Regenerative Agriculture and Implications for Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Education

Abstract

This manuscript is a published account of the 2019 Distinguished Lecture of the American Association of Agricultural Education (AAAE) Annual Meeting. The theme of this lecture is regenerative agriculture which the author considers to be one of the most important agricultural movements occurring today. The author speaks to fellow Agricultural educators of the ever increasing vulnerability of the food system. He argues that although modern technology has elevated most peoples' food security and material wealth, this has occurred at the expense of natural resources upon which humans ultimately depend. He informs the audience that this country now has a significantly degraded resource base in which the availability of quality soils, water resources, and other essential inputs are threatened. Additionally, the author makes the case that industrialization and consolidation has increased food value chain interdependence with other systems such as energy, decreasing the resilience of food systems to economic, environmental, or social shocks from the local to global scale. The author cautions that Agriculture must therefore be adaptive and able to address environmental, social, cultural and economic complexity, while being alert to unintended consequences. While agreeing that the hardest thing to do in the world is to grow or raise food while at the same time regenerating ecosystems process, the author also warns that sustaining our natural resources does not go far enough, and advances the need to regenerate our soils and the overarching ecosystem processes that determine the health of the land.