Regenerative Agriculture: Three Expert Perspectives
At the Collective's May event, three panelists discussed how regenerative agriculture can drive value for farmers, businesses, and communities.
Our soil is in a critical state. Conventional agricultural practices are decimating the lifegiving properties of soil around the globe, releasing additional carbon into the atmosphere and rendering croplands infertile. Already a third of our planet’s soil is degraded, and UNESCO predicts that the number could be as high as 90% by 2050. Nowhere is immune — agricultural systems from giant operations in the Midwest to subsistence farms in rural Malawi are affected by soil degradation.
Regenerative agriculture offers a way forward, using sustainable land management practices to not only avoid doing more harm, but also to restore already degraded soil. At our fourth community networking event, we welcomed three expert panelists to share their perspectives on this pressing agricultural issue:Melissa Spear, Executive Director at Tilth Alliance; Paul Shoemaker, CEO of Carnation Farms; and Richard Moe, Principal Technical Program Manager at Opportunity International’s Digital Innovation Group.
The Global Impact Collective brought together a diverse group of professionals from farmers to agronomists to professors to discuss this important subject. The topics ranged from the adoption to the economics and future of regenerative agriculture. A few key themes emerged:
Challenges
Establishing Standards of Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative agriculture is widely defined as farming practices that are minimally disruptive to the soil, exercise crop diversity, utilize cover crops in the off season, and maintain living roots. However, unlike the rigorous criteria built around organic certification, we don’t yet have universally accepted standards and certifications for what it means to claim a company practices regenerative agriculture. If businesses and governments wish to certify and systematize regenerative farming, and if they want consumers to trust the certification, they will need hardier definitions.
Greenwashing: “Because it doesn’t have a definition, because there is no legal standard, regenerative agriculture is subject to greenwashing,” Melissa said. She pointed out that many large corporate food companies implement a no-till policy and label themselves regenerative despite still using pesticides and herbicides. “We have to figure out how to clarify and protect the integrity of what it is that we’re calling regenerative.”
“Organic Plus”: Despite the term generally gaining traction, an average consumer will not have a clear idea of what regenerative agriculture means when the label appears on a food item. Paul suggested pitching the concept to consumers as “organic plus,” signifying that regenerative food has all the same qualifications of organic food plus the benefit of reinvigorating the soil.
Entrenched Political Systems
A long history of political incentives has led the United States to favor large, corporate, conventional farms, often at the expense of smaller ones. Changing this existing bureaucracy is slow and arduous, but it can be done. Europe, for instance, is 10-15% organic, compared to only 1-2% in the US.
Historical precedent: Paul identified three moments in American farming that led to our current agricultural system:
At the end of World War II, pesticides and herbicides were commercialized on a broad scale.
Earl Butz, the Secretary of Agriculture under Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, promoted a “get big or get out” approach to farming and urged farmers to plant commodity monocrops like corn “from fencerow to fencerow.”
The focus on ethanol created a strong orientation towards conventional agriculture.
Lack of subsidies and financial support: The 2018 Farm Bill allocated $428 billion dollars over five years for agricultural subsidies with the majority of those funds supporting conventional farming. The federal financial support for sustainable farming is extremely low by comparison, and the shift from conventional to regenerative is difficult.
Economic Barriers to Adoption
“It’s expensive to be an organic, regenerative farmer,” Melissa said. “You have higher labor costs, you make different kinds of investments, it’s a more complicated method of farming, and certification costs money.”
Slow transition time: The transition period from conventional to organic certified is three years, and during that time the farmer cannot sell the food with an organic premium despite farming organically.
Lack of information: Rich pointed out that small-scale farmers, especially those living rurally and experiencing extreme poverty, often don’t know how to find markets, negotiate for better prices, and understand the economic outputs of their own farms. Existing resources are hard to access without basic literacy and access to the internet. “Getting information to the end user is critical,” he said.
Promising Developments
Farmers Educating Farmers
It’s critical that farmers teach one another. “We know that farmers learn best from farmers,” said Rich. To leverage this insight, Opportunity International is setting up a mentorship program in rural African farming communities and building its educational tools around insights gathered from the local farmers themselves. Rich mentioned OI’s agricultural team in Rwanda has implemented a system of “farmer support agents.” He says, “They get a bicycle, a pair of boots, a smartphone, and training, and in exchange they take the learnings out into their communities and spread it amongst the farmers in that community.”
