Special Report: Is regenerative agriculture the future of farming in Britain?

Regenerative agriculture was thrust into public psyche last year as 5.1 million viewers watched Jeremy Clarkson take on the regen mantle in season three of Clarkson’s Farm. Working in partnership with Wildfarmed’s Andy Cato, the beleaguered farmer, who’d lost piglets and entered the minefield that is mushroom growing, discovered a new way to grow food.

Along the way, the word ‘regenerative’ pricked the ears of the food community and consumers. But what does it really mean? And could it help us tackle the imminent food security crisis in the UK?

What is regenerative farming?

Independent farming advisor and trainer, Niels Corfield says the word ‘regenerative’ evokes a number of different contexts, but that it’s primarily about focussing on outcomes.

“Regenerative agriculture is literally set of practices that deliver improvements in soil health, pasture health, landscape, ecosystems and biodiversity. You can look at whichever metric you like, but the key point is we’re regenerating a resource. Or you could call it ‘natural capital’. 

Once something uttered about in the periphery of the community, regenerative practice has been emboldened by a movement of farmers who feel they must work in a different way, for the health of their land, people and animals.

The ripple effect has touched all parts of the UK, with Niels saying he recently attending a farming conference which included a panel on soil health and regenerative land management. “The compere said he’d been doing the job for 15 years and it was the first year the topic had been on the roster. I’d say that means it’s penetrating more deeply into the zeitgeist.”

For Martin Lines, CEO of the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN), in addition to the above, regenerative agriculture is incredibly people-centred. “It’s about community and bringing people together, and putting more people into the landscape.” While also, “Giving farmers the opportunity to adjust, change, and go on a journey of transition of continued improvements.” There isn’t one set way of doing this, Martin continues. “Our earth isn’t rigid, our crops aren’t rigid. We have to adapt our practices and systems to what the soil and field and weather allow us to do. Every field is different, and every challenge is different.”

Barnes Edwards, director of The Garlic Farm, which has been organic for some time, but has in more recent years adopted a regenerative approach, says the term, for him, means “to leave the land in better health than you found it”.

The word ‘sustainable’, Barnes continues, is “not good enough” by today’s standards and where we need to get to in future. “It’s out of date. Sustainability just sustains the status quo. We are aiming for restoration, and active rejuvenation, and regenerative farming has a number of practices which, when applied in harmony, can really help with that, and deliver it.”

Though there is some pushback from organic farmers over regenerative agriculture and its definition, Barnes believes we should be addressing this head on, saying we should aim for there to be no division between the two. “They are very closely entwined. What we do is we farm organically as a baseline, and we employ, and encourage, and are guided by and learning from the regenerative movement in terms of practices, innovations and techniques, building those into our organic system as a way to check or ensure that our organic platform is delivering the best it can.”

What many farmers worldwide are discovering, Barnes adds, is that “organic is a platform, and onto that we can build regenerative practices that focus on soil health as an ultimate outcome, delivering ecosystem health.”

He sees a combination of the two methods as the ‘gold standard’ for farming. “I’m upset by the polarising of techniques. It’s all about harmony and being nature-led. The fantastic thing is organic is a mature process with some great minds and really fantastic practitioners that’s been in place for many many decades, employing processes that really do deliver. But there’s been some quite good research that shows regenerative practices could take this one step further.”

An example is that organic standards don’t insist you move your livestock frequently. “We move ours daily, even though the organic system doesn’t demand it. Also agroforestry, bringing trees into th efarm, is not a requirement for organic. A lot do it because it makes sense and farms used to do it back in the day. Those two elements re very much in regenerative circles.”

Something that would have to be fixed for the two forms of farming to bond in future though, Barnes admits, is the use of fertilisers and pesticides, which can continue in the regenerative system (although many farmers are phasing these out). “We fundamentally oppose the use of glyphosate,” he says. “Our position is that it’s deeply, deeply harmful. It’s not something we do on farm or advocate for.”
On the topic of chemicals, Martin says many farmers within the regenerative system are looking to reduce their reliance. “Some will say they need glyphosate to terminate cover crops and can’t do without it. I point to organic farmers and say ‘they’re managing without them’. Using pesticides is a sticking plaster and there needs to be a focus that glyphosate isn’t the solution.” With the licence for such products shortly up for renewal, Martin thinks farmers should be seriously considering what their next step is to manage without them in the future.”

