what is regenerative farming?

---

At its core, regenerative agriculture seeks to build soil health and fertility on the farm by utilizing management techniques that work in alignment with nature and its rhythms. Carbon dioxide is captured and sequestered through plant photosynthesis and then stored underground as soil organic carbon, a process known as biological carbon sequestration. Regenerative agriculture provides farmers with an important tool to combat the warming of our planet and climate change.

It's important to note that this definition is evolving. As technology and science pinpoint what quantifiable soil health indicators are best linked and reflected in our day to day management decisions, this fluid definition and the correlated farming practices may shift over time. 

The principles of regenerative agriculture are not new. Indigenous communities have practiced these farming techniques for millennia. Traditional agriculture cites these concepts in texts dating back several centuries. Biodynamic farming and organic farming share many overlapping concepts with regenerative agriculture. Biodynamics (and later on, organics) was the first cohesive farming movement to embody this core philosophy of working with nature and its cycles; it is the original regenerative approach based on shared ancient knowledge, practiced for eons and passed down through generations of farmers.

Regenerative Farming Practices

- Minimize soil disturbance. Maintaining living roots in the soil through plants drives the photosynthetic capacity of the farm. This allows for the capturing of more carbon which in turn feeds soil microorganisms. While no till is emphatically the goal practiced by many, we view tillage as a tool that can be used intermittently - always for a specific purpose. Extremes are never helpful in farming and every situation is not black and white. While the research shows clear, tangible benefits to decreasing soil disturbance including: improvement in water holding capacity and infiltration rates, increased soil organic carbon and organic matter, higher beneficial fungi populations, more diverse microorganism species, the list continues – there are certain instances where a cultivation or ripping pass can be beneficial. Over decades of experience, we have seen this happen at many vineyards. To be clear, we are not advocating tillage frequently. Again, being a good farmer comes down to using the right tool at the right time. Only experience can teach this, not a textbook.

- Increase biodiversity on the farm. For vineyards that operate within an inherent monoculture system, this is achieved through the use of animal grazing, owl and bird boxes, bee keeping, attracting beneficial insects by installation of hedge rows, pollinator habitats and sowing diverse multi-species cover crops.

- Boosting soil fertility with compost, animal manures, cover crops, crop rotation, and soil biological stimulants such as biodynamic preparations #500 and barrel compost. We know through the work of Dr. David Montgomery that microbial populations are site specific. Making these preparations on the farm where you apply it means these soil inoculants are specifically targeted to your terroir, rendering them very effective. 

- Minimize inputs including herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides. There is an inherent intelligence in nature and plants know how to get what they need from the soil. As stewards of the land, it is our job to provide a healthy medium in which they can work.  Synthetic conventional fertilizers and herbicides disrupt the plant and soil’s ability to naturally cycle nutrients by compromising the microbiome and symbiotic relationships that make these processes hum.