Melissa also pointed to the Transition to Organic Partnership Program, which helps provide resources to aspiring organic and regenerative farmers. “Paying farmers to talk to farmers: that is really where the information gets transferred, because it’s often not as simple as reading a couple sentences. You need someone there to show you, to explain it to you, to demonstrate.”
Technological Advancements
Recent developments in technology, especially in the AI sector, have exciting implications for agriculture and education.
Precision agriculture: With better instruments, companies and farmers can manage their farms more effectively. Robotic tools that monitor the soil, for instance, can inform users when they need to irrigate, look for pests, know when to apply pesticides, and so forth. “I think this is actually going to reduce the use of some of the more toxic synthetic chemicals on even conventional farms,” Melissa said. “Any stop toward eliminating or reducing the use of those chemicals is good.”
Agricultural education: Using generative AI and other tools, Rich and the Digital Innovation Group at Opportunity International are building a WhatsApp chatbot to help rural farmers in the field get answers to their questions. Given many might be illiterate, the bot can take verbal inputs in the farmers’ native languages, and it can analyze pictures of crops to determine diseases and offer advice.
Climate and Economic Resilience
Farms that practice regenerative agriculture withstand both market pressures and extreme weather. "You're more resilient to drought. You’re more resilient to heat. Your yields will remain higher in the face of a drastic climatic event,” Melissa said.
Community relevance: Paul extrapolated this concept into economic resilience for whole communities by extension, using White Oak Pastures as an example. “They employ nearly a couple hundred people in their local community,” he said. “That’s economic resilience at all levels. The way to try to think about economic resilience is to think locally, think regionally, think within the Puget Sound to try to solve the problem in that domain if you have the chance.”
Interested customers: If consumers remain willing to pay the price premium for organic food, regenerative products will likely also do well on the market provided the certification issues are solved.
Shifting markets: Melissa mentioned market research by the Organic Trade Association that found young people driving demand for organic food. “Younger generations are faced with this existential crisis of climate change, are recognizing that eating is a political act, and that their food choices actually have social, environmental, and economic impacts. And they are willing to make the investment to go organic and regenerative.”
Attendees mingle before the panel.
Reflections
As the panel ended, the discussion was far from over with an insightful Q&A and further networking discussion. Dan Schiaffo, a consultant at Slalom who is currently pursuing a master’s program focused on sustainability, was left thinking about how to shift the public’s focus from organic to regenerative. “This sort of conversation is music to my ears. I absolutely love it,” he said.
Pamela Cardone shared the recent documentary Common Ground as a resource. The question of how to inspire conventional farms to use regenerative methods —even those who are hostile towards sustainability — piqued her interest as a financial risk analyst. “We have to show that they will make more money, even without the principles.” She wants to put her risk knowledge to better use in this space.
Several attendees were intimately familiar with the challenges growers face as growers themselves. George Thomas owns an alfalfa farm and recently got a grant from Tilth Alliance to plant a food forest and a prairie strip. The difficulty of growing alfalfa means that getting organic certified is a very unlikely prospect, but he still wants to make the farm more regenerative. “It’s important work. I think I could get there, eventually.”
Andrew Tuttle, a permaculture expert and educator currently restoring a historic farm in Arlington, is creating an online learning platform where participants can partake in virtual tours of regenerative lands. He wanted to stress that there is big investment in the field from nongovernmental sources. “The thing is, regenerative farming can make people really, really rich,” he said. “We don’t talk about that enough, and if it were more widely known, we could convince more farms to make the switch.”
He was excited to attend the event and wished there were more like it in his field. “We just need a pure opportunity to get together because the future of this industry depends on community. Cultural relationship-building comes from working together, and this is the way you do that.”
Zachary Gray from Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies, a company that is using fungi to protect plants from heat stress and difficult environments, echoed that sentiment.
The diversity of backgrounds and professions present at the event highlight just how interdisciplinary the challenge of implementing regenerative agriculture is, and the networking that took place promises that this wicked challenge has ever more brilliant minds working on it. A huge thank you to our panelists and everyone who attended.
Follow us on LinkedIn to stay connected to this vibrant and growing community, and we hope to see you at our next event in the fall.
Resources
Coalition for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture (CORA)is a coalition of farmers, businesses, organizations, and activists advocating for progressive programs and policies in support of organic and regenerative agriculture in Washington State. The Tilth Alliance is one of the 11 member organizations.
White Oak Pastures transitioned away from industrial agriculture techniques in 1995 and began operating their farm as a living ecosystem. They now raise 10 species of humanely treated animals, and the land is managed to increase living organic matter. They employ more than 155 members of their local community.
