Why Regen Ag?
To our Harris Farm community,
This week, we're kicking off a campaign with soil and our climate future at the heart of it. We want to be part of the climate solution, and we know a way how.
Regenerative Agriculture is the term given to a new frontier of farming, where chemical inputs (pesticides, herbicides, petroleum-based fertilisers etc.) are replaced with practices that work with and not against mother nature. Regenerative Agriculture, otherwise known as “Regen” can take many forms, but all the farmers doing things this way know one thing … that healthy, living soil is the answer.
Living soil grows more nutrient dense food and increases farming yields.
It holds onto water, making land more resilient in drought.
It is sustainable – conventionally farmed land is on a time limit. It’s estimated that we have only 60 more harvests before those soils are so depleted they will not produce a crop. But unlike soils depleted by chemicals, healthy soils will keep giving forever.
And lastly … (drum roll) … healthy soil can sequester VAST amounts of atmospheric carbon. So while we urgently focus on slowing carbon emissions, soil is a way we can talk about actually drawing down as well.
So basically, it’s a win, win, win, win … win.
Healthy soil = healthy food + healthy you + healthy planet + a healthy farming future.
“Regen” is not a new idea, but it’s one that is still not yet commonplace. And we're hoping Harris Farm can help to change that. We’d like to see these regenerative practices widespread on Australian farms.
So what we’re doing here at Harris Farm is a couple of things. We’re calling all Aussie regenerative farmers to get in touch – we’d love to hear your story and we’d love to sell your stuff. We’re also celebrating the farmers and products we do currently sell who are already on this band-wagon – and we’ll be featuring those in store so you know where they are. We are also providing education to other interested suppliers who don’t know anything about “regen” or how they can implement it, but would like to start.
In addition, we’ve partnered with a composting organisation out of Young, NSW to turn our green waste from our stores into the very best quality humus compost. And we’re selling that in our stores under the brand ’SoilbioticTM’. So you can throw that on your garden at home and see the difference healthy soil can make with your own eyes.
We’ll also be sharing lots of great info with you over the coming weeks about Regenerative Agriculture in practice and why we think it’s so critically important, and also exciting.
To find out more, check out www.harrisfarm.com.au/soil
Angus Harris
Co-CEO, Harris Farm Markets
