Fact Sheet: Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative Agriculture has the power to change the world.

The rapid degradation of global soils led the United Nations to warn us that the world’s remaining topsoil would be gone in sixty years if we don’t act. That’s less than 60 harvests left before the earth can no longer feed the planet and support our ecosystems.

Fact #1: Regenerative agriculture minimizes the physical, biological, and chemical disturbance of the soil.

Fact #2: Increases plant diversity. Plant diversity helps build healthy soils to better trap water and nutrients. Regenerative farms may vary crop rotations, plant multiple species of cover crops together, grow diverse forage in pastures, and maintain permanent vegetation. A way to naturally defend against pests and diseases, while improving soil health and the ecosystem.

Fact #3: In the US alone soil can draw down 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide–equivalent greenhouse gasses every year.

Fact #4: Regenerative agriculture helps maximize water use efficiency and improve water quality, helping to protect and restore clean water in nearby water sources like streams, rivers, and lakes.

Fact #5: Regenerative Agriculture captures substantial amounts of carbon from the air and store it in the soil, helping mitigate the effects of climate change.

Fact #6: Regenerative agriculture sequesters atmospheric carbon dioxide, reversing industrial agriculture’s contributions to climate change.

Fact #7: A shift to regenerative agricultural practices can restore grassland as one third of the earth’s surface is grassland and 70% of those grasslands have been degraded. By using holistic grazing practices, we can restore grasslands.

Fact #8: Regenerative practices such as no till farming and cover cropping are reducing erosion and water pollution, and in turn, producing healthier soils.

Fact #9: Regenerative Agriculture produces nutrient-dense foods that are free from chemical contaminants.

Fact #10: In a white paper titled “Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change”, the Rodale Institute states that “we could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions with a switch to widely available and inexpensive organic management practices, which we term 'regenerative organic agriculture.'”