Before defining regenerative agriculture, it’s important to note what it isn’t. Recognizing the harmful practices that have led to the urgent need for regenerative methods provides crucial context. Regenerative agriculture offers a powerful solution to today’s interconnected crises, including the climate crisis, poverty, declining food security, and biodiversity loss. SHI’s regenerative practices create ripple effects that benefit the environment, wildlife, human health, and the climate. While beneficial farming practices should be the norm, the unfortunate reality is that many individuals and companies farm in a destructive way, negatively impacting us all.
Transportation of conventionally grown sugarcane in Northern Belize.
First, what it isn’t
Regenerative agriculture is not conventional, industrial, or degenerative. Conventional agriculture heavily relies on synthetic chemicals in the form of fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals wreak havoc on plants and fungal networks underground. Once used on a farm, it takes significant time and effort to restore the soil to a healthy state.
SHI-Belize partner farmer Juvini Acosta reforests land affected by conventional agriculture.
Industrial agriculture prioritizes profit over the health of the planet. It involves practices that intensively scale at the expense of ecosystems and living organisms. Monocultures cover vast areas with a single crop, violating natural laws and putting plants at risk. If a disease affects one plant in a monoculture, it can quickly spread due to the lack of genetic diversity. These practices force the soil to produce food with minimal nutrients, and eventually, the soil becomes incapable of supporting plant growth. Optimizing profit under industrial farming methods is also at the expense of animal life. Deforestation destroys animal habitats, causing population declines and even extinction.
Our health is also negatively affected by unsustainable farming systems. If you believe the saying, ‘you are what you eat,’ then you don’t want to consume food from farms that deplete vital nutrients from the soil.
What it is
Regenerative farming methods actively work to strengthen underground fungal networks, reversing the damage inflicted by conventional agriculture. SHI regenerative farmers in Central America harness the power of nature to produce abundant harvests, reforest the tropics, and contribute to global climate action.
SHI-Panama partner farmer María Andrea Mendoza shows her sustainable farm.
The umbrella term “regenerative agriculture” covers a variety of techniques, all centered around the same principles: prioritizing the health of the soil, the environment, and all living beings. This framework recognizes soil as the foundation of the food systems that sustain us. In improving the soil, SHI farmers improve the environment. On a global scale, regenerative farms play a crucial role in carbon drawdown efforts, contributing to urgent climate action.
“Regenerative systems improve the environment, soil, plants, animal welfare, health, and communities. The opposite of Regenerative is Degenerative. This is an essential distinction in determining practices that are not regenerative. Agricultural systems that use Degenerative Practices and inputs that damage the environment, soil, health, genes, and communities and involve animal cruelty are not regenerative.
SHI farmers adopt regenerative principles through agroforestry, agroecology, and the avoidance of chemicals. Agroforestry integrates existing forests and restores deforested areas, harmonizing farming with the local ecosystem. Agroecological practices take a holistic approach, promoting the health of crops and the surrounding environment that supports them. Organic methods like composting and biofertilizers minimize reliance on synthetic chemicals. Together, these practices exemplify SHI’s commitment to returning nutrients and minerals to where they belong—within the soil.
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