If this can be addressed, and organic farming adopted alongside regenerative measures, Barnes says there are wholesale benefits throughout the food growing and supply chains. “When you simplify this whole transition to a nature-first economy that is genuinely restorative on every level – human, animal, planetary – we are going to need to get our ducks in a row. We have to stop quibbling over which is best, and bring customers with us on this urgent journey to galvanise around what is a helpful way to produce food. We need to unite. I feel strongly we need to do that, rather than pick holes in definitions.”

How can regenerative farming be beneficial to the environment, food security and consumers?

There is no food security without a workable, sustainable system, says Martin. “If we continue to degrade soils, where is the food security for future generations? The actions regenerative focuses on are delivering on soil health improvements, and there’s increasing evidence that healthier soil structure with less input produces healthier food.”

It’s a wholly positive story, he feels, adding that in an ideal world we’d eat less meat, growing less high-input cattle feed (such as maize and beet) adopting a grazing approach, moving animals regularly, and relying on their manure as natural fertiliser. “You could solve a lot of climate issues by changing the system. Where animals are outside we find more birds and insects, more flora and fauna under their hooves. When we put sheep in the fields the swallows are flying around eating the bugs, the birds eat pests, and we find we need to use less wormers. It’s that nature-friendly approach.”

For Barnes, adding regenerative agriculture methods into the existing systems at The Garlic Farm has already delivered, despite them only having been applied for six years. “We’ve already found that our garlic can be given what it needs from animal integration rather than something out of a bag,” he says. “And in the pastures in the surrounding areas where we can’t grow garlic, there are a lot more plants, grasses and legumes. More diversity. 

Interestingly, moving livestock daily means the farm can hold three times the amount of cattle on the same land. “If you get fully nerdy and go to forums and events, this is what works. It’s not all cardigans and woo woo. This is how farming was. It’s how farming is.”

For Niels, as a technician focussed on results, he says farmers are often surprised at the outcomes from adopting regenerative measures. “Those could be significant uptakes in organic matter in the grazing sector, for example, or reductions in the cost of production while being able to carry more animals on the same area of land because it’s healthier and more productive. I think the system has significant opportunities to deliver on farm income,” without being at the expense of the natural environment.”

One of the most important things about the regenerative approach, Niels continues, is to rewrite assumptions round productivity, and to show it is “more than possible to bring the heart back to the land while also cropping”. There is a school of thought that all cropping processes are degrading and the only way to restore is by going to grass. But a lot of knowledge now calls that into question. If it’s done tight, all plants, whether for harvest or grazing or just turned in, can restore soil health.”

For Leona McDonald at Golden Hooves, part of First Milk, regenerative farming is imperative to helping tackle the climate crisis and challenge of food security.  For us, and our members it provides value to our farmers, their animals and their land, not to mention the pride that they’re truly having a positive impact.”

Working towards regenerative principles means any farmer can start and be supported, she says. “Let’s all just try and be a little bit better every day – the impact of that could be huge.”

“Regenerative agriculture and organic both share a common goal for showing how we, as farmers and custodians of the soil, can be part of the solution—sequestering carbon, improving water and air quality, boosting biodiversity, and producing great food to nourish people,” says Will Mayor, farms development manager at Yeo Valley Organic. “We’re really excited by all the new energy and investment into the regenerative farming movement in the UK and around the world. It has huge potential to positively impact our food production systems.”

Is regeneratively farmed food healthier?

More widespread studies will need to be done, but indications are that yes, good grown in a system that prioritises soil health and grazing is healthier. A study in the USA, for example, led by professor David Montgomery of the University of Washington, found that micronutrient and phytochemical density was improved in no-till systems with cover crops and diverse crop rotations.

“The biology of the soil was really the part that got overlooked in moving to chemistry-intensive farming,” he said. “It may be that one of our biggest levers for trying to combat the modern public health epidemic of chronic diseases is to rethink our diet, and not just what we eat, but how we grow it.”

