Skip to main content

Activity 3.2 – Regenerative Agriculture Part 1

 1.0   Introduction to Regenerative Agriculture
 
Regenerative agriculture is the process of certain practices that are meant to restore soil, reduce carbon, increase water and nutrient cycles, reduce labor for farmers, less land usage, create plant and soil biodiversity, and change the perception on how we view agriculture today and moving forward into the future.

2.0   Explore the Facts
 
The idea of regenerative agriculture is to ensure that the practices used today, will ensure the next generation can continue to grow crops and it is sustainable. Currently, we have practices that are not only not sustainable, but devastating to our health and the environment.

2.1 Animals and Plants

    Animals and plants have a symbiotic relationship. They both benefit from each other in an ecological loop (Patagonia, 2020). As mass production of agriculture began to increase, the plant and animals were separated disrupting that harmony.

2.2 Importance of Soil

    Six inches of topsoil is imperative to all life on earth. It contains microbes and nutrients for plant life and growth. Healthy soil is capable of sequestering CO2 which would ultimately reduce carbon, helping with the effects of climate change (Patagonia, 2020).

 3.0   Outline the Causes
 
With factory agriculture and the way, it is running today, many issues have spawned and are a direct link to climate change and an abuse and waste of our resources in an unstainable manner.

3.1 Statistics

    Currently right now according to Patagonia, carbon commission contribution is 30% stemming from mass farming and agriculture, 70% of water usage is to support these mass productions, and it also causes 60% loss of biodiversity (2020).

3.2 Topsoil

    Chemicals and fertilizers are dropped into huge portions of farming land killing most life. Nutrients and important microbes are sucked out of the soil eventually killing or injuring it. Climate change has caused floods and droughts washing or blowing away topsoil.
 

4.0   Identify & Describe Effects of Causes
 
Because of the overproduction of meat, its contribution to carbon emissions does not help the already rising temperatures due to climate change.  If the topsoil is not already scattered and misplaced by the effects of climate change, it is being drained of its nutrients, and important microbes and other important wildlife important to agriculture wiped out by chemicals such as fertilizers or pesticide. Land and trees are being demolished to set up mass meat agriculture and a tremendous amount of water usage to reinforce this practice. Not to mention the cost of life diversity we eliminate with these chemicals and the habitat loss.

5.0   Investigate Priorities

    Regenerative agriculture in an essence, covers the top priorities and main concerns of the environment around the world involving our food supply and ability to continue living on Earth. There are four principles that regenerative agriculture consists of described in detail by Environmental Cowboy (2019).

5.1 First Principle

     One of the principles of regenerative agriculture is maximizing photosynthesis in plants. This will convert carbon back into the soil increasing the carbon cycle (Environmental Cowboy,2019). This will then increase water cycle.

5.2 Second Principle

      An organic healthy biodiverse soil would be able to retain water well and prevent rain water from running off.  It will create a more drought resistant soil. Organic agriculture will save the microbes that benefit both soil and plant life. Using more compost and less fertilizers and chemicals encourages a nutrient cycle.

5.3 Third Principle

     Less input and waste to create more output thus developing an enhanced nutrient cycle. Microbes are needed for rich soil. The Microbes break down plant material building their own cells (Patagonia, 2020).

5.4 Fourth Principle
The number of plant species helps keep the weeds down, hold water as a nutrient soil does, and land would not remain fallow. You would have a continue growth life cycle enhancing photosynthesis and a diverse life around it.

5.5 Mindset
An efficient 1 and a half acre can be managed by two people and produce 6-8 times more than industrial agriculture (Patagonia, 2020). It is possible to live generation after generation using the principle and practices of regenerative agriculture. The idea of man’s dominance over nature needs to be of a mindset where we turn to nature and work with her. We need to trust that nature is capable of regenerating and repairing herself.

6.0   Delineate Application
 
What we buy makes a difference and demonstrates where we stand. In a sense, it is how we vote and demand. We need to buy locally or seek sources where the food supply chain has shorter list of parties in its process. We need to support and buy from farmers who practice regenerative agriculture. The consumption of meat must lessen to stop the mass production of meat farming.
Also, another form of voting is actually going out there to vote. To vote on policies that will aid and protect farmers who practice regenerative agriculture and better laws that protect our lands and the environment.
 

7.0   Challenge to Your Thinking

     I learned a great deal of difference between the idea of sustainability and regenerative agriculture. Using less can seem ineffective and short term compared to putting back into the earth and thinking long term for future generations. The science break-down of regenerative agriculture was vital in helping me understand the behind the scenes and how this could work. It really gives hope compared to most doomsday scenarios with visuals of cow over production and climate change.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Activity 5.2 Shingle Mountain Case Study

  Problem: Dallas has had a reputation of zoning racism for as long as the slavery emancipation acknowledgement of Juneteenth. You can see this in Paul Quinn College’s map of “Poisoned by Zip Code” (2020). The Joppa community and its surrounding neighbors are within approximately 2 miles of several industrial plants and cites including Shingle Mountain. Marsha Jackson is a voice and advocate who went unheard for several months, in regards to her extremely close neighbor, the horrendous polluting illegal shingle recycling company and their infamous Shingle Mountain. I mmediate issues and what calls for action-oriented answers : For two years, Marsha Jackson and about 100 of her neighbors have had to breathe in the toxic air of the crushed shingles and watch from their yard as the pile of shingles kept growing to reach the height of a six-story building, approximately 60 feet tall and stretching more than a city block (Washington Post, 2020). They eventually came to name this ...
Post a Comment
Read more