How Can Regenerative Organic Agriculture Create a More Resilient Food System?
Organic farming provides a well-established approach to producing agricultural goods more sustainably in some key areas of impact.
But a more resilient and restorative food system requires further transformation.
To better align our food systems with planetary boundaries we need to transition to a more holistic approach to sustainable agricultural production.
Why should we focus on production in our food system?
Our food systems include a variety of influences and factors that affect our food security and diets. It also has a profound impact on carbon emissions, water use and quality, ecosystem services, and biodiversity.
According to a recent report from the World Economic Forum:
Global food systems need to shift rapidly to more sustainable forms of production as part of broader food system transformation efforts. Food systems accounted for more than 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2020, over 80% of tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss and 70% of global freshwater withdrawals, often from already- stressed river basins and groundwater reserves.
The farming or production of food is often a central focus for understanding and mitigating environmental and social impacts in these systems because they offer many points of leverage for change.
Our food systems also include other elements like transportation, processing, distribution, selling, consumption, and end-of-life. These other elements have opportunities for impact mitigation and value creation depending on the nature of the agricultural products in the context of the system.
Source: World Economic Forum. (2024). 100 Million Farmers: Breakthrough Models for Financing a Sustainability Transition. Accessed on 2/12/24 from https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_100_Million_Farmers_2024.pdf
Like other systems, there are particular elements that tend to contribute a disproportionate amount of impact relative to the rest of the system.
How regenerative builds upon an organic foundation
Organic and regenerative agriculture have fundamental differences but are not contradictory. Both organic and regenerative broadly aim to move us away from a monoculture solution of food production that compromises the long-term ecological and economic sustainability of the entire food system.
Organic farming promotes natural processes and inputs, restricting the use of things like synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering. It began in the United States in the 1940s in response to the increased use of harmful chemicals during the industrialization of agriculture in the early 1900s. The primary outcomes of organic practices are focused on reducing health impacts to ecosystems and people.
Regenerative farming represents a more holistic approach to addressing the major environmental and social impacts associated with agricultural production. The continuum of place-based and context-specific practices included in regenerative agriculture are intended to achieve a broader array of outcomes for ecosystems and people.
By improving agricultural production we help the entire food system to be more resilient. This means building on organic goals (reduce exposure to potentially harmful pesticides and chemicals and increase the nutritional density of our foods) to expand the nature and extent of benefits.
The Regenerative Organic Certified framework categorizes the work into three pillars:
Increase soil organic matter and sequester carbon
Improve animal welfare
Provide economic stability and fairness for farmers, ranchers, and workers
Although regenerative organic farming has recently gained mainstream attention in the U.S. the framework represents philosophies of production with long histories in indigenous cultures and communities.
What practices are often included in regenerative organic agriculture?
Organic and regenerative agriculture have many overlaps, but one of the biggest areas of distinction is the emphasis on restoration. Regenerative is aimed not only at improving soil health but also the health of human communities and animals involved.
Here’s a summary of the practices required under the respective certification standards for both organic (USDA) and regenerative organic (ROC).
This high-level analysis helps illustrate how regenerative practices appear to offer a more holistic approach to addressing impacts and creating benefits during the production phase of our food system.
The concept of a regenerative agriculture continuum
It’s important to emphasize that the practices of regenerative agriculture are implemented on a place-based and context-specific continuum.
By looking at regenerative agriculture as a living, evolving thing that aims to get as close to natural processes as possible–it creates agency for farmers to tailor their tactics to work with the unique ecological requirements of their land.
Brands have a role to play in helping drive adoption of regenerative organic production practices. There are a number of documented barriers associated with transitioning agricultural systems based on conventional production practices to regenerative organic. These barriers can be placed in two categories:
Technical: Access to relevant expertise (e.g. agronomic, training, labor, equipment, etc.), reliable farm data and metrics.
Financial: Affordability and level of up-front investment, delay between investment and accrual of benefits, cost uncertainty.
It is clear that overcoming these barriers will require a new level of collaboration and coordination among food system stakeholders. Flexibility and context-specific solutions as well as increased trust underpin successful transition.
So what roles should downstream value chain stakeholders including food & beverage brands play in overcoming these barriers and supporting this necessary transition? More on that in a future blog post.
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