REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE LIBRARY AND READING LIST

A regenerative approach to food, fibre and farming is a world of new perspectives and new knowledge. Here is our curated reading and viewing list of some of the material we have found most relevant. The five items highlighted in yellow are our recommended starting points for a journey into this new foundation for all human societies. The list will evolve so do check back from time to time and see what we currently like. We have researched literally hundreds of articles, papers and sources so if you have any specific questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch and of course and please share this if you find it useful.

BOOKS, OVERVIEWS, AND SUMMARIES OF REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

• New Foundation Farms’ 8-page Regenerative Insight #1 which has been referred to as ”the best synthesis of the subject currently available”.

• Brown G (2018) Dirt to Soil, Chelsea Green Publishing Company.

• Butterfield J, Bingham S. and Savory A. (2019) Holistic Management Handbook Third Edition: Regenerating Your Land and Growing Your Profits, Island Press.

• CPD (2012) Farming smarter, not harder: Securing our agricultural economy. 

• Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017) Achieving ‘Growth Within’.

• Gore, A (2019) ‘We really need to wake up quickly’: Al Gore warns of a looming food crisis caused by climate change. The Washington Post.

• IPES-Food (2016) From uniformity to diversity: a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems. International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food systems.

• Jones, C. (2017) Farming Profitably Within Environmental Limits.

• McMahon, P (2016) The investment case for ecological farming. SLM Partners.

• Schwartz, J (2013) Cows Save the Planet: And Other Improbable Ways of Restoring Soil to Heal the Earth, Chelsea Green Publishing Company.

• SavoryInstitute (2019) Regenerative Agriculture Fast Facts (a selection of scientific papers and articles).

• Soloviev E, Landau G (2016) Levels of Regenerative Agriculture. Terra Genesis.

VIDEOS ON REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

• “Regenerating Soil with Diversity”: Brown, G (2018)one-hour video lecture.

• “How to fight desertification and reverse climate change”: Savory, A (2013) 23 minute Ted Talk.

• “Cooling the Climate Mess”: Jehne, W (2019) 1hr 46min video lecture.

REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE WITHOUT GRAZING OPERATIONS

• Nobari, N. (2021) Millions of Tiny Cows to Regenerate the Soil, CounterPunch.org
  “The idea is that nature already has mechanisms in place to break down and recycle nutrients, these processes aren’t dependent on humans providing ecosystems with animals we’ve domesticated.”

RESEARCH PAPERS RELATED TO REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

• Stanley P, Rowntree J et al (2018) Impacts of soil carbon sequestration on life cycle greenhouse gas emissions in Midwestern USA beef finishing systems. 

• Bossio D, Cook-Patton S, EllisP et al. The role of soil carbon in natural climate solutions.

• LaCanne, Lundgren (2018) Regenerative agriculture: merging farming and natural resource conservation profitably.

• Lal, R (2020) Regenerative agriculture for food and climate. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.

• Van der Ploeg,J et al. (2019) The economic potential of agroecology: Empirical evidence from Europe, Journal of Rural Studies.

• Ogilvy S, Gardner Met al. (2018) Report: Graziers with better profitability, biodiversity and wellbeing.

• Thomas, D (2003) A study on the mineral depletion of the foods available to us as a nation over the period 1940 to 1991. National Library of Medicine.

ECOSYSTEM HEALTH & SOIL HEALTH

• Metzger, M.J., A.D. Shkaruba, R.H.G. Jongman and R.G.H. Bunce (2012) Descriptions of the European Environmental Zones and Strata. Wageningen, Alterra, Alterra Report 2281.

• Susan S. Andrews, Douglas L. Karlen, and Cynthia A. Cambardella (2003) The Soil Management Assessment Framework: A Quantitative Soil Quality Evaluation Method. Soil Science Society of America Journal.

• Xu S,Rowntree J et al. (2019) Ecological Health Index: A Short-Term Monitoring Method for Land Managers to Assess Grazing Lands Ecological Health. Environments 6, 67.

UK AGRICULTURAL POLICY & STATE OF PLAY

• UK Environment Agency (2019) Report: ”The state of the environment: soil”.

• National Audit Office (NAO) (2019) Early review of the new farming programme.

• Food, Farming & Countryside Commission (2019) Our Future in the Land.