Against the grain: Uncovering Nebraska’s regenerative transition

In this article, Global Farm Metric Trials Manager, Olivia Boothman, shares her experience of visiting Nebraska on behalf of Regen10. Regen10 is a coalition of organisations working together to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture. Alongside partners at the Food and Land Use Coalition (FOLU), the GFM team are leading Regen10’s trials of its Regenerative Outcomes Framework. The trials are an opportunity to test the usefulness of the framework to farmers and test the feasibility of data collection against a holistic set of outcomes, and ultimately to improve the framework based on farmers’ feedback. Trials are taking place in 11 countries across the globe.

I am fascinated by satellite imagery of landscapes. Mostly, I’m looking for clues about the footprint of agriculture in a place – what can it tell us about its past and present. I pore over Google Maps and Google Earth, examining the irregularity of field boundaries and the sizes of fields; crane my neck to see out of the window when my plane makes its descent to land in a new place.

Drop a pin anywhere in Cornwall, England and you are likely to find a higgledy-piggledy arrangement of small green fields separated by wiggly lines of dark green hedgerows, hinting at the pastureland for the livestock-based agriculture which predominates there. Drop a pin in Norfolk and you’ll likely find a neat patchwork of gold, green and brown rectangles separated by largely straight hedgerows, giving us clues of the large-scale arable farming that takes place there.

And so, when I dropped the red pin randomly in the state of Nebraska in the US to get a feel for the place before my trip there as part of the Global Farm Metric’s work with the Regen10 initiative, I was aghast and enthralled in equal measure at what I found. Perfectly square patches of farmland cover the entire southeast of the state. If only my attempts at patchwork quilting looked as neat as this, I thought. If Nebraska is a quilt, the seamstresses are its farmers – agriculture has defined the landscape of Nebraska to such an extent that you can literally see it from space.

As my colleague set off on an equivalent work trip to beautiful Borneo, I wondered if being immersed in the industrial agriculture of Nebraska might tip me from a state of optimism for the future of food and farming, to one of complete despair.

Of course, when I arrived it didn’t take me long to find out about the curiously perfect squares. Graham, a fifth generation farmer, who has recently started converting the farm to regenerative practices, filled me in. A typical Nebraskan farm consists of four equal squares, together making up a big square, with the homestead (farmhouse) located in the middle. Dead straight farm tracks separate the farms and link up to railways where farmers drop off their grain to be transported to large processing units.

Agriculture is clearly the industry of the state – and industrial is the agriculture! As depressing as this might sound, this is also what made this trip fascinating. We met with four inspiring farmers who are going against the grain (pun intended – Nebraska’s main crop is corn) and adopting regenerative agriculture practices. In a sea of conventional (read ‘intensive’) farms, what made these farmers turn their backs on the practices which they know work well to produce high yields?

It’s not economic incentives – most of them still sell their produce into commodity markets, which are not yet set up to offer farmers a price advantage for producing their food using more sustainable methods. Nor is it driven by policy – unlike in the UK, farmers in the US do not receive subsidy support to convert to regenerative systems. Each farmer that we met described an intrinsic motivation for change – whether that be to look after the land so that in return it looks after them, or to hand down a resilient, thriving farm to the next generation.

If the result is that farmers are shifting to regenerative farming practices, why does it matter what their motivations are? Well, for long-term, sustainable change, regenerative agriculture must, in my view, become a social movement, driven by coordinated grassroots action and facilitated by supportive policy and financing.

Farmers’ resolve to change will inevitably be tested. This was evident in Nebraska as the farmers I met told me of the challenges they faced: pesticide drift from neighbouring farms; the genuine risk of falling out with family and friends for farming against the norm; and the lack of infrastructure to support diversification of products. Despite this, they were steadfast in their commitment to farming regeneratively.

“Each farmer that we met described an intrinsic motivation for change – whether that be to look after the land so that in return it looks after them, or to hand down a resilient, thriving farm to the next generation.”

So how can the ‘regen ag’ movement harness the intrinsic motivations of farmers, as well as pushing for fair policy and economic incentives? As agroecology researcher, Dr Nathan Einbinder, shares in his Wicked Leeks column, “I’m a strong believer in farmer-to-farmer approaches as a vehicle to empower producers to experiment and share.” Connecting farmers to each other acts as a vehicle for knowledge sharing, but also provides community to share common goals and challenges. This is something that the Sustainable Food Trust is currently working on through its Beacon Farms project – an initiative to build a network of farms that can serve as educational platforms.

Although the number of farmers employing regenerative practices are low, US supermarkets seem to be jumping on the bandwagon, with sections of the shops dedicated to regeneratively produced food – an indication that there is an appetite among consumers for food grown in harmony with nature. As we continue our work with Regen10 to define the social, environmental and economic outcomes from regenerative agriculture, we will also work to ensure that the policy and economic conditions actively support the small but growing community of farmers who are making brave steps towards changing the status quo.

Reflecting on how centuries of agriculture have shaped the land that I see from a plane window, I wonder what will we see in the future when regenerative agriculture becomes the norm? Not only visible changes from the sky I hope, but also strong, connected and healthy communities.