-the-board/" target="_blank"><strong>Rodale Institute</strong></a></p><p style="">The Rodale Institute is known for pioneering and continually advocating for the use of regenerative agricultural practices. Founded in 1947 in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, by J.I. Rodale, the Institute has transformed 333 acres of formerly degraded farmland into highly fertile and productive land growing a variety of organic crops. The farm forms the basis for Rodale's research, education and outreach, and it is home to the longest-running comparative study of organic and chemical agriculture, started in 1981.</p><p style=""><strong>7. </strong><a href="https://www.savory.global/" target="_blank"><strong>Savory Network</strong></a></p><p style="">The Savory Network is a global group of entrepreneurial innovators and leaders working to advance regenerative agriculture, reverse desertification and combat climate change. With more than 30 hubs around the world, the Savory Network advocates, trains, implements and facilitates Holistic Management and regenerative agriculture practices in their own global and agricultural contexts. The network is an initiative of the Savory Institute, which has the broader goal of informing policymakers, establishing market incentives and increasing public awareness to support the ecological restoration of grasslands worldwide.</p><p style=""><strong>8. </strong><a href="http://www.soilcapital.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Soil Capital</strong></a></p><p style="">Soil Capital is "a company committed to scaling and sustaining regenerative agriculture through market-based solutions." Using proven farming processes and adapted technology, they focus on maximizing farm profitability through increased soil health, resilience and the natural productivity of the farm ecosystem as a whole. Through partnerships with experienced farmers who demonstrate resource-efficient and sustainable operations, Soil Capital assists other farmers in transitioning from conventional to regenerative agricultural practices. In doing so, Soil Capital seeks to scale and replicate holistic and healthy agricultural projects worldwide.</p><p style=""><strong>9. </strong><a href="http://soilandfood.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Soils, Food and Healthy Communities</strong></a></p><p style="">Soils, Food and Healthy Communities is a participatory, farmer-led organization which uses local indigenous knowledge and agroecological methods to improve food security, nutrition and soils in Malawi. Their <a href="http://soilandfood.org/projects/malawi-farmer-to-farmer-agroecology-project/" target="_blank">Malawi Farmer-to-Farmer Agroecology project</a> uses farmer-to-farmer teaching about agroecological farming methods to sustainably manage soils, improve agricultural and dietary diversity and improve incomes of 6,000 farming households in central and northern Malawi. Through the use of grains and perennial legumes, farmers fix nitrogen, nutrients and organic matter directly into the soil, improving soil fertility and enhancing environmental and food security.</p><p style=""><strong>10. </strong><a href="https://www.soilfoodweb.com.au/" target="_blank"><strong>Soil Foodweb Institute</strong></a></p><p style="">Founded by leading international soil microbiologist Dr. Elaine Ingham, the Soil Foodweb Institute (SFI) provides expert analysis and advice to empower primary producers to take control of maintaining the health of their soil. SFI analyzes soil micro-organism activity and creates management plans tailored to farmers' specific soils to achieve a sustainable, productive and low-input farming system. SFI Laboratories have extended across the globe, providing services to thousands of farmers to improve the health and productivity of their soils.</p><p style=""><strong>11. </strong><a href="http://www.sustainableharvest.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Sustainable Harvest International</strong></a></p><p>The mission of this nonprofit organization is to "preserve the environment by partnering with families to improve well-being through sustainable farming." They work in Central America promoting sustainable alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture. Through their multi-year program, participants receive tailored training and technical assistance. Former Peace Corps Volunteer Florence Reed founded the organization in 1997 after realizing the potential for training in sustainable agriculture to help farmers provide for their families while engaging in restorative practices.</p><p style=""><strong>12. </strong><a href="http://www.terra-genesis.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Terra Genesis International</strong></a></p><p style="">Terra Genesis International is a regenerative design consultancy that includes engineers, permaculture design experts, agro-ecologists, foresters, carbon scientists and financial analysts. They help large-scale agriculture and business clients that use natural ingredients in their products to redesign their supply chains and incorporate agricultural practices that regenerate soil, increase biodiversity and boost business.</p><p style=""><strong>13. </strong><a href="https://thecarbonunderground.org/" target="_blank"><strong>The Carbon Underground</strong></a></p><p style="">The Carbon Underground acts as an umbrella organization connecting academia, businesses, organizations, schools, governments and the general public, communicating and educating about the power of healthy soil to combat climate change. The Carbon Underground coordinates a globally interconnected set of research groups working to demonstrate the impact of sustainable agriculture, land management and regenerative enterprises as principal tools for sequestering carbon. Through their focus areas of corporate impact, education and training, policy and communications, The Carbon Underground aims to facilitate the widespread transition of farms, ranches and grasslands from industrial into regenerative enterprises.