Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T01:45:20.579Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Placing regenerative farming on environmental educators’ horizons

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2020

Edgar A. Burns Open the ORCID record for Edgar A. Burns [Opens in a new window]
Edgar A. Burns*
Affiliation:
School of Social Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Chair of Integrated Catchment management, Napier, New Zealand
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Regenerative farming offers the promise of rapid carbon sequestration at global scale. Also called regenerative agriculture, it is largely absent in social science environmental discussions. Learning and teaching about regenerative farming has been left outside educational channels at many levels until now. Pastoral farmers themselves have been at the forefront of a renewal movement educating other land users how to farm beyond conventional Western modern systems. Regenerative farming challenges ‘industrial’ or ‘capitalist farming’ models that continue to degrade natural systems across the world’s pasturelands. This article describes ground-up learning processes and value propositions of farmers involved in regenerative farming. They see it as a solution to the normative shift in recent decades positioning farmers as ‘bad guys’: reducing biodiversity, degrading land systems by erosion and excess fertilisers, over-using water catchments and lowering water quality for urban communities. Understanding the claims and potential of regenerative farming enables environmental educators to be more specific in identifying potential strengths, without neglecting academic evaluation and critique to bear on this strategic climate innovation.

Keywords

carbon sequestrationagroecologyholistic agricultureenvironmental sociologyregenerative agricultureregenerative farmingsoil renewalwater catchments
Type
Article
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , March 2021 , pp. 29 - 39
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, P. (2014). Back from the brink: How Australia’s landscape can be saved. Sydney, Australia: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Andrews, P., & Williams, J. (2014). Back from the brink: how Australia’s landscape can be saved. Sydney, Australia: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Andrews, P. (2018, October 29). How Peter Andrews rejuvenates drought-struck land. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4OBcRHX1Bc.Google Scholar
Brown, G. (2018). Dirt to soil: One family’s journey into regenerative agriculture. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.Google Scholar
Burton, R. (2004). Seeing through the ‘good farmer’s eyes: towards developing an understanding of the social symbolic value of ‘productivist’ behaviour. Sociologia Ruralis, 44, 195–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, E., Maslin, M., & Lewis, S. (2020, February 12). Planting trees won’t save the world: focusing on trees as the big solution to climate change is a dangerous diversion. New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2020/02/12/opinion/trump-climate-change-trees.html Google Scholar
Fickling, D. (2003, September 3). Farmers raise stink over New Zealand ‘Fart Tax’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/05/australia.davidfickling Google Scholar
General Mills. (2020). The six core principles of regenerative agriculture. General Mills: Regenerative agriculture. https://www.generalmills.com/en/Responsibility/Sustainability/Regenerative-agriculture Google Scholar
Jehne, W. (2017, November 21). Regenerating the soil carbon sponge. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nC6j80sLZo Google Scholar
Kelly, L. (1999). Salt of the earth: Farming and sustaining the soil beyond. Grain Research and Development Corporation 2000. Canberra, Media Associates. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 15, 171–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kollmuss, A., & Agyeman, J. (2002). Mind the gap: Why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior? Environmental Education Research, 8, 239–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kravčík, M., Pokorný, J., Kohutiar, J., Kováč, M., & Tóth, E. (2007). Water for the recovery of the climate: a new water paradigm. Kocise, Slovakia: People & Water NGO. http://www.waterparadigm.org/download/Water_for_the_Recovery_of_the_Climate_A_New_Water_Paradigm.pdf.Google Scholar
LaCanne, C., & Lundgren, J. (2018). Regenerative agriculture: merging farming and natural resource conservation profitably. PeerJ, 6, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lal, R. (2011). Sequestering carbon in soils of agro-ecosystems. Food Policy, 36, S33–S39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loconto, A., & Fouilleux, E. (2019). Defining agroecology: Exploring the circulation of knowledge in FAO’s global dialogue. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture and Food, 25, 116–137.Google Scholar
Massy, C. (2017). Call of the reed warbler: A new agriculture — a new Earth. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, T. (2009). Carbon democracy. Economy & Society, 38, 399–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montgomery, D. (2017). Growing a revolution: Bringing our soil back to life. New York, NY: Norton.Google Scholar
Nakagawa, Y. (2017). WWOOF Ecopedagogy: linking ‘doing’ to ‘learning’. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 33, 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pedersen, D. (2019, December 26). First degree in regenerative agriculture. FarmOnline National. https://www.farmonline.com.au/story/6553712/degree-in-regenerative-agriculture-on-offer/?cs=4698 Google Scholar
Perry, D. (2019, October 26). Farmers could help solve the climate crisis — We just don’t invest in them. Quartz Ideas. https://qz.com/1714282/regenerative-agriculture-could-radically-impact-climate-change/ Google Scholar
Pocock, D. (2020, January 28). David Pocock’s 2020s vision: Heal the land, secure our future. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/28/david-pococks-2020s-vision-heal-the-land-secure-our-future Google Scholar
Reid, M. (2016). Brazil: the troubled rise of a global power. Boston, MA: Yale University Press Google Scholar
Rhodes, C. (2017). The imperative for regenerative agriculture. Science Progress, 100, 80–129.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Savory, A. (2013). How to fight desertification and reverse climate change. TEDTalk. https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_fight_desertification_and_reverse_climate_change?language=en Google Scholar
Savory, A. (2020). Holistic management. Boulder, CO: Savory Institute. https://savory.global/holistic-management/ Google Scholar
Siegel, L., Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, A., & Bellert, A. (2018). Still ‘minding the gap’ sixteen years later: (re)storying pro-environmental behaviour. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 34, 189–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, P., Martino, D., Cai, Z., Gwary, D., Janzen, H., Kumar, P., … Smith, J. (2007). Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture. The Royal Society B Biological Sciences, 363, 789–813.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, W. (2020). The leadership role of teachers and environment club coordinators in promoting ecocentrism in secondary schools: teachers as exemplars of environmental education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 36, 63–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Terra Genesis International (TGI). (2020). Regenerative agriculture. http://www.regenerativeagriculturedefinition.com/ Google Scholar
Toensmeier, E. (2016). The carbon farming solution: A global toolkit of perennial crops and regenerative agriculture practices for climate change mitigation and food security. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.Google Scholar
Waghorn, G., & Woodward, S. (2006). Ruminant contributions to methane and global warming: a New Zealand perspective. In Bhatti, J., Lal, R., Apps, M., & Price, M. (Eds.), Climate change and managed ecosystems (pp. 233–261). Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Wozniacka, G. (2019, October, 29). Can regenerative agriculture reverse climate change? Big Food is banking on it. NBCNews. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/can-regenerative-agriculture-reverse-climate-change-big-food-banking-it-n1072941 Google Scholar