Activity 3.2- Regenerative Agriculture Part 1

                 1.0 Introduction to Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative agriculture is the practice of taking traditional agricultural/farming methods and making them more environmentally sustainable.  Traditional agriculture tends to focus more on prioritizing maximum product output and efficiency, and often utilizes artificial soils, fertilizers, and pesticides to increase and maintain farming output. This non-stop approach to agriculture has led to many negative environmental effects, such as fallow soil, desertification, increased carbon emissions, and climate change. Regenerative agriculture was created as a solution to the problems caused by traditional agricultural methods because, instead of going against nature, it works with nature to not only produce quality farming produce, but also keep the natural landscape healthy. It focuses on maintaining environmental biodiversity, improving the water cycle, and keeping topsoil fertile in order to keep both agriculture and the environment sustainable for the long run.

2.0 Explore the Facts

The first 3 videos list a plethora of facts. Facts of the first video include: “agriculture is responsible for 30% of total carbon emissions, 70% of freshwater use, and 60% of total biodiversity loss” (Patagonia, 2020). Facts of the 2nd video include: topsoil is vital to all living organisms on earth, agriculture is destroying topsoil, and soil has the ability to trap carbon/carbon dioxide in the ground. Facts of the 3rd video include: regenerative agricultural farms are smaller than traditional farms, but about “6-8 times more efficient in crop yield and labor management” (Patagonia, 2020); buying product from farms practicing regenerative agriculture helps the industry by supporting these farmers. 

The Ted Talk video had many facts in it as well, such as: desertification is happening across the world at a rapid rate, damaged soil releases carbon into the atmosphere, desertification is caused by livestock, leaving soil uncovered damages the environment, large herds of moving livestock is the key to stopping desertification, using fires to burn plant waste releases more carbon into the atmosphere than many cars put together. 

The “Environmental Cowboy” video facts included: we need more carbon out of the atmosphere and into the ground, livestock is being used to repair landscapes, current farming techniques release too much carbon into the atmosphere. Additionally, the video states why regenerative agriculture is more sustainable for the environment by listing its 4 main principles of regenerative agriculture: “maximizing the plant cycle, increasing the water cycle, increasing the nutrient cycle, and increasing plant diversity” (The Environmental Cowboy, 2019). 

         3.0 Outline the Causes

The causes of the problems stated in the first video, such as agriculture's harmful effects on the environment, all stem from the widespread use of traditional agricultural techniques/practices, such as livestock farming and massive industrial crop farming. Some of the problems in the 2nd video, such as “agriculture is destroying soil”, is being caused by the traditional farming practice of using artificial chemicals when planting/harvesting crops. The problems about “topsoil being vital to all living organisms” and “topsoil being able to trap carbon underground” is caused by all of the microorganisms existing within topsoil. The ideas in the 3rd video are all caused by regenerative agriculture being a more sustainable farming practice than traditional industrial methods. 

The problems in the Ted Talk about the widespread desertification of the Earth are all linked to poor farming practices involving livestock. Livestock cause desertification by overgrazing the land, and then in turn desertification causes a plethora of other problems that are harmful to the environment. The problem about “using fires to burn plant waste releases more carbon into the atmosphere than cars” (Savory, 2013), is caused by dead soil through desertification.  

The problem in the “Environmental Cowboy” video, which is the rapid climate change due to carbon emissions, is caused by poor traditional agricultural practices. Additionally, destruction of the landscape is also caused by over farming and livestock grazing. 

         4.0 Identify and Describe the Effects of the Causes

The effects of traditional agricultural practices are vast in number, and mostly involve some sort of negative impact on the environment. The use of industrial livestock farming, coupled with current crop farming practices has led to the agricultural industry as a whole being responsible for “30% of carbon emissions, 70% of freshwater use, and 60% of biodiversity loss” (Patagonia, 2020). The current landscape of agriculture is unsustainable for the environment. Additionally, traditional agriculture is destroying topsoil because of the common practice of using artificial chemicals to cultivate crops. These artificial chemicals kill the vital microorganisms existing within the soil, which are essential for the growth of crops in the first place. Once the organisms are killed off, the soil is now dead and unusable for farming. Lastly the effects of using regenerative agriculture (RA) instead of traditional methods results in greater environmental sustainability and farming production.  RA practices keep soil healthy, use water more efficiently, and are more labor effective due to their small size. All of these put together result in a practice that is not only better for the environment, but for people as well. 

The effects that livestock have on desertification, as mentioned in the Ted Talk video, causes a chain of problems. First, livestock will cause desertification by overgrazing the land, leaving no nutrients available for the soil, causing it to die. This results in desertification, which in turn affects the environment in many ways. Dead and uncovered soil can be easily blown away by wind, making it easier for water and carbon trapped in the ground to be released into the air. Additionally, since the soil is now no longer able to biodegrade organic matter, dead animals and plants on the surface are burned through fires to get rid of them, resulting in a ton of carbon emissions being released into the sky. 

