Health Hotline Magazine | September 2025

Biodiversity & Organic/Regenerative Agriculture Go Hand-In-Hand Biodiversity has been called the “backbone of resilient food systems,” so it should come as no surprise that one of the main tenets in both organic and regenerative agriculture systems is to support and promote biodiversity, a mutually beneficial arrangement. Biodiversity has significant impacts on farms, including improving soil health and fertility, increasing crop resilience to pests and diseases, and enhancing natural pest control and pollination. Biodiverse crops o er adaptability to a changing climate. And just as biodiversity brings a wealth of ecosystem benefits to farms, likewise, farms that protect and cultivate biodiversity have a ripple e ect beyond the farm. For example, farmers who incorporate methods to increase biodiversity, such as planting pollinator flowers, meadow strips, hedges, and stands of trees, report seeing an increase in a variety of wildlife on and around the farm. One recent study found that farms that incorporated natural elements or diversified crops had “mammal species abundance and diversity” compared to natural habitat settings. On the other hand, the same mammal species were 32 percent lower on farms without any natural elements (cropland with just one type of crop and cleared of natural vegetation, i.e., monocultures). These animals do their part too: bats and certain birds keep insect pests under control, deer promote soil fertility, and other mammals like foxes and coyotes keep rodents and other small pests at bay. And as Hickory Nut Gap, a regenerative farm in Western North Carolina reports, “While we maintain a healthy population of predators, we experience minimal negative interactions with our livestock, suggesting they’re finding ample resources in the non-production areas of the farm. By intentionally preserving forested areas, riparian zones, and hedgerows, we’ve created habitats rich in food, water, and shelter for wildlife.” Organic farms also protect habitats and many di erent species, on and o the farm, by eschewing the use of toxic chemical pesticides, a major driver of biodiversity loss. A 2025 study analyzed more than 1,700 existing lab and field studies of the impacts of 471 di erent pesticides on both aquatic and land animals and found negative e ects in more than 800 di erent species. Some of the negative e ects included impacts on growth, reproduction, ability to catch prey or find plants to eat, and attracting mates. According to one of the researchers, “Concerningly, we found pervasive negative impacts across plants, animals, fungi, and microbes, threatening the integrity of ecosystems.” Some of the solutions the researchers proposed? Organic farming, natural pest control, and planting wildflowers to support beneficial species. Another 2025 study published in the journal Environmental Pollution found that pesticide drift, unintended movement of pesticides to non-target areas, not only threatens beneficial species, but “significantly disrupts ecological balances” and “a ects non-target species crucial for maintaining biodiversity” up to hundreds of miles away from where the pesticide has been applied. The researchers wrote, “Evidence shows that pesticides are driving severe biodiversity declines, often acting in concert with additional stressors. Herbicides, particularly glyphosate, dicamba, and 2,4-D sprays, have caused significant damage to many non-target plant species…” A loss in plant diversity in turn leads to a loss of diversity among herbivores and predators, resulting in “…less balanced and more often pest-prone ecosystems.” Organic farming systems, which do not allow the use of any chemical pesticides, work directly against this.

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