Regenerative Agriculture

Description

Maddy Harland:

"Nature is a profoundly powerful force. Regenerative agriculture teaches us that small actions can have large effects. We can rebuild soil and regenerate landscapes at rates that are surprising. Nature responds to our ministrations.

Rebecca Hosking, a Devon farmer, who uses all sorts of soil building and carbon sequestering regenerative agriculture techniques, told me, "People are finally realising how we manage and farm the land affects not only how much carbon is released but also how much we can sequester.

"Similarly how much water, which once washed off our fields, is now being absorbed. In just 18 months of soil building on the family farm we've noticed our herb and grass regrowth dramatically speed up and increase in density; all the time acting as a large carbon sink.

"Throughout the recent severe weather that hit the UK, the real eye-opener for us was the clarity and low flow levels of water leaving our land compared to that of our neighbours. Just by implementing simple money saving land management changes we have seen dramatic results which are now not just benefiting us but others around us. Imagine if many other farms in the UK were to do this, we'd see a high reduction in floods and all of us sequestering carbon to build fertility - it's a win- win." (http://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/responding-crisis-regenerative-agriculture-other-solutions)