Ag101: What is the difference between organic and regenerative agriculture?

Organic VS Regenerative - What’s the answer? Let’s break down some key terms commonly thrown around in discussions aiming to increase environmental sustainability in agriculture. Agricultural operations can be categorized into three large and nuanced buckets: degrading, sustaining, or improving -  the soil, the local ecosystem, and the people involved. Speaking broadly on this topic, we are discussing how Organic and Regenerative fall into each of these buckets. Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming and ranching that focuses on building soil health, biodiversity, and improving local ecosystem services. The key differentiator is that it must improve the health of the land and surrounding ecosystem over time. It must fall into the bucket of improvement. The key issue is defining what it means to “regenerate land”. What are the key indicators that, when changed, show us an increase in overall land health? And… How does the human aspect influence this concept? How is the local, and global food economy taken into consideration? How are the farmer's livelihoods taken into consideration when defining Regenerative? 

So how does organic farming compare to regenerative agriculture in practice? 

Organic agriculture’s solution is the elimination of synthetic agrochemical products and increasing beneficial practices like crop rotation. What you can and cannot use is a key component of the Organic program. Organic operations can technically degrade, sustain, or improve their land while maintaining full National Organic Program (NOP) compliance. The focus on organic systems is still to increase the quality of the soil, surrounding ecosystem, and the people but there is no requirement that land improves by a certain metric. For example, if a farmer purchases 10 wooded acres and converts those acres into an organic farm with the most sustainable practices, someone could argue that they are degrading that land by cutting down all the trees. In this scenario, one could argue they are improving their local economy, building community, and fostering a sense of connection to their environment. Someone else could argue that turning a “natural” ecosystem into a farm of any sort is degrading the land. 

Regenerative, on the other hand, focuses on contextual improvement of the land over time. This idea could potentially involve the use of synthetic agrochemicals. For example, a conventional farmer can move from a tillage-based system to a no-till system and use herbicide to handle weed pressure and terminate previous crops. This conventional farmer’s soil could see an increase in overall organic matter, which is a substantial improvement, technically improving the land. However, if that herbicide causes degradation of local insect or animal populations, that would be harming the ecosystem. Which holds more weight?

What are the challenges?

While the organic farming movement has established clear legal guidelines and certification processes, regenerative agriculture presents a unique challenge in terms of standardization. Organics has a legally binding certifying agency established in the U.S. and many European countries. The United States Department of Agriculture developed the NOP or National Organic Program which consists of acceptable and unacceptable farming practices and inputs allowed for a farm to be certified organic. Regenerative agriculture is a concept with no unified, legally binding certifying agency. However, there are a few private certifying bodies aiming to establish guidelines. The challenge in establishing guidelines for a regenerative certification is the definition of regenerative. “Improving land” is subjective in many scenarios and is often dependent on personal philosophy. 

What is the main difference?

The main difference is measurement. If we define regenerative agriculture as “contextual improvement of the used land over time” then we must measure certain indicators over time. My guess is that groups will eventually create a large enough governing body to formally certify farms as regenerative. When that happens, any farmer who wants to be certified must have access to data showing improvements on those metrics overtime. 

If you have a farm and are aiming to implement regenerative practices, what data are you collecting? 

That’s where SoilBeat comes in. SoilBeat is a data management software that allows for easy data inputs and analysis. As regenerative agriculture begins to rise in popularity, farms will likely be required to measure and maintain large amounts of data. We make that easy.