The Regenerative Revolution—a New Era of Agriculture

Guest Editorial
·8 min read

Agriculture developed the pursuit of fiber. The accumulation of knowledge, skills, arts, economies, and cultures illuminated fiber into fabric.

Cloth may have given humanity the ability to choose its own destiny, and now it is ironic that the destiny of fashion’s humanity could sit in the hands of the cloth through agriculture. We have seen a recent march toward transparency that has opened our eyes to a revolution of restoration and a transition toward a new culture of repair.

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The most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC sixth assessment) report is clear that effective opportunities to combat and adapt to human-caused climate change exist now with agriculture having a part to play. According to the report, climate risk is reduced in the agriculture sector through cultivar improvements, on-farm water management and storage, soil moisture conservation, effective irrigation, community-based adaptation, and restorative land management approaches.

With more than one-third of earth’s terrestrial surface occupied by agriculture, I believe if changes in living and non-living systems are not inclusive of a whole revolutionary system, we place further pressure on our ability to grow, reproduce and adapt to change and furthermore we challenge the ability to maintain homeostasis.

It is defined—to restore is to bring back. Put simply, if we are not showing improvement we are not in a regenerative state.

Through a combination of data and technology we can empower our mind, soil, and generate restoration. At this tipping point, we must trust in the scientific rhetoric defined by numbers and measurement.

Regenerative agriculture is transforming cotton production from the ground up

As the textile industry grapples with the challenges of climate change and environmental degradation, the shift to regeneratively grown fibers can be an instrumental solution to supply chain impact.

In the same respect, if meaningful change in agricultural practices worldwide is to be instrumental in the fight to remain within planetary boundaries, the term “regenerative agriculture” which has gained momentum in fashion circles in recent years, must be demonstrated transparently.

At its core, regenerative agriculture is farming in harmony with nature. Its goal is to continually advance the health of the soil with practices to promote microbial activity and increase carbon cycling. In return the results improve plant health, water holding capacity, nutritional value and crop productivity including yield.

Our lives depend on soil and the biology within, and the soil depends on the lives of plants growing within. This may sound somewhat confusing or poetic, but basically healthy living soil depends upon growing plants to stay alive.

Gabe Brown, a pioneer of the soil health movement, writes in his book “Dirt to Soil” that biological life is a force, and when unleashed, it will continue to generate new life.

There is no prescribed way to reach a regenerative state, but this confirms to me that regenerative agriculture starts first and foremost within the soil, and by driving higher soil carbon through the photosynthetic effects of growing plants we can demonstrate how soil carbon is a critical driver to water holding capacity and moisture a driver to healthy soil.

Coupled with the practices in farming we extend our regenerative approach in five key principles.

  1. Limit the disturbance of the soil. This means zero to minimal tillage practices, locking carbon within soil to allow microbes to feed upon and naturally cycle. Where possible if permanent cropping beds can be applied, limited machinery passes also reduce soil compaction.

  2. Armor the soil by keeping soil covered as much as possible with cover crops, mulch, crop stubble and rotation crops. Plant spacing can also play a critical role. Creating an abundance of leaf cover in young growing crops with large leaf capacity such as cotton will act as a protector to the soil between and beneath plant rows.

  3. Diversity in plant species allow natural nutrient replenishment and provide different root systems to assist against soil compaction, and disease whilst promoting soil aeration.

  4. Precision agriculture plays a key role to hold data and farm smarter with less impact. Technology provides accuracy of soil moisture, soil and crop canopy temperature, efficient and effective water use and keeping fields levelled. In areas where machinery plays a role, automation and tyre accuracy in fields increase productivity and minimize soil impact. Computer technology including GPS coordinates, precise seed placement and records of fuel use allows for efficient record keeping that can integrate traceability and environmental scores seamlessly.

