Just another reason why regenerative farming is so amazing…
Happy Fall!
It’s been a busy beginning of autumn for me as I’ve been traveling a bit and am about to embark on even more exciting adventures. It’s official, Sustain + Nourish is going global!
Next week I leave for South America to learn about regenerative agriculture and indigenous practices surrounding yerba mate. The following week, I head to Hawaii to learn about the largest reforestation project in the state and how that relates to essential oil production on the Big Island. To say I’m excited and, frankly, shocked is an understatement. I’m not sure how I’ve attracted these opportunities but I do know that I’m very grateful, my career has taken the most unexpectedly wonderful turn. And you will be right there along with me as I’ll be writing all about these topics here on the blog.
Regenerative Agriculture Boosts Nutrient Density
Speaking of regenerative agriculture, today I wanted to highlight a very cool study illustrating how regeneratively-grown food can be more nutrient dense than conventionally-grown counterparts.
This small study was published in January 2022 in PeerJ, an open journal for life and environment research and was conducted primarily out of the University of Washington in Seattle. Study researchers conducted a range of independent food comparisons between regeneratively-produced and conventionally-produced foods.
Conventional farming was identified as that utilizing synthetic fertilizers and herbicides. Whereas, regenerative agriculture was defined as farming that utilized cover crops, crop rotation, and engaged in no-till practices. Regenerative farming also employs all the principles of organic farming — namely exclusion of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers from their operations. Regenerative agriculture was also referred to as Conservation Agriculture here, which I think has a nice ring to it.
Overall, the evidence pointed to regenerative agriculture producing food crops with higher soil organic matter levels, soil health scores, and levels of certain vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. How cool.
Here are the cliff notes of the study findings:
- Regenerative farms had measured soil organic matter between 3 and 12% whereas conventional farms had between 2 and 5%. The two no-till farms studied had the highest soil organic matter ratios.
- Food crops from two no-till regenerative farm (one in California, the other in Connecticut) had higher levels of vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds (aka phytochemicals) than conventional equivalents from New York supermarkets.
- Regenerative crops on average had
- 34% more vitamin K
- 15% more vitamin E
- 14% more vitamin B1
- 17% more vitamin B2
- 11% more calcium
- 16% more phosphorus
- 27% more copper
- 15% more total carotenoids
- 20% more total phenolics
- 22% more total phytosterols
- Regenerative crops on average had
- In a comparison of wheat crops grown in adjacent regenerative and conventional no-till field in northern Oregon, the regeneratively grown wheat had higher levels of minerals than the conventional counterpart
- Regenerative wheat on average had
- 41% more boron
- 29% more magnesium
- 48% more calcium
- 56% more zinc
- 4 times more molybdenum
- 26% more potassium
- 35% more manganese
- Regenerative wheat on average had
- When comparing the unsaturated fatty acid profiles of pork and beef raised on regenerative farms to that from a regional health-promoting brand using conventional agriculture, the regeneratively-raised products had higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids — an anti-inflammatory fat many Americans are striving to get more of in their diets
- Regenerative beef has 3 times more omega-3 fats and 6 times more alpha linolenic acid (ALA). It also had more 50 to 75% more long-chain omega-3s (EPA, DPA, and DHA) and 66% of the omega-6 fats, making for an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio one fifth as large as conventional beef
- Regenerative pork has 9 times the omega-3s and 3 times the omega-6s, making the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio one-third as large as for the conventional pork. It also had more than 11 times more ALA, 2 times more EPA, 3 times more DPA, and 4 times more DHA than the conventional pork.
However, regeneratively-produced crops had less vitamin B6 and manganese across the board and and regenerative soy had less vitamin C, B1, B3, and B6. Regenerative wheat also had about two-third as much nickel compared to conventional counterparts.
Even still, these findings are impressive and likely related to the fact that the low interference model of regenerative agriculture leaves nutrients in the soil, enriching the food grown from it. This is very different from how conventional agriculture (that often employs monocropping or growing a very limited, if not one, variety of crop) sucks the soil dry of nutrients, hence why is has to employ the use of synthetic fertilizers. Also, many regenerative operations are starting to grow more perennial crops which are able to continually grow their root structures down into the earth, pulling even more nutrients. Cover cropping and crop rotation further encourage soil nutrient retention, too.
But regenerative farming doesn’t just keep nutrients in the soil, it keeps carbon in the soil as well! Soil is one of the most exciting and important carbon sinks we have here on planet Earth. TL/DR: Regenerative agriculture doesn’t only produce more nourishing food but also serves as an important way to make our food system more sustainable.
Finding Regenerative Products
While all this sounds positively lovely, you might be wondering how you can get your hands on regeneratively grown produce.
Unfortunately, nowadays it’s still really hard to find regeneratively-grown food in many parts of the country. Often, your best bet is to live near a regenerative farm that you can buy food from locally. However, more and more brands are starting to sell regeneratively produced products at larger grocery store chains. Products that are regeneratively grown usually advertise it pretty well on packaging since it’s such a draw for consumers. You can also look for the Regenerative Organic Certified certification seal. (P.S. You can learn more about sustainable certification seals here!)
So, if you didn’t already love regenerative agriculture for what it does to the land, you may very well now love it for how significantly it boosts the nutritional value food…sustainable and nourishing! 🙂
