WHAT WE HAVE BEFORE US IS A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO SHIFT THE GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY.


The good news is that the carbon emissions related to Scope 3, the food, feed, fibre and fuel used by these companies, are in some cases as much as 80% associated with agriculture and ag-based products. So, making meaningful change at the scale required to achieve the targets set out will have a significant impact on GHG emissions, as well as water, pollution and also livelihoods for farmers, in the short- to medium-term.


That is, if what they’re doing really is regenerative. All too often, it’s not. Although some companies, Walmart is a recent example, have laid out very detailed programs and targets for the transition to regenerative agriculture, several of the other big names have included the word “regenerative” in their targets and roadmaps without really understanding what the term means, and that becomes a major risk as consumers and civil society expect these brands to actually do what they say they going to do. And if they don’t, the backlash will be swift, severe and potentially detrimental to their bottom lines and to their shareholders.


SO, LET’S BACK UP FOR A MINUTE. What does “regenerative” really mean? In the greater scheme of things, according to The Regenerative Design Framework, regenerative moves towards a living systems approach that works together with nature rather than trying to manipulate it where energy is created rather than consumed. Applying that to regenerative agriculture, there are five or six basic tenets—depending on who you talk to (which is part of the problem as it is still seen as a bit of a wishy- washy definition). Those tenets are:


• Minimising soil disturbance through low till or no till methods


• Maximising species diversity above and below the ground


• Keeping the soil covered year-round to enhance water retention and build microbiology


• Integration of livestock


• Significant reduction or elimination of chemical inputs


6 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | Q3 Edition 2021


THERE IS MORE, THOUGH. There is the alignment of agriculture with natural processes, such as water and energy cycles, crop rotation is a must to ensure disease and pest control by breaking up the building of vectors, and not to be forgotten is the livelihood of farmers where they are paid decent wages thanks to providing ecosystem services such as sequestering carbon and their products are paid what they’re worth. How society has come to believe that fast fashion and $1,000 mobile phones are worth their wages but paying the real cost of food is not is beyond my comprehension.


Regenerative agriculture is where “carbon farming” comes into the picture and why organisations are so hot to get farmers certified as regenerative by monitoring their farming practices so the amount of carbon sequestered can be accounted for and monetised. Control Union has its Regenagri scheme that does that, Commonland is working on something similar, and Rabobank launched its Rabo Carbon Bank in 2020 to connect farmers to finance, using the carbon credits they generate to finance their transition to regenerative, supported by an army of agriculture extension agents. The Savory Institute, home to Holistic Management, has launched its Land to Market programme that goes further by connecting those regeneratively certified meats and fibres to brands who want to source those products.


Just as the Green Revolution of the 1970s changed agriculture forever by focusing on economy of scale that required chemical inputs and mechanisation to achieve the yields required to feed a growing planet, boosting agriculture related GHGs along with it, regenerative agriculture will help to reverse that damage. By realigning agriculture with natural processes to quickly and significantly reduce the GHG emissions associated with farming and livestock production it will simultaneously decarbonise supply chains and tackle the climate crisis head-on.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30