Debunking Myths around Regen: Small-scale farmers don’t know how to regenerate

This blog post is part of a collaborative series between Materra and Cotton Diaries aimed at debunking misconceptions surrounding regenerative agriculture. In this second article, we dive into Myth #2: Small-scale farmers don’t know how to regenerate. It's written by Simon Ferrigno, a writer and researcher focusing on cotton and sustainability. He has previously worked at the International Institute for Environment and Development and Pesticide Action Network UK, now writing for Ecotextile News and consulting with various NGOs and brands. 

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Farming rests on a simple truth: if you don’t look after the land, the soil, the seeds, and the farmers’ friends, you will not be able to sustain crop growing over time. In such a system, you must constantly renew, or regenerate, your soils (or move on, or die; History is replete with examples of “civilizations” falling because they pass their carrying capacity), replenish your seeds, and understand your resources (land, water, manure, people, sun) and threats (weather, pests, diseases, raiders, landlords). This is especially true when you don’t have access to research centres and cheap ways of making pesticides and fertilizers derived from fossil fuel byproducts. 

Ancient traditions, both written and oral, refer to this. Recorded human knowledge, ranging from the Vedic traditions of India to ancient Rome, emphasizes the importance of keeping land productive. Archaeology and anthropology also teach us this. It is not just tradition, but sacred. In the case of the Vedas (The Vedas are the foundational texts of Hinduism, and some of the oldest scriptures from India; they are however not only a religious document, but rather a record of a culture. You can read a good introduction here), for example, skillful human management of the land is seen not only as a valued human tradition, but a sacred responsibility: natural resources possess sanctity, even a divine nature.

Ancient traditions are big on annual renewal– what we call today regeneration–bringing back the light after night, spring after winter. However, knowledge is also a concept that can and is controlled or directed, and so an instrument of power, which can disadvantage small farmers and marginal communities, given the power of the food and agribusiness industries over global policy.

In the past, farmers often mixed farming with other activities, with farming being just one element in a mix of activities, and with people not necessarily even being in any way permanently settled (for an exploration of how and why people may have moved in and out of different production systems, and why there was no sudden agricultural revolution, it’s worth reading the Dawn of Everything). As recently as the late Middle Ages in Europe (and probably much more recently elsewhere), stability was an essential goal in farming, traded off against riskier higher productivity. Local stability however only tends to last until some intense and/or rapid stress destabilises the system: competition, population growth, powerful interests, climate change, pests, labour shortages, disease, war, politics, a technical or scientific innovation, etc … sound familiar?

Today, that fragility is held at bay by high chemical use and constant research and innovation in a never-ending treadmill race. External events can overrun a system’s stability, which is why people are seeking new/old solutions like “regenerative” farming. However, regenerative is also a concept that lacks an agreed-upon definition, meaning it is also at risk of co-option by powerful interests that could take it away from local interests and meanings.

Farmers and rural communities have always struggled with the vagaries of unpredictable weather. They have sought ways to be resilient, or protected from threats such as pest attacks (which is why the siren calls of seed, pesticides, and tech purveyors are so attractive). 

The need for “regeneration” is because innovations are often highly disruptive. While the last few decades have seen farm productivity increase, they have also seen a lot of damage to ecosystems. Sustainable agriculture (as a broad concept covering interventions ranging from reducing damage to repairing systems) is trying to fix this. 

Locally-adapted seeds are critical because they are selected for their ability to produce and resist local pests and diseases from long selection to their “terroir” by farmers (a hard to translate concept that places farming, and produce, within its landscape of land, culture, people, tradition, biodiversity, and so on. It is often used in viticulture, to describe how adapted crops produce locally-distinct wines), who know these seeds, and how to combine and cycle their planting. Good soils are also crucial and the key to regeneration. This is why many projects are also seeking to rediscover traditional or indigenous seeds, including in cotton. One project by FIBL, Seeding the Green Future, is working on seed supply and research.

Adaptation and regeneration

Farmers through history have not just regenerated but adapted, living within boundaries of available resources, weather patterns and community needs. We talk about adaptation to climate change as if it is something new, but it’s what farmers have always done. It’s why science needs to talk to farmers, and why policy makers, and business, need to listen to and follow both. 

Smallholder farmers and rural landscapes hold a wealth of biological diversity and knowledge. Traditional and small-scale farming doesn’t focus on productivity of one crop for one market, but on the resilience of many crops working together to provide food and fibre security as well as surplus for either storage or sale. It’s the whole system that counts. The best at enduring and renewing are farmers with their eyes both backwards and forwards, drawing on traditional and ancestral knowledge, as well as science and new learning. 

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