A Defra-funded trial is underway, says Martin, looking at the correlation between high levels of biodiversity and soil health with micronutrients in grains.

“People really are starting to look now at this. Having health in the soil is a bit like our gut microbiome. And if our food is healthier, our gut should be healthier too.”

Niels cites the work of Dan Kittredge, founder of the Bionutrient Food Association. “Using mass spectrometry his early day findings essentially show a close correlation between improved nutrient density and improved soil biology. What we’re not seeing is a defined correlation between either conventional or organic, but are seeing those in improved soil microbiology.”

What are the challenges of regenerative agriculture?

Niels says like any swerve from the norm, there could be a loss of support if you’re taking a pioneering stance, which can knock confidence and impact decision-making. This is especially true in a situation where succession, perhaps into a long-established family business, is involved. “If you’re sold into the idea and are transitioning into a role, but are quite junior, there can be a struggle with the transfer of power. It’s very much a relationship factor between generations, or a competence question – after all, with regenerative you’re essentially retraining on the job, without a manual, having to write a manual at the same time. There is no direct ABC path, and that can be difficult.”

Flipping the coin, Niels adds a number of organisations, such as Roots so Deep have conducted mental health surveys and reported measurable improvements within the regenerative space. In other words, people practising it are happier and feel more secure financially.”

The hardest part Barnes found was the change. “I think the only reason we’ve been able to move quickly is because of the coaches we’ve had and farm visits to people who really are expect in nature-forward farming. They’ve said to me ‘your greatest asset is you don’t know anything’.”

Shifting your mindset or “unlearning” as he puts it, “is the bravest, hardest thing to do. You have to forget what you know, and listen more than you talk.”

Should there be any regulation or standard around regenerative farming?

The overwhelming answer from most in the sector is ‘no’. Barnes explains, taking organic certification as an example, that while it’s fantastic to have a trusted, legal definition, this isn’t necessarily a marker of quality, and any standardisation could stifle much-needed innovation across the produce sector.

“In organic there’s a baseline. You can be a terrible organic farmer. And equally you can be a destructive regenerative farmer. It’s all possible. These words don’t really guarantee anything.”

While the maturity of ‘organic’ is useful, and shows a greater level of care for the environment, Barnes says we must not shy away from the regenerative conversation. “Just look at what this movement has done in terms of awareness in a short space of time. That is extraordinarily telling and we should notice that.”

It’s disappointing that some larger organisations that are, perhaps, not embracing every regenerative practice are latching onto the narrative for marketing purposes, Barnes adds, those trying to do the right thing shouldn’t be distracted by these. They should be looking at driving forwards not towards certification necessarily, but a collection of ideals everyone can understand. This will, though, take some time. “We’re still only just now understanding organic, and we’ve been at that for some decades. Too much bureaucracy is unhelpful, and clear communication is the best we can do now until a standard evolves, whatever that may be.”

“This question has been ever present in the regenerative movement and is essential to its long-term success or demise,” says Will. “What exactly are you regulating? Regenerative agriculture to me is about outcomes. If you are producing food in a way that delivers regenerative benefits, then claiming those outcomes should require proof. That’s exactly what we are doing: farming in a way that enhances biodiversity, improves soil health, sequesters carbon, and more, while ensuring we measure and verify these outcomes. Every farm is unique, and applying blanket regulations to the process of becoming regenerative would limit its ability to achieve the desired outcome.”

He continues. “Organic farming is a regulated approach to agriculture. Organic is legally defined and independently inspected and verified and therefore protects against greenwashing. By its very nature, it must work with ecosystems and was founded on rotational practices that promote soil health. At the same time, the rise in regenerative farming could help fast-track exciting opportunities for innovation, technology and research and development for organic and non-organic farming which is fundamental to drive change at pace.”

Martin is on a similar page to Barnes and Will, but adds that while organic farmers deserve “loads of respect” he feels the system’s rigidity, set rules and set inspections don’t leave much wiggle room for those who want to lead by example. Having something similar within regenerative agriculture could see farmers stop progressing after they’ve met the criteria of a standard.