  5. Integrated pest management allows for the natural cycle of beneficial and non-beneficial insects to work with nature together to manage pest populations with the aim of reducing chemistry whilst maintaining yield and quality. Refuge crops, seed technology and diversity in farming environments creates a naturally cycling biosphere reducing the need for alternate interference.

Making agriculture modern

The disconnect between people and the land because of rapid urbanisation and global population growth is a significant challenge that living and non-living species face in the 21st century and beyond.

However, with modern problems come modern solutions. The term regenerative itself denotes that the system is outcome-based.

With the latter two of the five key principles of regenerative agriculture, the future of farming calls for a fluid combination of traditional indigenous techniques and smart farming that uses innovation and technology. The combination will allow primary data driven outcomes which benefit the environment, farmers and the supply chain collectively.

Modern regenerative agriculture understands that the outcomes of the key five principles are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are inextricably linked, where care is taken to define successful outcomes.

The need to pursue a science-based approach also calls for baseline measurements and requires understanding of the natural state of land measured to ensure the outcome of restorative principles.

With this approach we can tap into the wealth of primary data to achieve meaningful environmentally beneficial results that target improvements in ecology, biology, and chemistry—and importantly results that enhance resources that improve yield and farmer livelihood.

Cotton with a conscience

When “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson was published in 1962 launching the environmental movement, she envisioned harnessing the knowledge of biological diversity. At the time no government on earth had a minister or department for the environment.4 and it was certainly not a job position within the fashion supply chain.

Carson’s dream of a science-based agricultural system may come as a surprise to those who believe that sustainability and technology are incompatible.

We must remind ourselves that the history of cotton has reflected global industrial and economic importance. Even with stagnation of positive public perception cotton has remarkably survived to be the most preferred fiber to wear today.

With that said, if it is true that the full loop of textiles has more human contact than any other material in the world, the production of our fibers into garments or products is something which has been taken for granted. The call for a deeper understanding of how ecological systems and supply chains can work together is critical.

I cannot speak for all fibers grown in soil, but I can speak for cotton that today few have little knowledge of where their cotton fiber comes from—how it is grown, the environmental impact on natural resources or the social impact of its growth.

Growers of the future must validate their fiber by recording primary field data throughout its growth period to ensure the admiration it deserves to survive. Data capture must start pre planting, when fields are being prepared and continue to the end of the rotation cycle, this way we can ensure there is validity to the regenerative conversation about the soil the fiber grew within.

With this information, as cotton growers, we can encompass the environmental respect and the information our downstream supply chain and customers are relying upon.

We also know that data capture can be physically and digitally linked to the fiber through innovations in traceability technology. We can give environmental integrity back to the cotton fiber itself through the soil it grew within and through this we can give justice to the meaning of our main objective to regenerate or to restore.

By giving voice to soils and seeds in the restorative revolution of fashion’s fibers, we can shift mindsets through honorable transparency to provide meaningful storytelling from ground to garment by the means of modern regenerative agriculture.

No longer is ignorance an excuse for social or environmental harm caused along the global supply chain.

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About the author:

Danielle Statham is the founder of Good Earth Cotton and at the helm of one of the most advanced cotton enterprises alongside her husband David, in Australia. Despite Danielle’s appreciation for fashion’s creative expression, she remains acutely aware of the social, environmental, and ethical issues that the industry faces. Recognizing the environmentally conscious consumers’ demand for change, her passion has led a regenerative movement through transparency of data and traceability that is disrupting an industry rooted in tradition. Danielle is also the founder of the FibreTrace traceability technology.

About Transformers Foundation:

Transformers Foundation is the unified voice representing the denim industry and its ideas for positive change. It was founded to provide a thus-far missing platform to the jeans and denim supply chain and a central point of contact for consumers, brands, NGOs, and media who want to learn more about ethics and sustainable innovation in the industry.

For further information, please contact Kim van der Weerd at kim@transformersfoundation.org  or Ani Wells at communications@transformersfoundation.org

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