stick your hands in some dirt
a movement to change how we grow food, the kids are getting into wellness, and my favorite pans have their turn in the spotlight
My first “real” job was in a restaurant, my second in restaurant consulting, and my third in consulting for agriculture and healthcare companies. I then took a hard pivot into tech, and, after nearly a decade, I’m dipping my toe back in. This newsletter is about what we eat and how to do it better — some of you discovered me through a recent post about how to invest in kitchen utensils — but I often write about where our food comes from and the health impact of that food. This is one of those. Back to more fun stuff later this week!
Last month, I attended RegenerativeNYC to learn about one of the buzzwords you see on an increasing number of CPG labels, corporate sustainability reports, and health blogs (both on the Left and Right): regenerative agriculture. The main goal of the movement is to grow nutritious food in a way that is good for the soil, the climate, consumers, and the farmer. Sounds like a win-win-win-win, right?
I wanted to better understand what was actually behind the label: should consumers like you and me pay a premium for regenerative products? Is it too good to be true? Why hasn’t it gone mainstream? In this newsletter, I try to define and unpack the value, risks, and opportunities.
Regenerative Agriculture 101
The Problem (NRDC has an in-depth overview)
For many years, we have been taking out more from the land than we have been putting back in: modern farming practices have focused on maximizing yield. In my past work with Big Ag, it was clear that they did this because they believed it was the right thing to do for their business and for the world. These practices, however, have stripped away the soil and its nutrients, resulting in less resistance to pests and climate change. At the same time, demand for crops will increase 61% by 2050.1
We can throw away all of our black plastic spatulas, sort our recycling, and shop secondhand, but, if we don’t change our farming practices, we will continue to degrade the soil, resulting in:
Lower crop yields and food shortages.
Increased input costs for farmers.
More carbon released into the atmosphere (agriculture accounts for a quarter of annual greenhouse gas emissions).
We need to grow more food, using less land, with less environmental impact, as the global population continues to grow and the climate changes. Is regenerative agriculture the solution?
“Let Nature Do its Thing”
Think of the land as a sick patient: it needs to rebalance its diet of nutrients and rebuild its strength. It will need a bit of time before it can get back out there. Regenerative agriculture advocates say that the best course of treatment is “working in harmony with nature.” What does that actually mean? Is this the equivalent of the anti-vax movement?
There is no simple definition or one-size-fits-all template for every acre. Regenerative agriculture differentiates itself from conventional or organic farming by focusing on restoring the soil, rather than maintaining it. Farmers do that by limiting ploughing (no-till) to keep carbon in the soil; rotating crops to promote biodiversity; incorporating livestock; and limiting the use of chemicals. This isn’t really returning the land to nature — it is still human-managed and tech-enabled.
What Do the Data Show?
Given the contextual nature of regenerative agriculture, it is hard to develop a thorough business case (I tried very hard to make you a chart!), but the projected benefits are compelling:
Improved soil health: 1-2% annual increase in soil organic matter and greater microbial activity, resulting in more nutrient-dense produce.2
Increased profitability for farmers: 70-120% increased profitability through reduced inputs (e.g., fertilizer), new revenue streams (e.g., cover crops), and premium pricing.3
Mitigated climate risk: transitioning 25% (40% total) of the world's cropland to regenerative practices by 2030 may help limit climate change to 1.5 degrees of warming.4
Why Hasn’t it Gone Mainstream?
As a former change management consultant, the challenges to adoption are clear:
The vision is inspiring, but it doesn’t have a burning platform: it’s hard to take action for your own future, let alone your children’s and grandchildren’s.
There are too many cooks in the kitchen (including actual cooks): this movement has the potential to unite different stakeholders across the food ecosystem and policymakers on the Left and Right. But, incentives are not aligned, capital is hard to come by, and even the definition of regenerative agriculture is hard to articulate.
Farmers bear the brunt of the risk and the reward is not immediate: it can take 3-5 years for farmers to break even and the transition will be challenging — both financially and developmentally. (see chart)5
Everybody eats, but changing what they eat is hard: influencing diet is challenging enough in “normal” circumstances, but in a time when grocery prices are high, fear of recession is real, and trustworthy public health information is hard-to-find, asking anyone to invest in new and different ingredients is nearly impossible.
No one knows how to split the check: transformation is expensive.
Where Do We Go From Here?
There are many opportunities to strengthen the movement. Apart from financing the transition, here are few:
Clarify the vision and build consensus: there are hundreds of corporations, industry groups, certification providers, and nonprofits working in different spheres. Uniting under a common umbrella of terminology and standards, and identifying opportunities for more coordinated collaboration, will create a more powerful lobbying force.
