What’s the difference between “Regenarative Farming” and traditional “Mixed Farming”?

[Humble Village Farmer]

Simples:

Regenerative farmers practice agroecology, grow cover crops and use livestock to transform soils.

Mixed farmers practice IPM, grow fodder catch crops and manage livestock to maintain fertlity.

There's a lot of difference between the two systems and quite a few similarities, but they are different.

Mixed farming doesn't necessarily mean regenerative.

 

[Sid]

Regenerative is trying to understand and harness natural biological processes. Essentially free inputs. This has been something completely overlooked by science and agriculture in general because it does not generate money in sales of product.

Where in the regenerative standards or rules does it say that?

Or could say, just anybody say they are regenerative with no comeback?

 

[ajd132]

Where in the regenerative standards or rules does it say that?

Or could say, just anybody say they are regenerative with no comeback?

There is no rules, it’s just something that has appeared as a kind of thought process I guess.
It gets no premium currently, if it does then it will need rules I suppose.
Organic has a strict set of rules, because it is quite simply a marketing tool and a successful one at that. It is a constrained farming system.

I want everything possible at my disposal, then have the choice of whether I need to use it or not.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Where in the regenerative standards or rules does it say that?

Or could say, just anybody say they are regenerative with no comeback?

That's the joy of it ,there are no rules

 

[beltane]

Yawn. Same thing over and over...... and it’s not true. And your last sentence is deffo not true .....

I'm in America --that last sentence is absolutely true where I live. Non-Farmers' eyes glaze over the second you get into any detail relating to farming. They don't care and do not want to know details.

Not sure why you're so aggressive with your tone, 'yawning' and what not. It isn't really necessary to have a polite debate about a topic.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I disagree, regen ag is not mixed traditional farming, come to Groundswell!

If traditional means before the use of chemical sprays and fertilisers, it wouldn't be far off.
If they managed to keep producing food for thousands of years it must have been quite regenerative?

 

[Sid]

There is no rules, it’s just something that has appeared as a kind of thought process I guess.
It gets no premium currently, if it does then it will need rules I suppose.
Organic has a strict set of rules, because it is quite simply a marketing tool and a successful one at that. It is a constrained farming system.

I want everything possible at my disposal, then have the choice of whether I need to use it or not.

So it means nothing as you can do as you please. Anything can mean regenerative then

That's the joy of it ,there are no rules

So you can plough then . Therefore it's a farce.

 

[ajd132]

So it means nothing as you can do as you please. Anything can mean regenerative then


So you can plough then . Therefore it's a farce.

It’s just a way to describe a whole load of methods. Organic, to its detriment is incredibly prescriptive to what can and can’t be done.
There is a loose collection of terms to describe regen ag, like minimisingnsoil disturbance, maintain soil cover, try and ways have something growing etc. it’s Very loose guidelines really.

 

[Sid]

It’s just a way to describe a whole load of methods. Organic, to its detriment is incredibly prescriptive to what can and can’t be done.
There is a loose collection of terms to describe regen ag, like minimisingnsoil disturbance, maintain soil cover, try and ways have something growing etc. it’s Very loose guidelines really.

Sound like just good farming practice.

Doesn't say you can't plough then?

I minimise soil disturbance and Maintain soil cover.So I must be regen

Can I have a badge and a lollipop ?

 

[Humble Village Farmer]

If traditional means before the use of chemical sprays and fertilisers, it wouldn't be far off.
If they managed to keep producing food for thousands of years it must have been quite regenerative?

It's generally accepted that most farming methods are all degrading to a greater or lesser degree.

The real problem is that in nearly every system nutrients are removed from the ecosystem. Until you have the nutrients in a closed loop like in the Serengeti, the ecosystem is continually being depleted.

 

[ajd132]

Sound like just good farming practice.

Doesn't say you can't plough then?

I minimise soil disturbance and Maintain soil cover.So I must be regen

Can I have a badge and a lollipop ?

It’s just some loose principles, don’t get so hung up about it.
Organic is a marketing gimmick, to be honest it probably won’t even exist in ten years time.
I’ve always wanted to take the best bits from organic and conventional and make a hybrid, when that’s the norm there will be no need for organic.

