Great to see the interview article by Paul de Vries published online! I received many positive reactions from readers. But also some questions around my definition of regenerative agriculture. Paul and I had a long, deep and inspiring discussion that he managed to convey in a couple of thousand words masterfully.
One aspect that is not covered in this article, however, is the relationship between regenerative agriculture and agroecology. Another one, is the cooptation of the term regenerative agriculture by big multinationals as a green washing strategy.
In a study of the literature we did last year, titled: “Regenerative agriculture: agroecology without politics?” we referred to such cooptation and identified three types of co-existing regenerative agriculture (RA) approaches. We distinguished between Philosophy RA, Development RA and Corporate RA. This is also explained in an entry of this slow and minimalistic blog.
We examined in this study to what extent the three types of regenerative agriculture matched the 10 principles of agroecology, and guess what? Philosophy RA, as defined by e.g. the Regenerative Organic Alliance matches perfectly with agroecology. Corporate RA is definitely not agroecology.
Furthermore, agroecology is not only a way of farming or a social movement. It is also a scientific discipline that provides the knowledge to design practices for regenerative agriculture, but also for organic, biodynamic, food forests or nature inclusive farming.
Beyond practices
Agroecology and regenerative agriculture should not only focus on improving farming practices, but also on addressing the political contexts that render food systems unsustainable.
I don’t like to create unnecessary divisions amongst movements that are well intentioned and have similar goals, such as those of agroecology and regenerative farming. But we should be aware that not all of those who claim to be supporting regenerative agriculture (e.g. Nestle, Bayer, etc.) are really following agroecological principles.
In the insightful article by Paul de Vries, when I refer to regenerative agriculture, I mean also agroecology.
Key references
If you would like to check the comparison of conventional and regenerative agriculture in terms of income, costs and margins that I mention in the interview, check this study using on farm data from the US: LaCanne, C. E., and Lundgren, J. G. (2018). Regenerative agriculture: Merging farming and natural resource conservation profitably. PeerJ. 2018, e4428. doi: 10.7717/peerj.4428
If you are interested in the global analysis of crop diversification I mention in the article check this study: Beillouin, D., Ben-Ari, T., Malézieux, E., Seufert, V., & Makowski, D. (2021). Positive but variable effects of crop diversification on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Global Change Biology, 27, 4697–4710. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15747
Aesthetic disclaimer
The pictures that illustrate the interview article were taken on a rainy Friday morning eight hours after I came from Cambodia, totally jet-lagged, and with a flu that kept me in bed for the next 4 days… I would have preferred to show a more cheerful face in support of regenerative agriculture but that’s what it is… sorry!!!!