Researchers Make Surprising Discovery After Studying Farmers’ Regenerative Agriculture Practices: ‘More Than Just Money’

“Regenerative agriculture” refers to the practice of using agriculture not only to grow crops, but also to restore the health of soil and ecosystems. New research from Dartmouth College shows that farmers are increasingly using these methods to reduce their dependence on agrochemical companies, Phys.org. reported.

While farmers can make money from carbon credits by practicing regenerative agriculture, the study authors were somewhat surprised to learn that that’s not what got them off the ground.

Instead, farmers were more motivated by a desire to “get off this treadmill of high-input, high-yield commercial agriculture,” said Suzanne Freudberg, a professor of geography at Dartmouth and co-author of the study. said.

“When farmers When talking about the return on investment in regenerative agriculture, they are talking about more than just money,” Professor Freudberg. added.

Carbon credits are a commercial practice in which companies that pollute the environment pay money to people or organizations that help the environment theoretically offset all the pollution. controversial concept.

Critics called them “pollution license“for large companies that destroy the environment with their products. Instead, they also called for laws to be changed to prevent these companies from pollution in the first place or make it too costly for them to do it profitably.

Reasons why farmers interviewed studying However, in reality everything was much simpler: too many documents and not enough money.

The reasons they turned to regenerative agriculture anyway were as simple as this: good for the land they rely on to make a living.

In even more encouraging news, the study found that farmers who turned to regenerative agriculture also increased their solidarity and collaboration with others in their field. “Farmers who saw regenerative agriculture as a way to gain greater personal freedom also saw that freedom as dependent on the support of other farmers,” Freudberg. said.

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