Rodale Institute has pioneered regenerative organic agriculture since our founder, J.I. Rodale, wrote "Healthy Soil=Healthy Food=Healthy People" on a chalkboard back in 1942. His son, Robert Rodale, coined the term 'regenerative organic agriculture' to distinguish a kind of farming that goes beyond simply 'sustainable.' To us, that always meant agriculture improving the resources it uses, rather than destroying or depleting them. It is a holistic systems approach to farming that encourages continual innovation for environmental, social, economic and spiritual wellbeing.

Today, we're proud to announce the new Regenerative Organic Certification, a cooperative effort among a coalition of farmers, ranchers, nonprofits, scientists, and brands, led by Rodale Institute, to establish a new, high-bar standard for regenerative organic agriculture. Owned by this coalition, the NSF International is facilitating the public comments process and is open to many certification partners. The standard encompasses guidelines for soil health and land management, animal welfare, and farmer and worker fairness. Regenerative Organic Certification builds upon the near 100-year legacy of organic movement visionaries like J.I. Rodale and Dr. Rudolf Steiner, and provides stepwise guidance for farming and ranching operations, transportation, slaughter, and processing facilities that produce food, cosmetics, and fiber.

The goals of Regenerative Organic Certification are to increase soil organic matter over time, improve animal welfare, provide economic stability and fairness for farmers, ranchers, and workers, and create resilient regional ecosystems and communities.

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One of the biggest modern myths about agriculture is that organic farming is inherently sustainable. It can be, but it isn’t necessarily. After all, soil erosion from chemical-free tilled fields undermined the Roman Empire and other ancient societies around the world. Other agricultural myths hinder recognizing the potential to restore degraded soils to feed the world using fewer agrochemicals.

When I embarked on a six-month trip to visit farms around the world to research my forthcoming book, “Growing a Revolution: Bringing Our Soil Back to Life,” the innovative farmers I met showed me that regenerative farming practices can restore the world’s agricultural soils. In both the developed and developing worlds, these farmers rapidly rebuilt the fertility of their degraded soil, which then allowed them to maintain high yields using far less fertilizer and fewer pesticides.

Their experiences, and the results that I saw on their farms in North and South Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ghana and Costa Rica, offer compelling evidence that the key to sustaining highly productive agriculture lies in rebuilding healthy, fertile soil. This journey also led me to question three pillars of conventional wisdom about today’s industrialized agrochemical agriculture: that it feeds the world, is a more efficient way to produce food and will be necessary to feed the future.

• MYTH 1: LARGE-SCALE AGRICULTURE FEEDS THE WORLD TODAY
• MYTH 2: LARGE FARMS ARE MORE EFFICIENT
• MYTH 3: CONVENTIONAL FARMING IS NECESSARY TO FEED THE WORLD

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The idea that pesticides are essential to feed a fast-growing global population is a myth, according to UN food and pollution experts.

A new report, being presented to the UN human rights council on Wednesday, is severely critical of the global corporations that manufacture pesticides, accusing them of the “systematic denial of harms”, “aggressive, unethical marketing tactics” and heavy lobbying of governments which has “obstructed reforms and paralysed global pesticide restrictions”.

The report says pesticides have “catastrophic impacts on the environment, human health and society as a whole”, including an estimated 200,000 deaths a year from acute poisoning. Its authors said: “It is time to create a global process to transition toward safer and healthier food and agricultural production.”

The world’s population is set to grow from 7 billion today to 9 billion in 2050. The pesticide industry argues that its products – a market worth about $50bn (£41bn) a year and growing – are vital in protecting crops and ensuring sufficient food supplies.

“It is a myth,” said Hilal Elver, the UN’s special rapporteur on the right to food. “Using more pesticides is nothing to do with getting rid of hunger. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), we are able to feed 9 billion people today. Production is definitely increasing, but the problem is poverty, inequality and distribution.”

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Oregon orchardist Mike Omeg will test a soil and plant nutrition program developed by an Amish farmer with an eighth grade education who has become one of the country’s leading advocates of alternative farming methods.

Omeg, who grows cherries near The Dalles, will work with Oregon State University and Washington State University staff on a three-year grant provided by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. They’ll compare parts of the orchard managed with conventional, industry-standard methods to sections operated with what Omeg described as “intensive nutrient management” of the soil and trees.

The latter method includes applying a mix of mulch and compost to the soil and bi-weekly analysis of plant sap in cherry tree leaves. The sap analysis provides a timeline of the plant’s health and reportedly can give advance warning of pest and disease problems.

Omeg said the system is based on plant and soil biology.

“Instead of trying to balance calcium by applying more to the soil,” he said as an example, “what you try to do is stimulate the soil biology so that (it) makes more calcium available.”

Omeg said he and the university researchers are trying to determine if a nutrient- and soil-centered management approach will work on a commercial scale.

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In 2011, John Chester and his wife Molly set out to create a farm — but not just any farm. The California couple envisioned creating one with a biological system capable of regenerating itself. And they wanted to do it without the conventional use of pesticides or antibiotics.

It was an ambitious dream, especially considering the damaged land they were working with.

“The chemical sprays had killed most all of its biodiversity. No birds, bees or butterflies,” John says. “The soil was rock-hard and dead.”

To transform that land would be a challenging undertaking — an impossible one, to some. “Most farmers called our mission naïve,” John says.

But one farmer didn’t. Alan York supported the Chesters and became their mentor in creating a thriving, diverse sanctuary. Together, they started from square one.

“We started stocking the farm with every animal you would see in a children’s book,” John says. “We planted hundreds of varieties of orchard trees and vegetables. We even restored wildlife habitats. It was insane. But exciting.”

Slowly, the trees began to grow. The animals (including a pig named Emma) were having babies. The farm was progressing rapidly.

Then, the Chesters’ idealistic vision was about to be tested in more ways than one.

Their mentor Alan became seriously ill. Emma the pig became deathly ill after giving birth. Lambs struggled. Snails attacked the trees. The lack of ladybugs meant that crops weren’t protected from aphids. A drought threatened the farm’s water supply.

“We were in over our heads,” John says. “You could feel the skeptics gloating. We began to wonder if our standards were unreasonable.”

Times were trying, but the rains did eventually come. And with the rain, nearly everything began to change.

“As the soils got healthier, the birds and the insects showed up,” John says. “The engine of the farm’s ecosystem and been restarted.”

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