Every gardener knows that the key to abundance is fertile soil. Fertile soil is the outcome of a thriving, complex and dynamic underground ecosystem. Good soil includes an astoundingly abundant community of bacteria, protists, fungi, worms, algae, insects and plant roots. They assist the decomposition of organic matter in soil, which releases large quantities of essential nutrients, making them available to plants.

Since the Industrial Revolution, human activity – increasing deforestation, fossil fuel combustion and widespread chemical/industrial farming – has massively disrupted the natural carbon cycle. Rapid global increases in concentrations of Co2 and other gases in our atmosphere are the result. Unless we take decisive action, we face an entwining cascade of complex and unpredictable atmospheric impacts of steadily increasing severity.

Through photosynthesis, massive quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide is continuously converted from atmospheric to organic carbon – the carbon cycle. Co2 is thus moved from the atmosphere to the soil by plants and trees to be stored in high concentrations within soil pore spaces. Plowing or digging up soil destroys the soil’s ecosystem and releases this carbon from the soil pores directly back into the atmosphere.

Regenerative Farming:

Sustainable farming sounds wonderful, and it will work one day, but sustainable farming today starts with degraded land. Therefore, it is only sustaining broken soil. We first need to fix the soil and then we can sustain.

Regenerative farming focuses on restoring the biodiversity and composition of the soil, which in turn creates better yields and nutrient dense plants…while sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and allowing the Earth to breathe easier.

Regenerative farming techniques include a mix of utilizing minimum tilling and cover crops and feeding the soil.

Other Farming Methods:

Current farming practices tear the soil, ripping apart the micro-ecosystems that sequester carbon, nourish the plants and feed the Earth. One only has to look at the present state of the Fertile Crescent or see the farms lying fallow, to see the devastating effects of modern farming.