The Economic Pamphleteer: Realities of Regenerative Agriculture

Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://foodsystemsjournal.org

THE ECONOMIC PAMPHLETEER JOHN IKERD

Realities of regenerative agriculture

Published online February 3, 2021

Citation: Ikerd, J. (2021). The Economic Pamphleteer: Realities of regenerative agriculture. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 10(2), 7–10. https://doi.org/10.5304/jafscd.2021.102.001

egenerative agriculture is the latest phrase in enough”—that we need better farming systems R the sustainable agriculture movement (Mer- than we have today. They fail to recognize that field, 2019). Many early advocates have become farm systems that are not “good enough” are not disenchanted with the concept of sustainable agri- sustainable. Authentic sustainability is the ability to culture. Some claim it has been co-opted, misused, meet the needs of the present without diminishing and essentially made useless by the defenders of opportunities for the future (Ikerd, 2011). An agri- industrial agriculture. However, regenerative agriculture that does not meet the needs of the present culture faces the same risks if it is not defined in is not good enough—for present or future terms that ensure agricultural sustainability. generations. Others claim that sustainability is “not The concept of regenerative agriculture is cer-

John Ikerd is professor emeritus of agricultural econom- Why an Economic Pamphleteer? In his historic pamphlet ics, University of Missouri, Columbia. He was raised on a Common Sense, written in 1775–1776, Thomas Paine small farm and received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees wrote of the necessity of people to form governments from the University of Missouri. He worked in the private to moderate their individual self-interest. In our gov- industry prior to his 30-year academic career at North ernment today, the pursuit of economic self-interest Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, the reigns supreme. Rural America has been recolonized, University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri. economically, by corporate industrial agriculture. I hope Since retiring in 2000, he spends most of his time writing my “pamphlets” will help awaken Americans to a new and speaking on issues of sustainability. Ikerd is author revolution—to create a sustainable agri-food economy, of six books and numerous professional papers, which revitalize rural communities, and reclaim our democracy. are available at http://johnikerd.com and The collected Economic Pamphleteer columns (2010– https://faculty.missouri.edu/ikerdj/ 2017) are at https://bit.ly/ikerd-collection

Volume 10, Issue 2 / Winter 2020–2021 7 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://foodsystemsjournal.org tainly not new. The Rodale Institute in Pennsyl- mals, and other sources of energy that are useful to vania has been researching and advocating regen- humans. Energy is essential for life, and solar ener- erative organic farming practices since the 1980s gy is the only sustainable source of the biological (Rodale Institute, n.d.). Like sustainable farming, energy essential for human life. Ultimately, the regenerative farming does not have a single, precise sustainability of any society depends on the regen- definition. In the United States, regenerative erative capacity of its farms and food systems. farming is typically defined as an integrated set of This is not some esoteric theory but is based land management practices that utilizes plant on the laws of thermodynamics, which are among photosynthesis to sequester carbon, restore soil the most fundamental laws of science. The first law health, increase crop resilience, of thermodynamics states that and restore the nutrient density energy can be neither created nor of foods (The Carbon Under- destroyed. However, whenever ground & Regenerative Agri- A sustainable regenerative energy is used to do anything culture Initiative, 2017). Lists of useful, which physicists call agriculture must be practices typically include re- work, it always changes in form. duced reliance on tillage and the socially responsible and Specifically, the innate tendency use of synthetic fertilizers and of energy is to change from more pesticides, and increased adop- economically viable as well useful to less useful forms of tion of cover crops, the rotation as ecologically regenerative. energy, which also makes it of diverse crops, and manage- potentially useful. This is the ment-intensive grazing. essence of the second law of Internationally, regenerative thermodynamics—the law of farming is more likely to be defined as a system of entropy. No matter how efficiently we use, reuse, or production guided by common principles, rather recycle energy, its usefulness to humans is inevi- than practices, toward multiple social, economic, tably lost. All energy eventually returns to outer and ecological objectives. For example, Terra space in the form of heat. Genesis International defines regenerative Fortunately, the earth receives a daily inflow of agriculture as “a system of farming principles and new energy from the sun. Only a few life forms practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, have the capacity to capture and use this new solar improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem energy to counter the evitable loss of useful energy services. . . . Regenerative Agriculture aims to to entropy. The opposite of entropy is called reverse global climate change. At the same time, it negentropy (“Negentropy,” n.d.). Life in general has offers increased yields, resilience to climate instabil- the potential to be negentropic because living ity, and higher health and vitality for farming com- things can convert energy from less useful to more munities” (Terra Genesis International, n.d., p. 2). useful forms. Healthy natural ecosystems organize As with sustainable agriculture, regenerative and concentrate solar energy into organisms of agriculture must not only meet the needs of people progressively higher levels or structure, order, and as consumers but also as producers/farmers and potential usefulness. Humans also can transform members of civil society. Regenerative farms that solar energy into more useful electrical energy— fail to meet these needs will not be widely adopted using sunlight, wind, or water. However, neither by farmers or sustained by the societies in which humans nor other animals can transform sunlight they function. A sustainable regenerative agriculture into food. Life on earth, including human life, must be socially responsible and economically ultimately depends on the ability of plants, algae, viable as well as ecologically regenerative. and a few other life forms to collect and store solar That being said, the concept of regeneration energy. goes to the very core of agricultural sustainability. The entropic tendencies of energy are continu- The regenerative capacity of a farm depends on its ally working against the negentropic tendencies of ability to transform solar energy into plants, ani- living systems. Living things inevitably lose energy