Build demand: the movement needs a CMO. In the absence of one, teams are doing their best to communicate the value of regenerative practices and justify a premium price:
Build sexy brands: Americans love trends — just look at our latest obsessions with protein and prebiotic sodas. The folks at Row 7 Seeds, Maine Grains, and many others are trying to hype regenerative products.
Educate customers: design grocery store end caps with curated regenerative organic certified (ROC) products, build an app like foodisgood to identify food sources.
Target chefs, restaurateurs, and procurement leaders: demonstrate the benefits of sourcing regenerative products — without necessarily increasing their costs (e.g., Zeroprint has flexible options to pass the cost on to customers).
Build a deeper bench of talent: target and train the increasing number of young farmers (and want-to-be farmers) and make it easier to match them with land and capital. (e.g., Downland)
Create repeatable playbooks and mechanisms for phased adoption: lower the barrier to entry, provide accessible education, and demonstrate quick wins.
Demonstrate impact: show that the proof is in the pudding in terms of:
Improved nutrient density drives superior health outcomes
Stable or improved profitability for farmers
Quantifiable climate risk mitigation
Regen Your Grocery Cart: 5 Things You Can Do
The most common advice people give to support regenerative agriculture is to “buy local” — Farm-to-People, Natoora, and Harvie are all making this easier in the Northeast — but overhauling your grocery cart is hard. Here are five fun, specific things you can do:
Swap some of your all-purpose flour: cover crops like buckwheat, sorghum, rye, and oats add dimension and flavor to baked goods. Try a buckwheat dutch baby or a nut and seed loaf.
Mix up your breakfast oatmeal: add flaxseed or try a millet porridge.
Ask your butcher for odd bits of meat: cut back on chicken and try lesser-known cuts of meat that add flavor, reduce waste, and are often cheaper. Add grass-fed lamb neck to a stew or use regenerative beef in an oxtail ragu.
Save your scraps: make them into a stock.
Get your head out of the sand: go stick your hands in the dirt.
Learn More
Dan Barber’s The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food (2014) was ahead of its time.
John Kempf’s Regenerating Agriculture podcast is the gold standard if you want to get into the science.
Camilla Marcus’ My Regenerative Kitchen is a playbook to experiment with both familiar and lesser-known ingredients.
If Jennifer McLagan’s Odd Bits: How to Cook the Rest of the Animal is too advanced, try a few of Amethyst Greenway’s recipes for TASTE first.
Other Stuff to Chew On
Lists of ingredients can’t be copyrighted, but they can be plagiarized, argued Nagi Maehashi of RecipeTin Eats, claiming that an influencer blatantly copied her work in her latest book. Team Nagi!!
Middle school sucked, so I ate a lot of brownies. I’m glad my classmates weren’t wellness influencers.
How fast can you eat a head of lettuce? 3:30 is the time to beat.
People should definitely not be nervous about coming over for dinner when they see my pans.
The problem facing us is clear, and looking at the data, regenerative agriculture could be a promising solution — but it would need an integrated, cross-industry effort to make progress. I’d love to learn from others working in this space. Drop me a line with feedback, questions, and stuff to noodle on,
Sophia
Sands Ron. Population and income drive world food production projections. USDA. 2023 Dec 11. https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=108060
The data are limited and in many cases, the differences are not statistically significant, but there is some evidence that regenerative organic produce has more vitamins and more microbes than conventionally farmed produce.
Montgomery DR, Biklé A, Archuleta R, Brown P, Jordan J. Soil health and nutrient density: preliminary comparison of regenerative and conventional farming. PeerJ. 2022 Jan 27;10:e12848. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12848. PMID: 35127297; PMCID: PMC8801175.
Wilson Margaret. Rodale Institute: Are Organic Apples Better for Your Gut? 2019 Sept 11. https://rodaleinstitute.org/blog/are-organic-apples-better-for-your-gut/
Bugas Jack, et al. Making Regenerative Agriculture Profitable for US Farmers. BCG. 2023 Aug 15. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/regenerative-agriculture-profitability-us-farmers
World Economic Forum. 5 benefits of regenerative agriculture – and 5 ways to scale it. 2023 11 Jan. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/01/5-ways-to-scale-regenerative-agriculture-davos23/
Fernando Heil Lutiis, et al. Helping Farmers Shift to Regenerative Agriculture. Bain & Company. 2021 Dec. https://www.bain.com/insights/helping-farmers-shift-to-regenerative-agriculture/
A really interesting piece, Sophia, especially considering how different agricultural practices are around the world. I am Australian, and what you describe is considered standard practice on most cropping farms, though livestock is used to forage the stubble only after harvest (our growing season is Autumn - early Summer) and only sparingly, to avoid compaction of the soil.