“The whole point of regen is to continue the principles.” Any standard, he adds, should be at a farm level, recording what’s been done every year, what’s been achieved and how those measurements can actively be improved upon. “There’s that continual adaptation and focus on getting to a better place, while meeting the challenges of the weather doing silly things to us, which will only get worse. If we have a rigid system, nature doesn’t work that way. For farmers to come on the regenerative journey they need flexibility to be able to deliver solutions in every part of the farm.”

He is, though, also troubled by businesses using regenerative terminology for commercial gain, and says let’s challenge them. “What are they doing to rejuvenate and regenerate systems other than ticking a box? That has to be accountable, maybe it will come to an audit system whereby somebody else is saying you are continually improving.”

The topic of a ‘standard’ or regulation is a “tricky one” admits Leona. “The great thing about regen is that it encourages all and welcomes everyone in. If you are committed to making a change, then we celebrate and support you. After all, we have to start somewhere.”

Leona feels protective of the community and doesn’t want there to be barriers to progression. “If we consider the B Corp model for example, businesses need to have a base standard and long-term commitment to get started, and so long as they keep improving year on year, their accreditation stands. I quite like that as a theory, and wonder if there is something in that.”

Greenwashing is, she adds, a big challenge. “All we ca do is hold ourselves to account and make sure that we are doing all we can to offer confidence to the rest of the industry and consumers at large.”

‘Healthy farming leads to healthier diets’

David Wolfe and his family are custodians of organic farm, Wakelyns, in Suffolk, practicing agroforestry, while also growing diverse wheat varieties and lentils, all with an eye on caring for nature.

What does regenerative mean to you, and what does ‘good’ look like in farming?

I think the difficulty with the term regenerative is it sounds great, but it’s been captured by a style of farming which can rely on a huge amount of weedkillers like glyphosates. Here, we tend to say we have an agroecological approach. We want to be doing a whole range of things to produce food, but that has to be high-quality, nutritious food. And we have to support biodiversity and nature.

Our point of view is food has to move away from fields producing low-quality, high-impact food, to a much more sustainable use of the land. It’s about wildlife and sequestering carbon, and people, and wellbeing, and a whole range of other components. Agriculture should be about replenishing our environment.

Conventional farmers would control weeds by spraying. We don’t do that. Historically here we would have a problem with thistles and docks, and in order to deal with that we would mow them using a tractor. I thought it was ridiculous, costing time and diesel, and compressing the soil. We introduced sheep, putting them into the alleys. They eat the thistles, saving me from using nasty chemicals and diesel, and turning the grass into fertiliser. Then, at the end of the year, we get some meat. I’ve done the numbers and we’re absolutely saving in terms of climate change impact and getting things right. It’s an easy win!

Do you think more regulation is needed around the word ‘regenerative’?

Regenerative is absolutely being overclaimed and I think the use of the word is unhelpful. Some farmers using words like regenerative don’t realise it’s been ‘stolen’, that’s the problem.
I would like all farming to be organic because the framework’s there already, but if there’s going to be other frameworks that are not organic, they need to be properly organised and not industry-run schemes. They would have to be demonstrate the kind of oversight we get for organic.

If you’re in a supermarket, you’re faced with a whole bunch of things making claims at you about standards, and supermarkets have their own labelling schemes. I think people are being hoodwinked. There’s not necessarily a way of knowing what each scheme means.

What would be your advice for other farmers?

Be more connected to the destination of your food, rather than putting into the commodity machine. Involve people, be more aware of your local environmental impact and what you’re doing in terms of pollution, and climate change and diversifying.

‘We were one of the first regenerative farms in the UK’

Thomas Gent is the fourth generation of his family to be involved in regenerative agriculture at Gentle Farming in South Lincolnshire, farming in fields bought by his great grandad post-WWII.

What does regenerative mean to you?

We’ve been no-till and regenerative focused since 2008, making that transition at a time where nobody was really talking about it or doing it at scale.

