By Mark Hyman, MD

I spent the summer of 1979 in the mountains of northern Vermont learning about soil and “biological agriculture,” or what we now call regenerative agriculture. Probably not what my mom had in mind when she sent me to Cornell. But I was interested in food, health, and sustainability.

During that idyllic summer, we made compost to help enrich the soil and minimize soil erosion; planted marigolds to repel unwanted insects; and strategically arranged crops that were mutually supportive—just as Native Americans grew corn, beans, and squash together.

Beans provide natural nitrogen fertilizer and squash acts as a cover for the soil, helping to retain water.

Unlike the regenerative agricultural approach we were practicing, industrial agriculture is not soil friendly and in fact turns soil into dirt. Dirt is dead. Soil is alive. Plants thrive in soil, not dirt. Healthy soil retains water, which reduces floods and the effects of drought.

What’s more, healthy soil puts carbon in the soil, which feeds all the microbial life that makes nutrients available to plants (and to the humans who eat them). Soil is rich in fertility, microbes, fungi, and nutrients.

Dirt needs fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, nutrients, and water to grow food. Soil doesn’t. Dirt causes climate change, soil reverses it.

Did you know the top meter of soil contains three times as much carbon as the entire atmosphere? Building healthy soil allows plants to put down deeper roots, pulling carbon from the air deep into the soil. Microbes found in healthy soil also help keep the carbon in the soil.

Industrial Versus Regenerative Agriculture

Unlike biological or regenerative agriculture, industrial agriculture largely relies on chemical inputs, such as fertilizers, which strip-mine our soil. Big fertilizer conglomerates such as Yara and Mosaic produce twenty million metric tons of fertilizer per year, weakening plants and polluting water systems.

Bacteria in the soil convert nitrogen fertilizer into huge amounts of nitrous oxide, which is released into the air—a greenhouse gas that has 300 times the heat-trapping potential of carbon dioxide.

Adding nitrogen fertilizer paradoxically makes the soil less fertile because it depletes the soil organic matter, leading to the need for more fertilizer. Good for big fertilizer companies, bad for the soil, for us, and for the climate.

There is a way to fix all of this. We have the technology—it’s low cost, all-natural, globally available, and has been proven and tested (for billions of years). It is called photosynthesis—the remarkable cycle plants use to turn water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates, which we eat (called “carbo” hydrates because they are built from carbon in the air), and which also feed the microbes in the soil.

Photosynthesis is a great barter system that makes the world go round, and it’s one of the foundations of regenerative agriculture.

Restoring Degraded Soil

On the Great Plains of North America, tens of millions of bison, elk, and deer used to feed on deep-rooted perennial grasses. As these ruminants moved through the landscape, their hooves pierced the soil, and their waste nurtured the soil biology, and their saliva increased the growth rate of grasses.

Native Americans participated in this process by periodically burning the prairie to encourage new growth. The plants, in turn, bartered some of the carbohydrates they made through photosynthesis with soil microbiology to make minerals and nutrients (in the soil) available to the plants.

Regenerative agriculture aims to restore soil by farming with those same principles in mind. That means using no-till methods that don’t disturb the ground, cover crops that protect the soil, and crop rotations that keep pests and weeds under control. The use of livestock in managed holistic grazing plays a critical role in stimulating plant growth, root structures, and soil fertility by adding manure, saliva, and urine.

Some estimates suggest that this practice can draw down enough carbon from the atmosphere to result in a fifteen percent to one hundred percent reduction in all carbon released since the industrial revolution (from all causes). That’s a lot of
carbon—around one trillion tons. Not bad for just soil.

Dirt to Soil—Tragedy to Triumph

Climate scientists say soil is one of the most important untapped, low-cost solutions, particularly at a time when five billion acres of agricultural land have been degraded through industrial, chemical-intensive farming practices. Some scientists report that if we spent $300 billion (the total global spending on military for sixty days) on restoring two billion of the degraded acres through regenerative agriculture, we could stop the rise of greenhouse gas emissions.

The good news is that some big players in the food industry are recognizing this. Big Food knows that if there is no soil and water, they can’t make their products. Danone, Nestle, and Kellogg’s are among nineteen food companies with revenues of $500 billion that formed One Planet Business for Biodiversity—a coalition committed to supporting regenerative agriculture, elimination of deforestation, and the restoration of ecosystems. Let’s keep them accountable.

Farmers are also stepping up and showing that we can do better farming with lower-cost production, better-quality food, fewer or no chemical inputs, more yields, and more profits to the farmer and lower costs to the consumer.

