Why Regenerative Agriculture?

• Date: 01 May 2020
• Author: Courtney White
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ajes.12334
• Published date: 01 May 2020

Why Regenerative Agriculture?

By Courtney White*

AbstrACt. Regenerative agriculture is both an attitude and a suite of

practices that restores and maintains soil health and fertility, supports

biodiversity, protects watersheds, and improves ecological and

economic resilience. It focuses on creating the conditions for life above

and below ground and takes its cues from nature, which has a very

long track record of successfully growing things. By re-carbonizing

soils via photosynthesis and biology, particularly on degraded land,

regenerative agriculture can also sequester increasing quantities of

atmospheric carbon (CO2) underground, making it a low-cost “shovel-

ready” solution to climate change. Its multiple co-benefits, including

the production of healthy, nutritious food, means it will be a critical

component of our response to rising climate instability.

One of the buzzwords today is “sustainable.” Everybody wants to be sus-

tainable. My question is why in the world would we want to sustain a

degraded resource? We need to work on regenerating our soils, not sus-

taining them.

Gabe Brown, farmer and regenerative agriculture pioneer

Introduction

Is topsoil a renewable or nonrenewable resource? This question came

to mind some years ago after reading Dirt: the Erosion of Civilizations

by David Montgomery (2012), a professor of geology at the University

of Washington. Although ostensibly a history of dirt, it is actually a book

about the failure of societies to avoid repeating mistakes that hastened

the demise of past civilizations. Dirt is created by the weathering of

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 79, No. 3 (May, 2020).

DOI: 10.1111/ajes.12334

© 2020 American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Inc.

*Cofounded Quivira Coalition, nonprofit dedicated to improving resilience in west-

ern working landscapes. Author: Revolution on the Range; Grass, Soil, Hope; The Age

of Consequences; 2% Solutions for the Planet, and The Working Wilderness in Wendell

Berry’s collection The Way of Ignorance. Co-author with Rebecca Burgess: Fibersheds: a

New Textile Economy. Also author: The Sun, mystery novel set on cattle ranch in north-

ern New Mexico. He lives in Santa Fe. Email: courtney@jcourtneywhite.com