Common Ground Filmis the sequel to Kiss the Ground, which the filmmakers claim inspired the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to put $20 billion toward soil health. The film explores the money, power, and politics intertwined in our broken food system and profiles farmers using regenerative agriculture models that could stabilize the climate, improve health, and grow America’s economy.
Transition to Organic Partnership Program is investing up to $100 million over five years in cooperative agreements with non-profit organizations providing technical assistance support, training, education, and outreach to aspiring organic farmers.
The Nature Conservancysupports building regenerative food systems and has a variety of resources on regenerative practices, food system solutions, technological innovations, as well as their Foodscapes Report, which provides a global perspective on necessary food systems transitions to meet “this century’s most pressing challenge: the threats posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and increased demand on the integrity of the global food system.”
Regenerative Agriculture Podcastis a podcast for professional growers and agronomists who want to learn about the science and principles of regenerative agriculture systems to increase quality, yield, and profitability.
Noble Research Institutewas founded in 1945 and is the nation’s largest nonprofit dedicated to farm and ranch management education to build soil health and increase profitability on U.S. farms and ranches. The organization has an entire category of research dedicated to regenerative agriculture.
The state’s leadership is driven by its commitment to addressing climate change, improving food security, and fostering a circular economy. By focusing on prevention, recovery, and repurposing of food waste, Washington has emerged as a model for other states seeking to implement systemic change.
To celebrate and further explore this leadership, we are thrilled to host an engaging panel discussion featuring four food waste experts who are shaping the future of food systems. This event brings together leaders from government, academia, and industry to share insights and inspire action.
Join us for an in-depth conversation with thought leaders and innovators who are driving change in Washington’s food waste landscape. This panel will explore challenges, opportunities, and innovative solutions to prevent and minimize food waste across sectors.
Emily Hovis is an environmental health professional with extensive experience in public education, food safety, and environmental compliance. With a passion for promoting environmental health and public service, Emily serves as a member of the Washington State Retail Food Safety Advisory Council (FSAC) and the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) Food Recovery Committee. She is currently leading a Food Rescue Mapping project for Washington State. Beyond academia, Emily is the owner of Triple H Family Farm, a 33-acre livestock farm in Lewis County that focuses on conservation grazing and sustainable land management practices. Her unique blend of expertise in food safety and sustainable farming makes her a key voice in the conversation on food waste prevention.
With over 30 years of experience in local government, Liz Fikejs has dedicated her career to advancing conservation programs across natural resources. At Seattle Public Utilities, she leads initiatives to prevent food waste through public-private partnerships, including alliances with the Pacific Coast Collaborative. Starting in 2025, Liz will serve on the US Food Waste Pact Advisory Council, where she aims to accelerate systemic solutions to food waste. Her leadership reflects a deep commitment to creating large-scale, sustainable change.
Leslie Mackie is a celebrated baker and founder of Macrina Bakery, a Seattle institution known for its dedication to community and sustainability. Leslie has been a pioneer in the baking industry’s efforts to reduce food waste, including collaborating with PCC and FareStart to repurpose leftover bread into croutons. Through her six cafes and robust wholesale operation, Leslie continues to lead by example, demonstrating how businesses can play a crucial role in building a circular food system.
As Head of Product at Shelf Engine, Naomi Logan oversees a team dedicated to developing innovative technologies that reduce waste in the retail food supply chain. Drawing from her background at Microsoft and USAID’s Digital Development team, Naomi combines data-driven decision-making with user-centered design to tackle food waste at a systems level. Her work at Shelf Engine exemplifies the potential of technology to transform how food is distributed and consumed, ultimately reducing climate impact.
Why Washington Leads the Nation
Washington’s leadership in food waste prevention is rooted in several key factors:
Ambitious Goals: The state’s 50% reduction target aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, showcasing its commitment to global leadership.
Innovation: Programs like the Pacific Coast Collaborative bring together public agencies and private organizations to tackle food waste holistically.
Community Engagement: From hyperlocal composting programs to statewide food rescue mapping, Washington empowers communities to take action.
Business Innovation: Companies like Shelf Engine and Macrina Bakery exemplify how local businesses are driving creative solutions.
Join the Conversation
This panel is a unique opportunity to learn from experts at the forefront of food waste prevention. Whether you’re a business leader, community advocate, policy maker or a concerned individual this event will inspire you to take action and be part of the solution. Together, we can build a future where food is valued, and waste is minimized.
