Over the last few weeks, I received inquiries from several leaders in the fresh produce industry about regenerative agriculture. What is it? Is it a fad? Is it here to stay? What is the push and the pull? Should I invest in it?
Unlike “organic,” which is clearly defined and regulated by the USDA, “regenerative” and “climate-smart” agriculture are currently loosely defined. While agronomists, environmentalists, economists and anthropologists debate what belongs in the definitions of “regenerative” and “climate-smart,” for the purpose of this op-ed, I will take liberty to loosely equate them to each other and to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service-ranked list of national conservation practices standards, found here.
For a period of time, regenerative agriculture was considered by many as a branch permaculture — a curious oddity, with curated guilds of plants that cohabitated in perennial edible forests. Since those early days, regenerative agriculture has entered the mainstream, with big-input companies providing the tools, such as fertilizers, herbicides and modern crop varieties, for the scale-up of regenerative production. Those companies are now some of the biggest supporters of conversations on regenerative production at a commercial scale. Consumer-facing brands, including multinational food manufacturers, set ambitious goals to reduce carbon footprint of their brands.
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Climate-smart production is here to stay in the fresh produce industry for two reasons. First, in 2017, Walmart announced its Project Gigaton. In a recent interview on the “Fresh Takes on Tech” podcast, Walmart executives were clear about two things: One, the retailer is determined to diversify its offerings in the fresh produce space to include fruits and vegetables for the budget-conscious and environmentally conscious shoppers, and, two, Walmart ties its brand to the foods that are good for the people and good for the planet.
Walmart partnered with two other giants: McDonald’s and Cargill to advance some of its ambitious environmental goals. In parallel with the retailers’ push for a diversified offering of fresh produce, USDA earlier this year announced a $1 billion investment into pilot projects to test out climate-smart practices that will span cropping and production systems. In addition to testing where and how food, fiber and forests can be produced using climate-smart practices, each project to be funded is also mandated to have a robust marketing plan to tout associated climate benefits. As these projects come to fruition in a couple of years, expect to hear and see these marketing pushes in traditional and new media.
Finally, we already see pioneering producers making bold commitments to switching to regenerative crop practices. Large companies that are household names and growing diverse crops, from berries to carrots, are making bold commitments to going regenerative. It is clear that there is a push and a pull, and first adopters who are eagerly testing out practices that will reshape how we think about growing fresh produce.