</p><p style=""><strong>14. </strong><a href="https://eco-farm.org/" target="_blank"><strong>The Ecological Farming Association (EcoFarm)</strong></a></p><p style="">The Ecological Farming Association (EcoFarm) is a nonprofit organization that connects farmers, ranchers, distributors, retailers, activists and researchers for education, alliance building and advocacy. They run an annual Ecological Farming Conference that features more than 70 workshops, intensives, exhibitions and special events including seed swaps, film screenings and organic culinary fare. EcoFarm also offers a free mentoring program for apprentices and beginning farmers as well as a range of online farmer resources. EcoFarm is a broad network of grassroots leadership and has facilitated an exchange of knowledge for more than 60,000 people across the U.S.</p><p style=""><strong>15. </strong><a href="https://landinstitute.org/" target="_blank"><strong>The Land Institute</strong></a></p><p style="">The Land Institute focuses on developing perennial grains, pulses and oilseed crops. Their crops are grown in "ecologically intensified polycultures" that mimic the diversity of natural ecosystems. The Land Institute breeds new perennial crops and develops ways to productively grow these crops in diverse polyculture mixtures. Led by a team of ecologists and plant breeders that partner with multiple organizations worldwide, The Land Institute works to develop an agricultural system that can produce ample food while minimizing or eliminating the negative impacts of industrial agriculture.</p><p style=""><strong>16. </strong><a href="http://www.timbaktu.org/" target="_blank"><strong>The Timbaktu Collective</strong></a></p><p style="">The Timbaktu Collective works to protect, manage and restore degraded ecosystems in rural Indian village communities. The Collective works in 172 villages within the Anantapur district, reaching and serving approximately 21,000 marginalized families. Their work in ecology includes the restoration of wastelands through planting locally adapted indigenous varieties of trees, reviving traditional water-harvesting structures to conserve water, and rejuvenating soil health through organic farming practices.</p><p style=""><strong>17. </strong><a href="http://www.tnafa.org/" target="_blank"><strong>The Traditional Native American Farmers Association</strong></a></p><p style="">The Traditional Native American Farmers Association holds an annual <a href="http://www.tnafa.org/design-course.html" target="_blank">Indigenous Sustainable Food Systems Design Course</a>, providing training in ecological design, natural farming and earth restoration. The course is a holistic indigenous approach based on traditional knowledge and practices. These practices help improve air and water quality, ecosystems, nutrition and community health. The Traditional Native American Farmers Association also holds workshops and training on seed saving, beekeeping and growing medicinal herbs to enhance biodiversity and increase seed and crop vitality.</p><p style=""><em>Eva Perroni was a Research & Writing Fellow at Food Tank and a freelance researcher-writer and activist focused on promoting sustainable food systems. She holds an MA in Development Studies from the University of Melbourne, maintaining a strong research focus on global food security and food and agriculture politics.</em></p>
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By Jeremy L. Caradonna
One of the biggest knocks against the organics movement is that it has begun to ape conventional agriculture, adopting the latter's monocultures, reliance on purchased inputs and industrial processes.
<p style="">
"Big Organics" is often derided by advocates of sustainable agriculture. The American food authors <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/michael-pollan-american-capitalism-2528600739.html">Michael Pollan</a> and Julie Guthman, for example, argue that as organic agriculture has scaled up and gone mainstream <a href="https://michaelpollan.com/books/the-omnivores-dilemma/" target="_blank">it has lost its commitment to building an alternative system for providing food</a>, instead "<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520277465" target="_blank">replicating what it set out to oppose</a>."
</p><p style="">
New research, however, suggests that the relationship between organic and conventional farming is more complex. The flow of influence is starting to reverse course.
</p><p style="">
Practitioners of conventional agriculture are now borrowing "organic" techniques to reduce the use of pesticides, artificial fertilizers and excessive tillage, and to increase on-farm biodiversity, beneficial insects and soil conservation.
</p><p style="">
All of a sudden, many conventional vegetable farms are starting to look organic.
</p><p style="">
<strong>Organic Goes Mainstream</strong>
</p><p style="">
Next to nothing has been written on this subject. A rare exception is a 2016 article in the New York Times that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/07/business/cover-crops-a-farming-revolution-with-deep-roots-in-the-past.html" target="_blank">profiled conventional farmers</a> in Indiana who had started to use "cover crops."
</p><p style="">
These non-commercial crops build organic matter into the soil, fix atmospheric nitrogen and add biodiversity to an agroecosystem, while allowing farmers to reduce artificial fertilizer inputs.
</p><p style="">
As organic agriculture has scaled up, it has gained credibility in the marketplace as well as on the farm. Organic farming has roots in market gardens and smaller farms, but there is nothing that prohibits organic production at larger scales.
</p><p style="">
That often means bigger farms, hundreds—or thousands—of acres in size.
</p><p style="">
This move toward the mainstream has caught the eye of many conventional farmers, who have either transitioned to certified organic production or begun to integrate organic practices on conventional plots.
