Defining Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Agroecology
In recent years, the concept of regenerative organic agriculture has emerged in the context of the global climate crisis. According to Regeneration International, even if we achieve zero fossil fuel emissions over the next few decades, it will not be enough to prevent the planet from going beyond what scientists warn is a “point of no return.” Hence, they propose that through fostering more regenerative agriculture –rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity – we can “draw down billions of tons of excess atmospheric CO2, and bury it in the soil, where it will help infiltrate and store rainwater, and increase soil fertility.”
Regenerative organic agriculture encompasses several sustainable agriculture practices, like holistic planned grazing, no-till, no pesticides and herbicides, composting, permaculture, and mixed croplivestock systems. It has much in common with agroecology, which applies ecological concepts and principles to agriculture and moreover embraces the social and cultural dimensions of agriculture. The U.N. Committee on Food Security's High- Level Panel of Experts ( HLPE), in a recent study on agroecology as a solution to food security and nutrition, synthesizes agroecology into 13 main principles: recycling; reducing the use of inputs; soil health; animal health and welfare; biodiversity; synergy (managing interactions); economic diversification; co-creation of knowledge (embracing local knowledge and global science); social values and diets; fairness; connectivity; land and natural resource governance; and participation.