Regenerative Agriculture — Farming with Nature, for the Future.
- rkpeach
- Jun 17
- 2 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Regenerative agriculture harnesses natural systems to restore and enhance biodiversity, improve soil health, and strengthen the long-term resilience of the land. Restoring soil health by rebuilding soil organic matter and reversing the degradation is one of regenerative agriculture's main objectives.
It follows five core principles focused on restoring and enhancing ecosystem health: reducing disruption to the soil, encouraging a wide range of species, maintaining ground cover to improve soil health and fertility, maintaining a living root network throughout the seasons, and partners with livestock to support ecosystem health.
Rather than simply maintaining conventional or sustainable practices, regenerative agriculture fixes the root of the problem. There is frequent confusion about how regenerative systems and sustainability are different. While sustainability aims for not letting the problem get greater, the regenerative system finds a solution for the root cause of the problem then boosts its ability to grow.
The European Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture (EARA) recently released a new study which revealed that by transitioning to regenerative practices farmers can produce 'significantly more food for less'.
This study was conducted in 14 countries, 78 regenerative farms, and covering over 7,000 hectares. To debunk the myth 'the myth that only the status quo of conventional, synthetic input-heavy agriculture can feed Europe and the world', they compared these farms against their neighbouring and national average conventional farmers.
By using 62% less synthetic nitrogen fertiliser and 76% less pesticides per hectare, the regenerative farmers produced only 1% lower yields on average between 2020 and 2023. That wasn't the only positive revealed from this study. Regenerative farms achieved 27% higher RFP (Return from Production) than the conventional European farmer during that time period.
From 2018 to 2024, they produced over 15% higher photosynthesis, soil cover and plant diversity in relation to neighbouring fields. The analysis indicated if all European farmers transition to regenerative farming methods they could offset 141.3 million metric tonnes of CO2e per year in the first years. Which is around 84% of the EU agricultural sector's net greenhouse gas emissions.
This study shows that within three to seven years of transitioning, Europe's agricultural sector could be 'nature and climate positive', while still ensuring food and fibre security, climate resilience, and ecological restoration across the continent. These results are not only limited to Europe but globally, according to EARA.
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