 

[Sid]

It’s just some loose principles, don’t get so hung up about it.
Organic is a marketing gimmick, to be honest it probably won’t even exist in ten years time.
I’ve always wanted to take the best bits from organic and conventional and make a hybrid, when that’s the norm there will be no need for organic.

Loose principles that's exactly it. Means nothing but a marketing gimmick.

By that measure everything is a marketing gimmick including buying British.

 

[Lowland1]

It's generally accepted that most farming methods are all degrading to a greater or lesser degree.

The real problem is that in nearly every system nutrients are removed from the ecosystem. Until you have the nutrients in a closed loop like in the Serengeti, the ecosystem is continually being depleted.

The Serengetti isn’t a closed loop the wardens do a lot of burning to control the grass growth and wildlife migration. However re depletion of nutrients part of the regenerative philosophy is trying to make the nutrients in soil more available rather than simply replacing the depleted nutrients from outside sources for example there could be 50 tonnes of K in the top six inches of a hectare of topsoil the aim is to use those up before bringing in stuff from outside.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

So it means nothing as you can do as you please. Anything can mean regenerative then


So you can plough then . Therefore it's a farce.

I have cut my ploughing by 90 %, because I wanted to not because I was forced to

 

[ste stuart]

if anyone does want a better explanation of regen ag I found Richard Perkins videos on youtube very interesting

 

[ajd132]

Loose principles that's exactly it. Means nothing but a marketing gimmick.

By that measure everything is a marketing gimmick including buying British.

There is no market for regenerative produce at the moment so it really doesn’t matter

 

[Sid]

I have cut my ploughing by 90 %, because I wanted to not because I was forced to

Is that like being nearly organic because you didn't spread any fertiliser for one year.....5 years ago

 

[CopperBeech]

I'm in America --that last sentence is absolutely true where I live. Non-Farmers' eyes glaze over the second you get into any detail relating to farming. They don't care and do not want to know details.

Not sure why you're so aggressive with your tone, 'yawning' and what not. It isn't really necessary to have a polite debate about a topic.

I do indeed have an unfortunate tone. It’s not meant as aggressive. The yawn but, was because it’s been the same lines over and again.

The bit I’m disagreeing with in your last sentence, is the bit about it just being pre industrial revolution farming.

That may be true in some ways, but there is a lot of very cool tech being used in regenerative farming. It’s not all good life 13 sheep, 2 pigs and a cow. Although I hadn’t realised you were in America and from what I’ve seen it’s deffo a bit more like that there.

The version of regen ag I like, is big areas, big numbers, innovative farming, cool forward thinking tech, smart people and big ideas.

 

[T Hectares]

How do you tell someone is a Regen farmer?
Don’t worry, they’ll tell you!!

I’m in two minds about it, on one hand it’s great that many growers are looking at reducing the reliance on solutions from a can or bag and are looking at soil health with a renewed interest
On the other it winds me up when the term gets hijacked to sell regen solutions from a can or bag…

If I hear the term “I’m going down the regen route” I glaze over, mainly as in many cases this translates to “I’ve bought an Avatar”

I cherry pick the aspects that suit and a hybrid system is where I’d see things going and increasing soil OM is the largest obvious aim for me, rigidly sticking to a set of constraints and principles is what usually lets a farming system down

I’m going to use the term #hybridfarming from now on, so I can look trendy, act superior and confuse those so last year regeners

 

[ajd132]

How do you tell someone is a Regen farmer?
Don’t worry, they’ll tell you!!

I’m in two minds about it, on one hand it’s great that many growers are looking at reducing the reliance on solutions from a can or bag and are looking at soil health with a renewed interest
On the other it winds me up when the term gets hijacked to sell regen solutions from a can or bag…

If I hear the term “I’m going down the regen route” I glaze over, mainly as in many cases this translates to “I’ve bought an Avatar”

I cherry pick the aspects that suit and a hybrid system is where I’d see things going and increasing soil OM is the largest obvious aim for me, rigidly sticking to a set of constraints and principles is what usually lets a farming system down

I’m going to use the term #hybridfarming from now on, so I can look trendy, act superior and confuse those so last year regeners

One of my biggest gripes is ‘regen’ advisory companies, that also flog a load of muck and magic. Such rubbish.