The Gift of Regenerative Farming

by Janet Soderberg
Fifteenth Street Meeting

Project Drawdown Solution Farming Can Sequester Huge Amounts of Carbon
(about 23 gigatons of CO2 by 2050)

My Project Drawdown elevator sales pitch:

Did you know some people think we could solve global warming by allowing the soil to suck up enormous amounts of CO2? 

Yes, really! We’re on the edge of a major revolution in farming. 

How is it different? Farmers don’t plow anymore. 

Yes! They no longer till the soil. No-till farming! 

Plowing by inverting the soil leaves it EXPOSED! 

The carbon dioxide ESCAPES! 

In fact, 80 billion tons of carbon have already escaped. 

Oh, the name for this kind of farming is REGENERATIVE. 

(Sustainable is really a wimpy word.)

We need to regenerate the soil, stop releasing carbon. 

I’ll tell you more next time I see you.

Some people think that regenerative farming could solve the global warming crisis. That’s because new practices put a premium on building good soil and sequestering carbon. In fact, no other mechanism known to humankind is as effective in addressing global warming as capturing carbon dioxide from the air through photosynthesis. Carbon produces plants and food. “Regenerative agriculture” practices feed the soil, increasing organic matter, fertility, texture, water retention, and the existence of trillions of micro-organisms that convey health and protection to the roots and plant itself. 

Why should Friends be concerned with this?

The best way to support farmers who are using these techniques is to buy their produce, dairy products and meat. You can find farmers markets and CSAs near you by entering your zip code at www.localharvest.org.

Doing so would allow you to participate in what many hope
will be a major revolution in farming. It’s a revolution that reduces global warming and makes people healthier.

Yes, the food can be more expensive, but look at the benefits: you’re making a gift to the soil and the atmosphere. You’re showing your love for Earth. You’re reducing global warming. You’re showing your gratitude to your own body.

Regenerative farming uses organic practices and more:

No Tillage. In traditional farming, plowing exposes the soil and inverts it. Those beneficial organisms within the soil decay quickly and carbon is released. Eighty billion tons of carbon has been released into the atmosphere in traditional farming. Bringing the carbon back into the soil is a gift to the atmosphere, and it increases the life of the soil and reduces global warming.

Cover crops give the soil a rest and add nutrients and positive qualities to the soil. Cover crops also crowd out weeds.

Ask your farmer if he or she uses these practices.

RESOURCES:

1. REGENERATION

• The book: Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation, by Paul Hawken. It includes several sections that focus on food.
• The review: BeFriending Creation https://quakerearthcare.org/book-review-of-paul-hawkens-regeneration-ending-the-climate-crisis-in-one-generation/
• The website: regeneration.org
  As with the solutions in the Drawdown framework, a high percentage of the solutions in the Regeneration framework (called “Nexus”) relate to food and how it is grown, processed and prepared: https://regeneration.org/nexus/regenerative-agriculture
• The movies:
  • 2040: Join the Regeneration 2040 - Official Trailer
  • Kiss the Ground https://kissthegroundmovie.com/
• Key quotes:
  • Since 1850, industrial agriculture has created a legacy of water pollution, animal abuse, degraded land, and wildlife habitat destruction. It has been responsible for over a third of all carbon dioxide emissions generated by humans. We must switch to regenerative agriculture, which is modeled on nature, sequesters carbon, heals land, and honors life.
  • Regenerative agriculture focuses on restoring and maintaining biologically healthy soil. It takes its cues from nature, which has a long record of successfully growing things. By recarbonizing soils via photosynthesis and biology, regenerative agriculture produces healthy food, protects watersheds, strengthens ecological andcultural diversity, and expands economic resilience. It is a low-cost “shovel-ready”, solution to climate change. It can restore degraded land. It can feed the world. Regenerative agriculture has ancient origins and is the foundation of Indigenous and traditional food systems worldwide.
  • Regeneration is an inclusive and effective strategy compared to combating, fighting, or mitigating climate change. Regeneration creates, builds, and heals. … It includes how we live and what we do—everywhere. We have a common interest and that interest can only be served when we come together.
  • Regeneration means putting life at the center of every action and decision.

PROJECT DRAWDOWN:

• The project: Founded in 2014, Project Drawdown's mission is to help the world reach “drawdown”—the point in the future when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline, thereby stopping catastrophic climate change—as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible. Stopping global warming is possible, with solutions that exist today. In order to do this, we must work together as quickly, safely, and equitably as possible.
• The book: Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, edited by Paul Hawken. Published in 2017, the book showcases climate solutions researched by Project Drawdown.
• The website: www.drawdown.org provides a supplemental list of references used in development of the book.
• The update: Project Drawdown’s latest analysis and insights, The Drawdown Review (2020), is free to download from the website. Key updates include sorting solutions into three sectors: 
  • A. Reduce Sources: Bringing emissions to zero;
  • B. Support Sinks: Uplifting nature’s carbon cycle and
  • C. Improve Society: Fostering equality for all.
• Twenty of the 93 current solutions relate to “Food, Agriculture & Land Use,” and the Land Sinks section of Support Sinks discuss solutions that relate to regenerative farming.
• Key quote:
  “Drawdown is a critical turning point for life on Earth, and we must strive to reach it quickly, safely, and equitably. The Drawdown Review and this website present an overview of climate solutions in hand—now, today—to reach Drawdown and begin to come back into balance with the planet’s living systems. These solutions are tools of possibility in the face of a seemingly impossible challenge. They must not remain the domain of specialists or select groups.”