Health Hotline Magazine | April 2024

We’ve always been Regenerative Pioneers at Natural Grocers ® ! Our product standards for dairy, eggs, meat, and produce support soil health, biodiversity, cleaner water, humane treatment of animals, and farmer welfare.

Our 100% Pasture Based Dairy Standard (to our knowledge, the only one of its kind) means animals must graze the entire grazing season and be raised in environments that meet their needs, encourage their natural behaviors, and care for them humanely.

Our 100% Free-Range Egg Standard means hens are never caged and must spend time outside on living range and and enjoy indoor environments with the space and

Our 100% Certified Organic Produce Standard protects habitats, waterways, and soil health by saying NO to synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs),We’re Certified Organic handlers to ensure its integrity from the field to your table.

Our minimum fresh and frozen meat standard, Bronze, is usually equivalent to the highest standard at other grocery stores and farmer’s markets. It requires humanely raised and sustainably sourced meat products, without antibiotics, growth promotants, or animal by-products.

enrichments to encourage their natural chicken behaviors.

Do you care about your impact on animal welfare, human health, and the p anet? Read on to learn more about the importance and benefits of regenerative agriculture.

1 According to the Rodale

3 Project Drawdown, a global organization researching and advancing climate solutions, believes expanding regenerative annual cropping to 320 million hectares (high end estimate) globally by 4 Trying to curate a climate-friendly menu? 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. 2 According to Project Drawdown, a global organization researching and advancing climate solutions, an estimated 8 % of carbon in the upper ayers of the earth’s soils has escaped into the atmosphere over the past several centuries. The organization believes regenerative agriculture is how we can “bring that carbon back home,” making it “one of the greatest opportunities” to positively impact the health of humans, the p anet, and farmers’ financial wellbeing. 2050 could deliver significant benefits. It could result in as much as 23.21 gigatons of total carbon dioxide reductions and provide an estimated 2.34–3.52 trillion US dol ars.

Institute, “Even small changes in soil carbon can lead to arge changes in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide,” for better or worse. And that makes agriculture a key p ayer in producing soil that functions either as a net source of emissions or a net sink! If all crops and pasture and globally were transitioned to regenerative agriculture, it has the potential, (as a thought experiment), to draw down more than 100% of current annual CO2 emissions, storing atmospheric carbon in the soil, Rodale suggests.

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, enhances biodiversity, and protects water quality while reducing 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.

20 | Health Hotline ®

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