Levels of Regenerative Agriculture
In 2017, Regenerative Agriculture has burst into the mainstream. Articles in the Guardian, the launch of Project Drawdown’s book, even Blue Apron’s Co-Founder is talking about it at their IPO.
There is a rapid growth of the concept of Regenerative Agriculture, but a strikingly small number of farmers actually practicing it on the ground.
Regenerative Agriculture is at great risk of being diluted.
Influxes of interest from marketing firms and destructive industrial agriculture companies could quickly decrease the integrity and potential offered by regenerative agriculture innovators. (Have you seen who’s promoting sustainable agriculture?) This would be a loss for small agroecological farmers — in other words, the majority of farmers in the world [FAO].
Regenerative agriculture can uplift communities, transform the supply “chain”, and grow ecosystems to new levels of vitality, productivity, and complexity.
To uphold the integrity and increase its potential benefits to the systems of the world, we propose the ‘Levels of Regenerative Agriculture’ framework. It offers consumers, businesses, policy-makers, and farmers enhanced tools for discerning “What is Regenerative?”.
The framework supports the conscious design of effective, multi-capital-profitable farms and enterprises. Each level transcends and includes the level before it, so that the positive benefits of the Level 1 carry onwards, and are expanded, in Level 2. The names and core features of the levels are as follows:
Regeneration itself is multi-layered, and ever-evolving, so it is important to note that these are not the only levels. As the global awareness and actualization of Regenerative Agriculture systems increases, the community of practice will add and refine the levels presented here.
We aim to spark dialogues that lead towards ever more whole, effective, and widespread use of Regenerative Agriculture. In our white paper, we describe four levels of thought, with questions that invite you to further reflect and engage. We believe that your fresh thinking will add to the intellectual and experiential capital commons that will be a foundational pool to the regenerate living capital for thousands of years.
This article is adapted from the white paper by Ethan Soloviev & Gregory Landua, ‘Levels of Regenerative Agriculture’, available for free download from Terra Genesis International.
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