In the “Environmental Cowboy” video, traditional agricultural practices affect the environment through releasing increased carbon emissions into the sky, which lead to climate change. Also, similarly to the other videos before it, overgrazing and farming affects the environment because it destroys the soil, resulting in unfarmable land and more increased carbon emissions. 

         5.0 Investigate Priorities

The primary issue of the first 3 videos is the unsustainability of traditional and industrial agricultural practices. With the way current farming practices are, there isn’t a way we can continue operating the way we are without causing massive and potentially permanent damage to the environment. For example, topsoil is a vital component for all life in general, but especially for farming. Our current agricultural practices are destroying the natural soil because of all of the artificial chemicals, like synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, we use when farming. These things kill the organic microorganisms in the soil, which play a huge part in growing life. This is why the videos stress the importance of replacing traditional methods with regenerative agricultural methods. Regenerative agriculture works with the nature to produce farming methods that are both sustainable to the environment and humans. Fertilizers are made from natural compost instead of chemicals, keeping the soil alive and fertile, and water is naturally conserved through the water cycle, reducing the amount of freshwater wasted when watering crops. 

The primary issue of the Ted Talk and “Environmental Cowboy” videos is mostly about desertification and the impacts it has on the climate through carbon emissions. Desertification happens when land becomes barren of life, and is caused by either the overgrazing of livestock, or agricultural practices that kill off organisms existing within the soil. When the soil dies and becomes void of life, it is now more susceptible to releasing water and carbon within the ground back into the air. This leads to an increase of carbon emissions into the sky, resulting in an increase of climate change. These videos offer up the solution of using mass herds of livestock in order to stop desertification.  How it works is that these mass herds will mimic nature by replicating the natural process of animals packing together to avoid predators. These animals will be constantly moving, preventing overgrazing, and their waste provides natural fertilizer for the soil. Additionally, the animals will trample plants and such during their travels, providing the soil with covering to protect it from the elements. 

         6.0 Delineate Application

The effects of the current agricultural system affect me greatly because of how environmentally unsustainable it is. The amount of carbon emissions it releases into the air contributes to climate change, which by itself affects all life on Earth by disrupting the natural balances of nature. Animals and other wildlife lose their habitats, and humans experience hardship through the form of natural disasters such as floods, draughts, wildfires, etc. Also, the amount of freshwater that traditionally agriculture uses affects me because it rapidly depletes the amount of drinking water available. There already isn’t a lot of freshwater in the world compared to seawater, so recklessly using a lot of it for farming just decreases the amount for us to drink in the future. Admittedly, I more than likely contribute to the problems that traditional agriculture presents because I purchase products grown through those methods. I don’t really check where the product I buy comes from, and since traditional farms vastly outnumber regenerative ones, it's safe to say most of the things I buy come from traditional farms. By buying the products produced by these farms, I’m providing them with more money and incentive to keep doing things the way they are. 

         7.0 Challenge to Your Thinking 

Yes, I would say that my way of thinking has definitely changed after learning all of the information presented to me by the videos. Before this, I had no idea just how badly the agricultural industry was contributing to all of the environmental problems that currently plague the Earth. I mean, being responsible for contributing 30% of all carbon emissions is crazy, especially when you can’t even think about how they could release so much carbon into the air without being told. Also, I had no idea that desertification was such a prominent issue worldwide. I knew that places such as Africa and the Middle East were areas with a lot of barren land, but after watching the Ted Talk video I realized that the problem is literally everywhere. This is a scary thought because land that has been desertified is no longer able to sustain life, making it impossible to cultivate crops or livestock. If this trend continues without doing anything to stop it, then future generations of humans are pretty much just doomed to die because there won’t be anything left for them to sustain themselves. My eyes have really been opened to all of the problems caused by something as basic as how we practice farming, so now I’ll have to be more conscious about the products I buy. 

References

- Patagonia. (2020, July 29). Why regenerative organic? | Part 1: Big agriculture is broken [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUvabZSGbEk 

- Patagonia. (2020, July 29). Why regenerative organic? | Part 2: Soil is the solution [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0VyuddRq88 

- Patagonia. (2020, July 29). Why regenerative organic? | Part 3: What we’re doing (and why) [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfxp7eKuETo  

- Savory, A. (2013, February). How to fight desertification and reverse climate change [Video]. TED 2013. https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_fight_desertification_and_reverse_climate_change    

- The Environmental Cowboy. (2019, June 29). A dry hope: Short film on regenerative agriculture [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFqtm2lwUFk