Understanding "Regenerative"
To be honest, they don't care what you call it
Okay, break this down with me for a minute:
Put them together, what do you get?
Farming practices you might know as
regenerative
are processes or actions...
that have the quality or tendency...
to bring the land being farmed...
back to their original state.
💚
Now, just for kicks, what's the opposite of that?
Snap on a different prefix, fellow '90s "word cell" students:
The opposite of regenerate is degenerate.
Degeneration describes a process or action by which something is removed or reversed from its original state.
Degeneration conveys a sense of going down or away, a decline.
Question—can you picture in your mind the vast amounts of food you have access to?
Seriously: all the food at Costco, all the food in restaurants, snacks at the gas station, food in Walmart and Whole Foods and Food Lion and Trader Joe's, and and and.
All of it.
Which foods, and the ways that they are produced, actively restore, renew, and improve the health of people, animals, and land (and many other interconnected elements and systems)?
And which foods, and the ways that they are produced, continually remove us (and animals, soil, plants, living and nonliving systems) from an original state of health; reverse our direction; and point us down and away?
de- or re-?
Degenerative and regenerative practices both produce food.
But the way farmers choose to position the resources and tools nature puts in front of them determines whether, when that food is being produced and we are eating it, we are all moving in a degenerative, or a regenerative, direction.
So which way do you favor? Which direction makes most sense to you?
You can guess which way we travel. :)
(And if you're going our way? Let us pack up some food to keep you nourished for the journey. Here's a great place to start 📦 )
* * *
The food we raise is great for the planet. It's great for you. And it gives the animals who are raised here a truly great life.
Have you stocked up for the month?
New to the farm?
Return to HOW WE FARM
Next Series: [TITLE]