Natural Grocers® Earth Day Deals - April 22-24, 2025

If you care about the impact your food choices have on animal welfare, human health, and the planet—read on to learn more about the value of regenerative agriculture. 1 According to Rodale Institute, “Even small changes in soil carbon can lead to large changes in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide,” for better or worse. And that makes agriculture a key player in producing soil that functions either as a net source of emissions biodiversity and protects water quality while decreasing agricultural emissions and pollution. It treats animals humanely, promotes farm communities’ wellbeing, improves the nutrient density and climate resilience of crops, and honors the environmental wisdom indigenous cultures have practiced for centuries. It isn’t magic. It’s an ecologically sound, systems-based approach, and its proof is in its outcomes.

2 According to Project Drawdown, a global organization researching and advancing climate solutions, an estimated 8% of carbon in the upper layers of the earth’s soils has escaped into the atmosphere over the past several centuries. The organization believes regenerative agriculture is how we can start “bringing that carbon back home,” making it “one of the greatest opportunities” to positively impact the health of humans, the planet, and farmers’ financial wellbeing. or a net sink! If all crops and pastureland globally were transitioned to regenerative agriculture, it has the potential, (as a thought experiment), to draw down more than 100% of current anthropogenic CO2 emissions, storing atmospheric carbon in the soil, Rodale suggests. 3 Project Drawdown predicts that if regenerative annual cropping was expanded by 47% (high-end) globally by 2050, it could deliver significant benefits. It could result in 23.21 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent reductions and provide a lifetime net operational savings of 3.52 trillion U.S. dollars. 4 Choose food whose production enhances biodiversity, which “is the primary driver of soil carbon sequestration!” (Rodale). All genuinely regenerative farming systems support biodiversity above and below ground, building soil organic matter that stores atmospheric carbon. Cultivating biodiversity and increasing organic matter also improves water infiltration and retention, filters pollutants, and reduces erosion, among its many benefits. 5 Some say regenerative agriculture isn’t a “silver bullet” for climate change. We say—who looks for a silver bullet to solve a complex problem? Regenerative agriculture restores degraded soil— reducing erosion and building topsoil. It enhances

6 Some say to eat less meat to save the planet. We say pastureland and rangeland need grazing animals to thrive. They aerate the soil with their hooves and fertilize it with their waste, stimulating plant growth, promoting biodiversity, and increasing soil carbon sequestration, as they did for centuries before we confined them to feedlots and crowded barns. With proper grazing management, cattle and other ruminant livestock can “more than offset their greenhouse gas emissions” through increased soil carbon sequestration, and research has shown reduced methane emissions from cattle in regenerative systems. 7 Some say organic and regenerative agriculture can’t feed the world. We say the research tells a different story. Well-designed regenerative organic systems have been shown to outcompete conventional yields for almost all food crops when actual yields were one or two regenerative practices into an anti regenerative system and call it a day. It’s critical to understand that regenerative systems are rooted in interdependent practices, adapted to each farm’s context, that build soil organic matter, restore biodiversity, increase carbon drawdown, improve water retention, climate resilience, and so much more. considered instead of agglomerated averages. Rodale Institute’s Farming Systems Trial has shown no statistical difference in organic and conventional yields over a 40-year period, but organic yields were 30% to 100% higher than conventional during drought years. Building climate-resilient soil is critical for stabilizing our food supply as extreme weather increases.” We say—eat for the soil! 8 Regenerative agriculture doesn’t incorporate