A massive research study will test the impact and power of regenerative agriculture
For years, success stories about regenerative food systems and their potential for carbon sequestration, water retention, promotion of life and profitability have been dismissed because critics insisted on data to “validate” the impact of regenerative agriculture at a mass scale. The 1,000 Farms Initiative is the study that refutes this way of thinking.
We don’t have a choice — we must grow food and conserve biodiversity and environmental health on our farms and at scale. This requires change in many elements of our food system — from farmers, to consumers, to our health system, to the way we govern our land. Science has to change too, and the Ecdysis Foundation is reimagining how science is applied in order to usher in an evolution of our food system.
Regenerative agriculture sits at the intersection of a healthy environment, productive farming, and social and economic health and resilience. The many moving parts at that nexus require appropriate science to understand the system-level interactions of farms and to develop and deliver relevant, forward-thinking solutions to growers. Regenerative practices are implemented at the level of individual farms, but the solutions and their delivery need to reach growers and be implemented on a national level. That is why we are embarking on the 1,000 Farms Initiative.
The multi-year, rigorous 1,000 Farms Initiative will be the most ambitious, focused inventory of agroecology to date, evaluating the power of regenerative agriculture on a network of over 1,000 farms. Ecdysis teams will be deployed to measure how agricultural management practices influence water, soil health, carbon, biodiversity, and economics and profit for food producers.
The study has two primary goals. First, we will answer whether regenerative farming works, regardless of where you live or what you grow. Next, we will develop farmer-inspired roadmaps that farmers can use to successfully transition to regenerative production.
Through the 1,000 Farms Initiative — beginning with 500 farms in 2022 and expanding to 1,000 by 2023 — Ecdysis will complete full-site inventories on farms that are in various stages of regenerative adoption. By 2025 the goal is to use partnerships, demonstrations and education curricula to extend the reach of the research to over 600,000 food producers. The study will include every region of the United States and farmers and producers at varying levels of regenerative adoption. On-farm measurements will seek to determine each farm’s soil chemical and physical properties (including soil carbon), water dynamics, soil microbiology, plant and animal communities and biodiversity, pest and disease pressure, and more. Data will then be analyzed to show producers the health of their land, how their land compares with others and how to incorporate regenerative methods into their agricultural production.
There is a sense of urgency for change. Science is slow, and it needs to start now and at a size that has never been attempted before. Since its founding in 2016, we at the Ecdysis Foundation have been developing new technologies, procedures and partnerships intended to generate, analyze, interpret and share an unprecedented amount of farm- and landscape-level data. To support this initiative, a detailed and multifaceted communications strategy has been developed for disseminating farm-level results to agricultural communities to inspire change. A systems-level monitoring program will establish the local, regional and national impacts of this initiative on soil health, biodiversity and farm prosperity.
To save our place on this planet, we must change our food system, and we believe that this study will have an extraordinary impact on everything from how consumers eat to how policies and funding are directed.
The Ecdysis Foundation is currently seeking farm sponsors and farmers to participate in an initial study, laying the groundwork for further research on 500 farms in 2022. Potential participants can learn more and sign up at ecdysis.bio.
Dr. Jonathan Lundgren is an agroecologist. He is the director of the Ecdysis Foundation and the CEO of Blue Dasher Farm. One of his priorities is to re-envision how science is conducted to help fuel a revolution in regenerative agriculture.