For example, Gabe Brown, a North Dakota farmer trained on the principles of industrial agriculture (funded in part by Big Ag) assiduously applied conventional methods to his 5,000-acre farm. After four seasons of crop failure from hail, storms, and heat waves, he was about to go bankrupt. Brown then discovered the principles of regenerative agriculture, and now fifteen years later he has created a thriving, highly profitable, highly diversified carbon farm that lets nature do the work.

Brown’s farm has created twenty-nine inches of new topsoil, and his farm is healthier, more productive, and far more profitable than his neighbors’ farms. He says that his soil used to hold only half an inch of rain per hour; now it can hold eight inches.

By planting nitrogen-fixing plants and grazing cattle on those plants—which put down more nitrogen into the soil with manure and urine—Brown doesn’t need to buy fertilizer and in fact makes money from his “fertilizer.” He produces twenty percent more food than his neighbors on the same land and makes up to twenty times more money from his diversified regenerative farm.

Now, Brown travels the country teaching other farmers the false promise of industrial farming and the true power of regenerative agriculture to help farmer, eater, and nature.

Allen Williams, PhD, a sixth generation Mississippi farmer, bought a depleted 100-year-old plantation, which had been overgrazed, turned into hunting grounds, then sold for pennies to Williams because there was no life on the land. In five years, he created five inches of soil with regenerative agriculture.

Williams has taught more than 4,000 farmers how to transition their farms and ranches. He is part of a group of ranchers and farmers known as the Soil Carbon Cowboys. They make more money with less effort and time, and fewer inputs, and in tougher conditions.

When it comes to groundwater use, regenerated soil acts as a sponge for rain, reducing the need for irrigation. Kansas farmer Rodger Funk now farms without groundwater. Today, he pumps almost no water on his 6,000 acres, which are planted largely with wheat and grain sorghum. “We decided to go dryland,” he says. Dryland means growing crops without irrigation.

Instead of plowing his fields after harvest, he leaves the stubble in the ground and plants a new crop in the residue. Leaving the roots and stems intact not only reduces soil erosion but also decreases evaporation and catches more blowing snow than bare ground.

Leaving crop residue in the field can reduce moisture loss by the equivalent of an inch or more rainfall annually, scientists say. Funk aims to capture every bit of the eighteen inches of precipitation that falls on southwestern Kansas. “I’ve got to,” Funk says, “It’s all we’ve got around here.”

Beyond Organic

Regenerative agriculture goes beyond organic by laying out the principles for building soil, enhancing biodiversity, and reducing outside inputs. Large-scale organic farms can use methods that, while better than conventional agriculture, still can deplete soil, require extensive inputs, and drain water resources.

Even small organic farms that don’t use regenerative practices can contribute to the problem through tillage and leaving land bare instead of planting cover crops to protect the soil and build organic matter.

Regenerative agriculture on farms, grasslands, and rangelands is the most powerful force for fixing much of what’s wrong with agriculture. And the practice can be adapted across diverse and global environments.

What’s more, regenerative agriculture is more profitable (for farmers, not Big Ag or Big Food) and produces higher yields and better-quality food, even when used to grow commodity crops (soy, corn, wheat), all while reversing our climate trajectory, conserving water, and increasing biodiversity.

Together with regenerative farmers and ranchers, citizen action can help influence change in agriculture and our food system. A good place to start supporting regenerative farmers is looking for the regenerative organic certified label.

In 2019, a coalition of groups launched a pilot program to develop Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC)—a “beyond organic” certification that involves three areas: soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. Learn more about which brands are certified at RegenOrganic.org.

You can also join a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program to receive local, seasonal, organic produce directly from a farm in your area. Visit www.localharvest.org to learn more.

Meat shares are also available, such as grass-fed meat for an average of $8 per pound from Mariposa Ranch and other regenerative farms and ranches across the country. That’s $2 for a 4-ounce serving, or about half the price of a Big Mac.

Other strategies include shopping at farmers’ markets, starting a home garden, reserving a plot at a community garden, or even creating a community garden with your church, company, school, or as a family project (even the CDC determined that community gardens can help rebuild communities and reduce violence in urban areas). These small steps add up to big change if we all participate.

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Well Being Journal adapted the above excerpt from Food Fix by Mark Hyman, MD. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Hyman, MD. Little, Brown Spark, an imprint of Little, Brown and Company. New York, NY. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission of author.