Beyond Sustainable – What is Regenerative Agriculture?
To keep it simple, regenerative agriculture is a holistic land-management framework that heals our land through farming in harmony with nature. It’s a science and an artform that goes beyond sustainability, because it actively improves land health instead of leaving it the same or worse. As regenerative farmers and ranchers, we trust in this ancient framework to ensure a better future for us all.
Step back and ask yourself, what land will produce the healthiest food?
Sometimes A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words.
The science and methods of regenerative agriculture can be very complex but the basis is that nature had it right the first time. Nature created resilient ecosystems that flourished through biodiversity. Instead of working with the blueprint that nature had created over millions of years, humans decided to carve out plots of land and operate them independently as monocultures. Most of the food you can purchase today is grown in this way and requires chemical inputs (fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc) that replaced the clean natural inputs that a biodynamic environment used to perform these tasks. So, in short we as humans wrecked a fully-functioning food system and swapped nature's processes for synthetic ones.
We believe in creating a regenerative, transparent food system that benefits humans, plants AND all animals.
Regenerative Agriculture: Holistic Land Management
- A philosophy, art, and science of farming in harmony with nature.
- Mimics nature’s design; every creature has a role to play.
- Responsibly grazing livestock enhances plant and animal biodiversity.
- Manure feeds soil – the foundation of all ecosystems.
- Healthy soil means no chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
- Healthy soil makes food more nutritious and delicious.
Regenerative Agriculture: Nutrition
- Regenerative foods contain greater concentrations of essential minerals, vitamins, and nutrients than conventionally farmed foods.
- Monocultures – and factory farming increase rates of nutrient deficiency.
- 100% Grass-finished beef raised on regenerative farms is significantly more heart healthy due to its more balanced omega-3:omega-6 fatty acid profile.
Regenerative Agriculture: Animal Welfare
- 100% pasture-raised – animals eat a natural diet.
- They live in the sunshine, forage, and breathe fresh air.
- Healthy environments breed healthy livestock.
- We never use antibiotics, hormones, mRNA vaccines, pesticides, or GMO’s; because of how our animals live - we don’t need to.
Regenerative Agriculture: Farmers and Ranchers
- By expanding production from one product to many – farmers generate higher incomes and greater job security.
- REP rewards farmers using regenerative methods by paying them far more than they could get in the conventional markets.
- Putting more money in farmers pockets is not only good for them but for the local economy in their rural communities.
Regenerative Agriculture: Systemic Solutions
- Built on decades of research and indigenous communities – regenerative agriculture empowers us to tackle some of humanity’s largest issues.
- Keeping soils covered builds resilience to flood and drought.
- Rotational grazing sucks carbon from the atmosphere into our soil.
- Grazing also mitigates the risk of invasive species and wildfires.
- No pesticides = better air + water quality.
Why Regenerative Matters.
Soil is where the health of our entire system begins. Regenerative agriculture feeds soil microbes, soil feeds plants, plants feed livestock, and this exchange continues up the food chain all the way to us humans.
It’s no coincidence that as our soils have been depleted, so have the amounts of vitamins, nutrients, and minerals in your food. In fact, the food that you’re eating today is far less nutritious than it was 50 years ago. While you may be consuming more calories, your body is starving for proper nutrition.
Beyond the health of your body, restoring our soils offers a proven solution to some of the greatest systemic issues facing humanity today. Healthy soils sequester carbon, impact the quality of our air and water, mitigate the effects of flooding and drought, as well as contribute to a more resilient food system in the face of climate change.
We are positively impacting over 15,000 acres of grassland through our regenerative farmer network.
Regeneration is rooted deep in our souls and humbly reminds us that our efforts are much larger than ourselves. We owe this effort to the generations that look up to us, and, the ones that come long after we are gone.
5 Principles of Regenerative Agriculture.
Although regenerative agriculture is far more nuanced than a list of bullet points could ever express, we all need to start somewhere. It can be helpful to think of the 5 principles of regenerative agriculture as building blocks, which can be arranged according to the unique needs, context, and goals of a specific farm or ranch.
Regenerative FAQs
Regenerative Agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to farming and food production. To put it simply, it’s a way of raising animals that benefit nature and improve the land they live on. We believe that happy prairies are the key to healthy people and we are doing everything we can to make sure they stay that way.
Regenerative agriculture focuses on: topsoil regeneration, increasing biodiversity, carbon sequestration, improving water-cycles, and ecological restoration. GO A LITTLE DEEPER.
Regenerative meat is simply meat that was raised by farmers using holistic practices on land that is regenerating and becoming healthier over time. The term "regenerative meat" is more about how the animals were raised and how the land was managed than about the meat itself.
Regenerative agriculture describes holistic farming systems that, among other benefits, improve water and air quality, enhance ecosystem biodiversity, produce nutrient-dense food, and store carbon to help mitigate the effects of climate change.
At REP we are also seeing that these changes create better tasting food with higher nutrient-densities. The product is more flavorful and it's better for you. Our beef was tested by Michigan State University and has some incredible benefits.
Grass-finished comes from animals that ate nothing but grass and forage for their entire lives. Grass-fed, on the other hand, may be used to label meat from animals that were started on a grass diet but have either received supplemental grain feed or are finished on a fully grain-based diet. Grass-fed does not mean that the animal spent any time in a pasture, they could have been fed hay in a feedlot. 100% Grass-fed is NOT the same as grass-finished and pasture-raised. Our beef is 100% Grass Fed and grass finished, raised on pasture their entire lives.
Rotational grazing is the practice of containing and moving animals through pasture to improve soil, plant, and animal health.
Only one portion of pasture is grazed at a time while the remainder of the pasture “rests.” To accomplish this, pastures are subdivided into smaller areas, referred to as paddocks, and livestock are moved from one paddock to another.
Resting grazed paddocks allows forage plants to recover and deepen their root systems.
Through photosynthesis healthy grassland ecosystems remove carbon from the atmosphere and store in the soil (where it belongs!). In order to maximize the carbon sequestering capacity of these thriving grasslands the symbiotic presence of grazing animals is required. As a result when managed in nature’s image; cattle, bison and other ruminant animals have the ability to enrich a system that reverses climate change.