REthinking REgenerative Agriculture

SHO Farm, LLC in Vermont. Wildlife-integrated and carbon sequestering agriculture

Many people associate regenerative agriculture (agriculture that builds soil, sequesters carbon, mimics an ecosystem, and amplifies life) with grazing cows, sheep, and sometimes goats. But in Vermont, with its shallow soil depths and fields-that-were-once forest, perennial tree crops mixed with conservation annual crops are an ideal choice.

Many regenerative vegetable growers are starting to use composted ramial wood chips (ramial wood comes from smaller branches which contain a larger percentage of nutrient-rich bark) in place of peat moss and animal byproducts. Ramial wood chips are used for both potting mix and for long-term soil-building, and offer a renewable source of nutrients that can be grown on-site.

Maintaining strips of young, successional woody material such as willow, alder, birch, and poplar in Vermont's fields offers great potential for repeated harvests of ramial wood that can be cut on rotations--a process that sequesters large amounts of carbon (fast re-growth of perennial trees stores carbon in its biomass). This habitat provides ideal food and shelter for more wild animals, predator-and-prey species alike, cycling nutrients endlessly in the birth-life-rebirth process.

Grazing and haying systems in Vermont preclude habitat for nesting birds and a multiplicity of flowering forbs, which provide pollen and nectar for insects—which in turn provide food for birds. Additionally, grazing and haying practices diminish the power of wildlife habitat, and reduce flood protection and soil loss in riparian corridors that trees would otherwise protect.

Pollinator and bird habitat are more crucial now than ever, with global populations of both seeing critical declines.

What you can do: Find regenerative growers willing to embrace the complexity of living ecosystems, who restore wildlife habitat while gleaning food to feed people, and who practice thoughtful, restorative annual agriculture.

In the photo: Lanes of mixed species: nut pine, chestnut, seaberry, plum, pear, hazelnut, cranberry, raspberry, currant, mulberry, black locust--with the flowing pasture in between providing nectar, pollen, and seed heads to birds and rodents, and shade and habitat to frogs, snakes and toads.

You can visit the SHO Farm website here, or visit the Sanctuary at SHO website here.