HOW NELSON GOT TO REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

For most of the last three decades I’ve thought of regenerative agriculture as more or less synonymous with the holistic management and rotational grazing approaches advocated by Allan Savory in Zimbabwe. I read about his methods in the 1990s and visited ranchland in the American West that had experienced remarkable transformation using these types of practices.

A decade later, I found myself in a crowded auditorium at an organic farming conference in Massachusetts, listening to author Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm explain similar strategies for land management on his farm in Swoope, Virginia. Not long after that, Joel became widely known following the publishing of Michael Pollan’s bestselling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

More recently, a friend recommended I read Call of the Reed Warbler by Australian farmer Dr Charles Massy. Massy writes about his experiences and those of other innovative farmers engaged in new and different ways of growing food while addressing climate change, soil erosion, water quality, and biodiversity loss.

I find the work of these men fascinating and inspiring. We adopted these types of philosophies for managing livestock on our block in 2014. Seven years later, the land and animals are thriving, and I’ve learned that regenerative agriculture is more than just carefully managing grazing animals.