</p><p style="">
<strong>Market Share Not the Whole Story</strong>
</p><p>
Even <a href="https://ota.com/sites/default/files/By%20the%20Numbers%202016%20-%20March%202018%20.pdf" target="_blank">with the upscaling</a>, the market position of organic agriculture remains limited.
</p><p style="">
In Canada, organic sales grow by nearly 10 percent per year, and the total value of the organic market is around $5.4 billion. Yet the reality is that the industry is still dwarfed by conventional agriculture.
</p><p style="">
There are <a href="https://www.ota.com/canada-ota/what-cota-does/research-market-analysis" target="_blank">more than 4,000 certified organic farms in Canada</a>, totalling 2.43 million acres. But this accounts for only 1.5 percent of the country's total agricultural land.
</p><p style="">
Also, aside from the two organic heavyweights—coffee (imported) and mixed greens (mostly imported)—<a href="http://www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca/docs/BC%20Organic%20Market%20Report%202013.pdf" target="_blank">the market share of organic groceries is pretty small, at around three percent</a>.
</p><p style="">
Yet the influence of organics is felt well beyond its own limited market.
</p><p style="">
<strong>Testing the Market</strong>
</p><p>
Many growers divide their farms into separate conventional and certified organic zones. This "split production" is a way to learn organic growing, test the market and hedge one's bets against yield issues.
</p><p style="">
In 2017, as part of a research project on organic transition funded by the <a href="https://www.cog.ca/" target="_blank">Canadian Organic Growers</a>, I travelled across the country and conducted in-depth interviews at farms that had recently transitioned from conventional to organic farming.
</p><p>
Half of the 12 farms I visited practised split production. What's significant (and totally unanticipated) is that all of the farms in split production had also introduced organic techniques to the conventional portions of the operation.
</p><p>
With familiarity came trust.
</p><p style="">
<strong>Adopting Organic Techniques</strong>
</p><p style="">
These are not mom-and-pop operations. The list includes Canada's biggest organic vegetable operation—Kroeker Farms/PoplarGrove in Winkler, Manitoba—and many other large vegetable farms across the country.
</p><p style="">
They used compost, manure and/or cover crops, had cut back on toxic and persistent pesticides, <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5146e/y5146e08.htm" target="_blank">reduced tillage</a> and embraced longer and more biodiverse crop rotations. In the process, they had also protected and promoted pollinators and beneficial insect predators.
</p><p style="">
<a href="http://kroekerfarms.com/" target="_blank">Kroeker Farms</a>, a megafarm that has 4,800 acres under organic production and another 20,000 or so in conventional production, is leading the trend toward a more organic-like conventional system.
</p><p style="">
"We try really, really hard to use organic-type pesticides or biological [control agents] in our conventional, because once you spray with a more lethal spray that's a broad spectrum [pesticide], the pests flare up after that," said CEO of the company, Wayne Rempel.
</p><p style="">
<strong>Trending Nationally</strong>
</p><p style="">
Similar trends are found across the country.
</p><p style="">
In Prince Edward Island, Red Soil Organics has begun to plant fall rye—a classic organic cover crop—as part of the rotation on its conventional side, a bit like those farmers in Indiana.
</p><p style="">
Another PEI farm, Square One Organics, uses cover crops, manure and tine weeding—a common, low-impact, mechanical weeding technique used on organic farms—on their conventional plots.
</p><p style="">
The cover crops and manure have allowed the farm to reduce its use of nitrogen fertilizer by about 10 percent. This reduces nitrogen runoff into waterways, which can cause algae blooms and kill aquatic species.
</p><p style="">
The combination of tine weeding and perennial cover crops has also allowed the farm to reduce or eliminate herbicide use on the conventional side of the farm. "We're managing our soil organic matter in totally different ways," said owner Matt Ramsay.
</p><p style="">
It's impossible to know the cumulative ecological benefits of this growing trend. Organic techniques, such as composting and the use of cover crops, are <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/95-640-x/2016001/article/14811-eng.htm" target="_blank">not tracked closely</a> by Statistics Canada. With more research, we might have a better sense of the benefits.
</p><p style="">
<strong>Grounds for Action</strong>
</p><p>
The motivations are easier to define. Farmers have made it clear that organic techniques work well, organic inputs are generally cheaper than conventional ones, and organic practices have a beneficial impact on the agroecosystem.
</p><p>
Yet until a conventional farmer begins the transition to certified organic growing, he or she often knows or cares little about organic practices. Right now, the best way for a farmer to learn about organic growing is by reading handbooks, attending conferences and taking courses.
</p><p style="">
It might be the case that Big Organics has begun to look like conventional farming. But it appears to be the case that, at least on some Canadian farms, Big Conventional is starting to look like organic.
</p><p style="">
<em>Jeremy L. Caradonna is the adjunct professor of environmental studies at the University of Victoria and received funding from Canadian Organic Growers for research that informs this article.</em>
</p><p style="">
<em><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://theconversation.com/organic-agriculture-is-going-mainstream-but-not-the-way-you-think-it-is-92156" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em></em>
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