Placing regenerative farming on environmental educators’ horizons

Abstract

Regenerative farming offers the promise of rapid carbon sequestration at global scale. Also called regenerative agriculture, it is largely absent in social science environmental discussions. Learning and teaching about regenerative farming has been left outside educational channels at many levels until now. Pastoral farmers themselves have been at the forefront of a renewal movement educating other land users how to farm beyond conventional Western modern systems. Regenerative farming challenges ‘industrial’ or ‘capitalist farming’ models that continue to degrade natural systems across the world’s pasturelands. This article describes ground-up learning processes and value propositions of farmers involved in regenerative farming. They see it as a solution to the normative shift in recent decades positioning farmers as ‘bad guys’: reducing biodiversity, degrading land systems by erosion and excess fertilisers, over-using water catchments and lowering water quality for urban communities. Understanding the claims and potential of regenerative farming enables environmental educators to be more specific in identifying potential strengths, without neglecting academic evaluation and critique to bear on this strategic climate innovation.

COVID-19 and lockdown schooling: how digital learning environments influence semantic structures and sustainability knowledge

“…These learning objectives go hand in hand with both the UN’s Global EverGreening Alliance , the EU’s Green Deal and the From Farm To Fork initiative [ 17 , 18 ]. As regenerative farming is regarded as a good way to start environmental education [ 19 ] and fits the target groups’ syllabus, it is suitable for this study.…”

Exploring Influence of Communication Campaigns in Promoting Regenerative Farming Through Diminishing Farmers' Resistance to Innovation: An Innovation Resistance Theory Perspective From Global South

“…To tackle issues regarding recent growing carbon emissions and biodiversity, the development of technology in the farming and agriculture sector has also transformed the farming practices in past decades. The emergence of modern methods in farming, such as regenerative farming, is among the sustainable farming practices that can support maintaining biodiversity and reduce the agriculture sector's carbon footprints (Burns, 2021 ). Regenerative farming is defined as a set of farming practices and philosophies to upkeep biodiversity, improve soil, enrich watersheds, and upsurge the ability of the soil to capture carbon (Rhodes, 2017 ; Newton et al, 2020 ).…”

“…This process is considered a modern and innovative farming practice that can potentially pull one trillion tons of atmospheric CO 2 . By doing so, regenerative farming can reverse global warming by restoring the organic carbon content in the soil, which improves the soil quality and biodiversity (Gosnell et al, 2019 ; Burns, 2021 ). The benefits of regenerative farming have also been reported in the literature, affirming that regenerative practices have raised the organic carbon content in soil eloquently (Gosnell et al, 2019 ).…”

A Review of Rachel’s Farm - L. Michaelis-Thorpe (Writer), & R. Ward (Director, Writer). (2023). Rachel’s Farm [Film]. Wildbear Entertainment.

“…Fortuitously for Rachel, around this time, Mike Green, Rachel’s neighbour, approached Rachel with an idea to combine their farming land and utilise a regenerative farming framework, which operates on the premise of reducing global climate change through increased storage of carbon in soils whilst improving soil quality, watershed integrity and function, biodiversity and enhanced ecosystem services (Burns, 2021).…”