As we come to the end of another of another successful HEAL EARTH campaign, we wanted to highlight some of the interesting resources that the Bronner’s team have been circulating around the topic of Regenerative Agriculture.
As the awareness around this brilliant farming and sustainable technique gains momentum, some corporations are seeing this as a new eco buzz word, and many consumers are becoming victim to the next phase of Green Washing marketing, which is “Regen-washing”.
In a blog post addressing this, David Bronner says “For “regenerative” farming and ranching to fulfil its promise, standards and stakeholders need to address off-farm feed and synthetic fertility inputs, just as much as on-farm practices. It doesn’t matter how great your soil carbon is on your ranch, if you rely on conventionally-grown feed that is stripping soils of carbon elsewhere, effectively transferring synthetic fertility from those feed farms via poop on pasture. Chickens and pigs can supplement their diets on pasture but are still reliant on just as much soy and corn as their factory farm counterparts. Many supposedly “regenerative” farmers still rely on synthetic nitrogen in significant part. Synthetic nitrogen is the single greatest greenhouse gas contributor to climate change in conventional agriculture. Focusing only on soil carbon on a given farm or ranch, without taking account of the GHG footprint and impact of off-farm fertility and feed inputs and how that feed was grown, creates a “regenerative” illusion that practiced at global scale would do little to nothing to shift the disaster of our current industrial agriculture on the planet.”
He goes on to say “It’s crucial that those of us dedicated to making agriculture truly regenerative and preventing us from going off the climate change cliff, separate the “wheat from the chaff” in standards and certifications that make “regenerative” claims. We need to highlight those that not only focus on regenerative on-farm practices, but also focus on imported feed and fertility inputs.”
As part of his efforts David recently contacted the California Dept of Agriculture (CDFA) asking them to define regenerative agriculture, you can read his open letter here: https://info.drbronner.com/all-one-blog/2024/04/defining-regenerative-agriculture-in-california/
To read David’s full blog post where he discusses the definition of Regenerative Agriculture head to the blog post here: https://info.drbronner.com/all-one-blog/2024/03/regenerative-agriculture-good-bad-ugly/
We look forward to seeing the progress makes in this venture, as he spearheads the movement of awareness around ‘Regen-washing’
Other great reads:
Read this fascinating piece by Head of Global Special Ops Gero Leson on deforestation here: https://info.drbronner.com/all-one-blog/2024/04/stop-global-deforestation/
David and Michael Bronner run Dr. Bronner’s together with their family. They view the company as an activist vehicle and donate both time and money to causes they believe in.