Regenerative farming is a common term for methods that increase soil fertility rather than deplete it.

A fertile soil is a living soil with a high level of active micro-biology. The regenerative philosophy is to disturb the soil as little as possible and let the complex interactions, between the soil and its living organisms be the source of a soil in balance. Regenerative methods also focus on high bio- and crop diversity, as different crops have different properties and therefore stimulate the soil's micro-life differently. The micro-life ensures that the nutrients remain in the soil and are not lost but rather released according to the plant's need. Through regenerative methods the soil's content of organic material will  increase as will the capacity to sequester carbon in the soil, while at the same time ensuring better water holding capacity during periods of drought. In other words, regenerative farming is using the earth's resources in a way that will allow food to become a solutions to some of the larges challenges we are acing today.

Why we need change

Conventional farming has for the last 50 years slowly exhausted the earth's micro-life, through the use of intensive tillage, pesticides, fertilizers, bare soil in winter and lack of organic matter added to the soil. The increasing industrialization has focused too much on practical machines, fast plant nutrients and thus artificially high yields, dependent on synthetic inputs and fossil energy. However, we are also in danger of running out of oil (source here) and phosphorus a non-renewable resource mined from rock and an important plant nutrient source (source here ). Thus, the need to transform the way we grow food is essential and non-negotiable, not only because we think it is a better alternative, but because it is necessary. And the solution must be found in nature's own systems, and let our food production be inspired by that rather than the other way round.

Regenerative practices

Regenerative cultivation methods can revive the soil and restore its fertility. This is done by not disturbing life in the soil with a minimum of plowing, no pesticides, using compost to ensure that the complex and diverse soil biology thrives in the soil. It is also crucial to keep the fields green with a plantcover - in order to harvest the sun's life-giving energy as much of the year as possible and sequester the atmosphere's carbon in the soil. Animals must be on grass, in holistically planned systems and the earth's micro-life must be less disturbed so that earthworm passages and networks of fungal hyphae remain intact. We must facilitate that symbiosis which can occur naturally if we want to ensure nutritious produce for the future generations.