8 Volume 10, Issue 2 / Winter 2020–2021 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://foodsystemsjournal.org to heat as they grow and renew their physical struc- value is inherently short-run in nature. In an uncer- tures. They also devote a significant portion of tain market economy, investments that promise their energy to renew, reproduce, and regenerate future payoffs even a decade in the future have their species. The living ecosystems we humans very little economic value today. As long as there is depend on for food will ultimately collapse if we enough topsoil left to provide an inert growing fail to leave other life forms with sufficient energy medium and enough fossil energy to produce to continually renew, reproduce, and sustain their fertilizers and irrigate crops, industrial farming will negentropic capacity. In reality, we humans are a continue and will accelerate the tendency toward part of the earth’s living ecosystem, and our sur- entropy. vival as a species depends on its sustainability. Regenerative farmers must confront these Healthy natural ecosystems entropic and economic realities have a natural tendency to of sustainability. Industrial evolve toward higher levels of farming is not “good enough,” energy efficiency and Society cannot afford to and it will take decades of negentropy. However, humans reinvestment in soil health and wait for all farms to be have the ability to either increase healthy agroecosystems to recre- or decrease the negentropic worn out to transition ate regenerative farms that are capacity of living ecosystems in good enough. Even then, there which they intervene. Humans from industrial to will always be an economic have intentionality and agency, regenerative agriculture. incentive to simply use up the which means they can act useful energy that has been counter to their own natural restored by regenerative farmers tendencies. They can choose over decades or centuries—just how they relate to other people and other living as industrial farmers have done in the past and are and nonliving elements of their environment. doing now. Some of the farmers who have created, Individual relationships can also at least influence and are creating, regenerative farming systems how other people and other elements of the natural today were confronted with the challenges of environment relate to each other. Human restoring productivity to farms “worn out” by interventions and relationships affect the efficiency industrial farming and no longer responsive to and regenerative capacity not only of natural industrial farming practices. These farmers had an ecosystems but also of human organization— economic incentive to change. Society cannot farms, businesses, communities, societies. Like afford to wait for all farms to be worn out to other living ecosystems, these organizations can be transition from industrial to regenerative organized and managed in ways that realize their agriculture. negentropic potential or can be managed in ways Other regenerative farmers have been ethi- that accelerate the natural tendency toward cally or socially motivated to make non-economic entropy. long-term investments, and, perhaps most impor- Industrial farming systems are classic examples tant, have been financially able to do so. Unfor- of human-organized and -managed entropic tunately, this is not the case of most farmers organizations. They mine and deplete the useful today, in the U.S. or around the world. Some energy collected and stored by negentropic living consumers have been willing and able to share the systems over centuries—not only in fossil fuels but economic costs of restoration by paying premium also in fertile living soils. This useful energy is prices for products produced on regenerative marketed in the form of agricultural commodities farms. However, markets will never provide ade- for the purpose of maximizing profits for farm quate economic incentives to create sustainable owners and managers. The reinvestments essential regenerative systems of farming and food for energy regeneration might provide an economic production. return in some future decade, but the economic Thoughtful, caring people must come together

Volume 10, Issue 2 / Winter 2020–2021 9 Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development ISSN: 2152-0801 online https://foodsystemsjournal.org in their local communities and larger societies to societies depends on their willingness and ability to make it economically possible make it economically feasible for thoughtful, caring farmers for farmers to create and to create and sustain Thoughtful, caring people sustain negentropic farming regenerative farming systems. systems. People can increase This can be done through must come together to make the usefulness of energy and fundamental changes in local, it economically possible for transform solar energy into state, and national farm and electricity. People can also food policies. The farm and thoughtful, caring farmers to increase the efficiency of food food policies that currently create and sustain processing and distribution. support industrial agriculture But people cannot transform can, and eventually must, be regenerative farming systems. solar energy into food. People, shifted to support and sustain including farmers, must be regenerative agriculture. willing to confront the incon- The regenerative potential of communities and venient realities of regenerative agriculture.

References Ikerd, J. (2011, June). Authentic sustainability; Going beyond green. Presentation at Authentic Sustainability Workshop, Ashland, Wisconsin. Retrieved from https://web.missouri.edu/ikerdj/papers/MRCSEAuthenticSustainability.pdf Merfield, C. N. (2019). An analysis and overview of regenerative agriculture (Report No. 2-2019). Lincoln, New Zealand: The BHU Future Farming Centre. Retrieved from https://www.bhu.org.nz/future-farming- centre/ffc/information/misc/an-analysis-and-overview-of-regenerative-agriculture-2019-ffc-merfield.pdf Negentropy. (n.d.). In Simply English Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negentropy Rodale Institute. (n.d.). The future is organic. Retrieved December 2020 from https://rodaleinstitute.org/ Terra Genesis International. (n.d.). Regenerative agriculture: A definition. Retrieved from http://www.terra-genesis.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Regenerative-Agriculture-Definition.pdf The Carbon Underground & Regenerative Agriculture Initiative. (2017, February 24). What is Regenerative Agriculture? [Blog post]. Retrieved from the Regeneration International website: https://regenerationinternational.org/2017/02/24/what-is-regenerative-agriculture/

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