It’s my grandad, Tony, who pushed it forward. For us, it was an economical move at the start. Our machinery was very very old, and we needed to invest, which was going to cost a lot of money. Grandad had been to Argentina and seen no-till, regenetative farming in practice and thought it looked interesting. He trialled a field for one year and it was one of the best on the farm! The next year we went completely into it, 100%.

How has going regenerative impacted the farm?

The best way to test soil health is by organic matter. When we first started with tested a neighbouring farm and the soil organic matter was 3-4%, ours is 8-10%. It’s a huge difference. I can’t describe how much change we’ve been able to drive on the farm. We don’t have as much waterlogging, the plants are much healthier and everything functions better. We see more butterflies and birds too. But it all starts with the soil. If you don’t have that foundation, nothing works properly.

Do you think there needs to be a framework or standard for regenerative agriculture?

I think it’s really really good people are talking about regenerative farming more. It’s becoming a bit of a topic, but we need to make sure we’re not misleading anyone. We can’t be greenwashing. If we say we’re doing something, we need to do it properly and that means looking at the outcomes.

I would not like a standard put in place though. It would stifle innovation and means people could be incentivised to do the bare minimum of the standard. That’s not how it should be. We should be trying to exceed what we do now. 

‘Going regenerative has changed our lives’

Sam Beaumont and wife Claire moved to her family business, Gowbarrow Hall Farm (part of the NFFN) seven years ago, discovering regenerative agriculture as a way to improve the health of their land, animals and finances.

What does regenerative mean to you?

In the beginning we emulated what Claire’s grandad did with a similar system to him, including sheep, and it was quite intensive in using a lot of fertiliser and feed. We did that for a few years, but it was clear it was going to be very difficult economically because fertiliser and feed are very expensive. Also, we were not happy putting the fertiliser on. We read more and more about soil health and started to speak to people like Pasture for Life, who are a great group of farmers, and managed to go out on a few farm visits to get different ideas about what we could do here.

We then worked with an amazing agricultural consultant, Caroline Grindrod, founder of Wilderculture, which is trying to help families in the Uplands transition away from intensive methods. She helped us to come up with our plan.

We felt we needed to be grazing and pasture-fed, so that’s what we do now. In summer we have 80 head of cattle we finish for beef. It’s 100% pasture-fed and Pasture for Life certified. The animals live outside all year with very little supplementary feed. And we’re going to be organic soon as well.

In terms of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides, we went cold turkey, which is not what most would recommend doing. The land looked a bit hungry in the early years, but we decided we had to be quite brutal. We couldn’t afford to buy the fertiliser, and we wanted the land to recover as quickly as possible. Our view is fertiliser is almost like a Class A drug for grass. It gives nutrients at the top of the roots and the grass is suddenly like ‘wow, this is great’, but as soon as you take that away, it forgets how to survive as a natural grassland and how to put roots down.

What differences have you noticed since you adopted regenerative agriculture?

Generally everything’s looking a lot better. In terms of the cattle, they’re much much healthier for being outside all year. We used to struggle with things like lameness when we had them housed, but since we’ve shifted away from that it’s dropped to almost nothing really. In terms of observations from what we can see in the ecosystem, we have an area where we keep the cattle in winter, and in summertime they don’t graze there at all. It gets a chance to grow, and everything can set to seed. As a result, we’ve got thousands of saplings springing out of the ground, particularly in the watercourses, which has been incredible to see. But also lots of wildflowers. Things like Trefoils, a bit of Scabious, and a lovely one is the Grass-of-Parnassus, the county flower of Cumbria.

It’s beautiful, and we’d never seen it anywhere before. One of the reasons is it doesn’t like fertiliser. In order to get these things to thrive you have to take the pressure off the land and stop with the chemicals. It seems if you do, they will return.

Also, we mob graze in summertime and that’s seen a massive change. At the beginning of 2019 we had three to four species per square metre in the meadows, and two to three years later in some places that’s up to 14 species, things like red clover and plantain – all just through a change in land management.

Before farming as we are today, my wife Claire was working full time, and I was the only person doing the day to day on the farm. We were running ourselves into the ground without making any money. We didn’t foresee a future. Now Claire is working just five days a month and doing a lot more direct sales of the beef and pork. She’s also developing a leather business using the hides from the cattle and it looks like this year could be quite good.

