Giving Compass' Take:

• Regenerative agriculture practices like soil carbon sequestration is becoming a topic for farmers and politicians alike, but pesticides can damage soil biotic communities. 

• How can we support organizations that are taking steps towards regenerative agriculture? How can funders help to expand research and access to information? 

• Read more about regenerative agriculture and how it empowers farmers.

The idea that the soil on our nation’s farms and ranches can help stop the climate crisis by acting as a carbon sink is gaining momentum. The concept, often referred to as regenerative agriculture, is being enshrined in innovative state policies and programs across the country, and a host of organizations are pushing to make it a fundamental part of climate solution policies like the Green New Deal. Even Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan, Tom Steyer, and Pete Buttigieg have mentioned soil carbon sequestration on the campaign trail.

But in this increasingly robust conversation, there is rarely a mention of a critical issue—reducing agricultural pesticide use. As a new scientific brief shows, pesticides can damage soil biotic communities—the very life that drives soil carbon sequestration and therefore the heart of regenerative agriculture. Failure to explicitly talk about pesticide reduction leaves a critical piece out of the conversation and also opens the regenerative agriculture movement to co-optation by the pesticide industry.

The farming methods being promoted under the banner of regenerative agriculture—which have long been championed by organic farmers, the original soil health advocates—are a huge environmental win. Practices like cover cropping, crop diversification, composting, no-till farming, and managed grazing of livestock not only help sequester carbon, research shows they save precious water resources and bolster farmers’ resilience to drought, flooding and climate chaos.

Read the full article on regenerative agriculture by Kendra Klein at Food Tank.