IAC | Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative Agriculture
Projects

UNDERSTANDING REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
ON NATIVE FARMS & RANCHES

What regenerative agriculture approaches are Native farmers and ranchers implementing on Native lands? What do producers hope to achieve with these practices? What are some of the benefits that come with a regenerative approach?

These are just a few of the questions IAC set out to answer through a series of interviews with our staff and several producer members. Explore this page to discover what they had to say.

OVERVIEW

Learn how IAC and Environmental Defense Fund are collaborating to learn about the impact of regenerative agriculture on Native land.

REGENERATIVE AG ON NATIVE LAND

Find out what Native farmers and ranchers, as well as IAC staff, think about using regenerative agriculture practices.

FINANCIAL DYNAMICS OF REGENERATIVE AG

Explore existing research on the financial impacts of reduced tillage, cover cropping and rotational grazing.

CASE STUDY: ROSE RANCH

Thad Rose owns and operates Rose Ranch. We evaluated the financial profitability of Thad’s sustainable land practices.

ABOUT THE INTERVIEWS

In 2022, IAC and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) interviewed 10 IAC staff members and three Native producers who have obtained IAC’s rege[n]ation seal. Our goal was to better understand the role of regenerative agriculture approaches in Native agriculture, including:

Perceptions about and objectives for using regenerative agriculture approaches

Regenerative agriculture practices currently in use across the country

Financial barriers Native producers face when attempting to incorporate regenerative ag practices

These interviews were conducted as part of IAC’s and EDF’s project, “Financial impacts of regenerative agriculture on Native farms and ranches.”

About The Interviews

QUESTION 1

What is regenerative agriculture?

Native producers and IAC technical assistance staff described regenerative agriculture as:

A holistic approach to revitalizing land and ecological systems. It focuses on improving soil’s ability to regenerate over time by involving the whole farm ecosystem, including humans and wildlife.

It is a mindset that, in many cases, is already inherent in tribal producers. However, various circumstances and barriers hinder the full success of putting these systems into practice. This is why IAC started promoting a full circle regenerative economy where Native producers and businesses are given access to the tools and knowledge they need, provided a financing structure that supports their efforts and endeavors, and market opportunities that can generate long-term profits.

QUESTION 2

What are your goals when it comes to regenerative agriculture approaches?

Native producers consider regenerative agriculture to be an outcomes-based approach for rehabilitating marginal or degraded land. They are motivated to use this approach to achieve goals such as:

Securing long-term agricultural productivity on their farms by focusing on revitalizing soils (including increasing soil organic matter and water retention, reducing wind and water erosion, and reducing toxic runoff)

Improving their communities’ health by addressing food insecurity and improving food sovereignty

Preserving traditional ecological knowledge of Native foods, traditional land management practices, and the cultural aspects of agriculture

Decreasing the impacts of increasingly common and extreme weather events like droughts, extreme heat, and flooding

Image 1: Common terms used when describing regenerative agriculture

QUESTION 3

What practices support achieving your regenerative agriculture goals?

By using farming approaches that support regenerative goals, Native producers are actively working to rebuild the ecological and cultural systems on their land for the long-term benefits of their families and communities. Some of the approaches Native producers associate with regenerative agriculture include:

Maintaining living roots during as much of the year as possible (this usually involves growing cover crops)

Minimizing tillage

Rotational grazing

Efficient water management

Integration of ancestral practices with modern practices

Traditional seed saving and maintaining/planting native plant species

Diversifying crop and animal species on the farm or ranch

Implementing natural buffers

Delaying calving to mimic natural mating cycles

Minimizing the use of chemical inputs (including pesticides, herbicides, antibiotics)

QUESTION 4

What are some of the benefits you’ve experienced with regenerative ag practices?

Native producers have a variety of objectives for using regenerative agriculture approaches. Some shared by the interviewees include:

Agronomic Benefits

Producers aim to increase farm productivity by reducing erosion, increasing nutrient and water retention, increasing soil organic matter, and supporting soil microbiomes. Many interviewees discussed that the land most Native producers are managing is marginal, requiring more thoughtful management in order to be productive. They must regenerate and revitalize the soil to be productive on low-quality agricultural ground.

Community Health and Cultural Preservation

Many Native producers shared a desire to address food insecurity, access and nutrition in their communities by providing healthy food options. Native producers aim to return to their traditional ways of managing ecological and agricultural systems to continue or reestablish their ancestral cultures. Several interviewees discussed how regenerative agriculture approaches are part of their culture and have continued through generations of farmers and ranchers.

Cost Savings

The interviewees noted that producers who have been using regenerative methods for many years have reduced certain input costs as a direct outcome of using regenerative approaches.

QUESTION 5

What advice would you give other producers considering regenerative practices?

The producers and IAC staff interviewees had two main recommendations for producers considering implementing regenerative approaches:

Take it slow & experiment

Take your time adopting new regenerative agriculture practices by implementing them on a small number of acres. This reduces the risk of adopting a new practice and can allow you to experiment, with the goal of finding the most effective approach for your conditions. While doing this, record as much financial and management information as possible so that you can evaluate the impacts of different approaches. And lastly, be patient. It can take a few years to figure out how to manage regenerative practices profitably.

Network with other farmers using regenerative approaches

Have conversations with other farmers who are implementing regenerative practices. They can share their experiences and help advise you. There is a learning curve when adjusting your practices, so speaking with peers can reduce the amount of learning you need to do solely through experimentation.

Interviewees described a wide range of practices that can contribute to regenerative agriculture approaches in different regional and production contexts. They shared that regenerative agriculture practices are extremely dependent on the microclimates and the natural systems present on individual farms and ranches.

Find Technical Assistance and Support

The IAC technical assistants that were interviewed for this project expressed a deep desire to help producers in their region adopt regenerative practices. When getting started, please make sure to connect with your region’s IAC Technical Assistant for support.

Contact Technical Assistance

Regenerative Agriculture Projects

UNDERSTANDING REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE ON NATIVE FARMS & RANCHES