If you've been paying attention to local farm operations or even ecological talks, there may have been a reoccurring theme; regeneration. What is regeneration and how does it tie into agriculture? In order to understand regeneration, we have to understand some of the common problems we are seeing today. Most of us are familiar with the era known as the dirty-thirties or the dustbowl. This era was a result of too much tilling and very few conservation practices to help keep the soil in place. This resulted in the soil blowing away from fields and causing a deterioration of farmland. After the 30's several conservation practices were put into place and did help in rebuilding our farmland and environment.

However, there is still more that can be done within the realm of agriculture. Agriculture is a constantly evolving machine. The idea of regenerative ag is to create a healthy soil that will do more than grow plants. Soil needs to be seen as a living organism and needs to be treated as such. If we treat the soil as a living organism, we have observed that the soil begins to work with us and not against us. Plants grown in a healthy soil environment have been shown to be healthier in nutrient content and have even been observed to be more resistant to diseases and insect pressures. Several aspects of agriculture fit into the realm of regeneration and rebuilding soil health.

We are starting a journey in regeneration and as such we are implementing several practices. We are going to a no-till planting system, growing a wide variety of crops, using polyculture practices like cover cropping and intercropping, and eventually use animals within our system to create a more holistic farming system. Our journey of regeneration will be constantly changing and evolving both as our knowledge increases and as technology improves.