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PLANT HEALTH
Growing beyond the buzzword: regenerative agriculture for people and planet By Hanabeth Luke
Australian farmers are quietly leading a transformation - regenerating soils, biodiversity and profitability, proving they can thrive together when trust, science, and collaboration align.
our farming systems, we need to ask the right ques- tions. ‘How do we grow more food?’ isn’t always the right question. I speak regularly with farmers across rural Australia, and despite the challenges, I am inspired by their deep connection to their land and way of life. How they quietly experiment, adapt and innovate to ensure their farming futures gives me great hope. In 2019, I had the opportunity to lead a world-first regenerative agriculture course, met with wild en- thusiasm by some - and strong resistance by others. I heard, ‘It’s not evidence based’; ‘it’s just another word for sustainability’ ; ‘some feel alienated by it’; or, ‘it’s a buzzword that will quickly fade…’ As a writer, I know words matter - they shape how we respond and act. So, let’s explore some definitions. Sustainable means maintaining; to restore means un- doing damage; to regenerate means renewal, bringing systems back to health. These words sit along a con-
What are the most important things for building a strong and positive farming future? Hold that thought. Globally and locally, we’re grappling with what lead- ing international think tank, the Club of Rome, calls the polycrisis, a tangled web of biodiversity loss, food insecurity, political turmoil and increasingly extreme weather. We are experiencing a ‘productivity paradox’ - despite a dramatic surge in global agricultural output since the 1960s, billions remain undernourished. In Australia, we’re world class at growing food – but we waste about a third of it, pouring five Sydney Har- bours of water into an area of land bigger than Victoria to grow food that goes in the bin. Around 16% never makes it to our shopping trolleys. And of the food that does make it home, one in every five bags ends up in the bin. That’s at a cost of about $2,500 per household each year - enough for a trip to Bali. If we are serious about improving the resilience of
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