Regenerative Agriculture

Sunday 18th July 2021

I make a habit of reading a chapter a day of a book (any book!). One of the advantages of self isolation - lots more time to read - so I finished this book off today. Gabe owns a farm in North Dakota and has been a pioneer of regenerative agriculture for over 25 years on his 5000 acre farm. Its a well written book, I think that if I didn't have some of the soil health background from university that I might have struggled with some of the term useds - it can get quite technical.

He states that there are five principles of regenerative agriculture 1. Minimise soil disturbance. 2. Keep the soil covered. 3. Diversity. 4. Year round living roots. 5. Integrate livestock. We can think about those principles now and understand that they make complete sense but until very recently that is not what has been taught at college or what has been done. He has had amazing results over the 25 years that are scientifically proven. There is more interest in this form of farming now and lets hope it grows in popularity. Knepp Estate is starting a regenerative agriculture farm this year. If you want to understand the concept better then take a look at their webpage and also the short video Regenerative Farming — Knepp Castle Estate (kneppestate.co.uk).