This is so exciting. Once you start changing your business it can unlock other things you might be able to do. We feel like we have time to think about and look at the business rather than chasing our tails firefighting.

Do you think there should be regulation around regenerative agriculture?

The movement is so positive and wonderful I wouldn’t want to see it become policed and monitored too much. I think it’s down to each individual farm to work out what it might mean for them.

Also, it’s about customers being discerning enough to recognise when it’s greenwashing or a genuine thing being done by a small farm selling direct. We have to carry on and do what’s right. Regenerative has got so may meanings. You’ve got the social side, the economics side, and the ecological side. Some of the big businesses are starting to latch onto this, but if they’re not regenerating their local economy or the social elements of what regenerative means, they’re not truly regenerative in my opinion.
Picture: Leanne Coates

‘Farming this way will bring greater food security for future generations’

Bertie Matthews is the eighth generation of his family to run the 100-year-old Matthews Cotswold Flour business, with a bold vision for the future.

What does regenerative mean to you?

It’s my turn to run the business and at 33, I’m probably still going to be doing this job in 40 years’ time. Like my father, I have the luxury of being able to take a long-term view of the future, with time to deliver on our plans.

We have FarmEd at the top of the road, and Ian Wikinson, who runs it, has known me since I was a child. When I came back into the business in 2017 one of the first conversations we had was around long term planning, and he opened my eyes up to the importance of regenerative agriculture, which I had little knowledge of. I was a young guy, trying to put together a bold plan, but he made me realise regenerative agriculture is essential for us. For us that means supporting tangible change, because we want to be supplied by farms in the local area for the next 10, 20 and 30 years. In order to secure that supply chain, we need to start investing in the thing that makes all of our food, which is the soil.

For us, regenerative agriculture is a farming model that is moving the ball forward and we’ve defined four to five key areas and objectives: soil improvement, sequestering carbon, improving water quality, and increasing biodiversity. We feel these are essential for us. 

We’ve been organic for a long time (since the 80s) and are supplied by conventional farmers as well. In 2019 we started (regenerative agriculture) in earnest, and build a set of deliverable standards, working with some of our farmers who are quite far down the regenerative road. The farmers we use have been implementing the practices for at least five years and as well as the benefits of the system on-farm with a reduction in inputs making them more sustainable, we give them a premium plus for their delivery.

Slowly this flour is going into more and more of our products. We’d like 10,000 acres of our farms to be regenerative by 2030 and I’m convinced we can do that and improve it by 20,000 to 30,000 acres by 2040. 

What measurable improvements have you noticed?

All the farms we work with have increased soil fertility, which means it’s more drought resistant. A lot of people worry about the yield, but it’s within 10 to 15% of what you’d get in conventional farming within five years. That’s longer term security for our children and their children.

Do you think regulation should be introduced in regenerative agriculture?

We’ve got to take action and move forward, and one of those best ways to do that is to be transparent and open with what actions you’re taking. If a big baking company wants to buy regenerative flour from you, you should be able to say which farm it’s from, if it’s 100% regenerative, why can it be called regenerative, how you track measurements. If you have good, comprehensive information to back up what you do, that’s a really good start.

In terms of the future? I think that as long as any standards or certification are done in conjunction with the people who are actually doing this, it can only be a good thing. It will take a long time, but being honest, and working together on certification will in the long term I think be beneficial.

What would be your advice to other producers?

If we all understand why regenerative agriculture is vital to our future, tying that to our personal and business motivations and strategy, while learning from and listening to the experts, that would be the key. Whether you’re a farm, a flour mill, a baker or a retailer – everybody has a part to play and we’ve all got to do this together. The conversation we’ll be having in 10 years’ time will be why are we calling it ‘regenerative agriculture’? It will just ‘be’ farming.

The 7 principles of regenerative agriculture

1. Improving and nurturing soil health

2. Promoting the sequestration of carbon

3. Supporting and enhancing biodiversity

4. Integrating livestock

5. Conserving water

6. Supporting the livelihoods of farmers

7. Having a long-term mindset