Co-ops, climate change, and regenerative agriculture.

Dear Coop friends

As I read about the events in Paris at the UN climate talks most of what I hear is tepid.  As the various nations make commitments to carbon caps it looks like not enough. Perhaps you could call it good news that some weak agreements might come from this meeting unlike most past summits.  

But today I read some accounts from Paris that were genuinely hopeful.  December 3^rd was World Soil Day and climate and agriculture activists in Paris were writing about regenerative agriculture and soil carbon sequestration.  Activists are making the point that well documented agricultural processes can sequester as much as 10 tons of carbon per acer per year and this could reverse global warming. 

At the conference the French government has launched an initiative to bring together contributors in the public and private sectors to “demonstrate that agriculture, and agricultural soils in particular, can play a crucial role where food security and climate change are concerned.”  Apparently this is the first time climate negotiators have recognized the “imperative of transforming and regenerating our global food and farming system in order to reverse global warming.”

I think this is important for us in the food sector of the consumer coop movement.  Those of us deeply involved in the running of the food coop know the story:  we brought organic to the retail food world, others adopted, now even Kroger’s has a its own line of organics; we spearheaded the promotion of local farmers and now even out of town businesses are selling “local.”  With the flooding of the market with products that reflect our values we are victims of our own success.  My thought is that regenerative agriculture is our next opportunity to lead.

While it is true that organic and regenerative have considerable overlap they are not the same.  Just as most chemical agriculture is eroding top soil, plenty of organic farmers are engaged in practices that results in a degeneration of the carbon levels in the soil. 

I think food coops are naturally suited to provide leadership around regenerative agriculture. Here are three ways that food coops in general and our food coop in particular could contribute to the regenerative agriculture movement. 

 We can start talking about it, with our members and in our store and with our local farmer friends. Food grown with regenerative methods that pulls carbon into the soil is a value added proposition for anyone who cares about global warming.  But this is an idea that is not generally understood, we’ve got to educate, and that is something we do well.  Perhaps we can find a way to distill our message to a few letters and certain products care wear a “RGN” moniker the way  products are now labeled “ORG” (of course the ORG wouldn’t go away) But maybe regenerative agriculture requires more of the story. This farmer does inter cropping, this farmer does no till, this farmer does agroforestry and so on

We can encourage our local farm friends to embrace the concept. For many small organic farmers they may already be involved in regenerating the carbon in their soli.  We want them to talk about it, to call it by name. Just as the first organic certification programs were farmer driven, we can encourage regenerative farmers to organize and articulate what they do that goes beyond the organic label.  Organic now means whatever the government wants it to mean.  I think some farmers will be excited to have a way to articulate what they do that’s different without direction from the government

Finally we can talk with the big agricultural coops about regenerative agriculture. This is not something we have historically done well, but it is in line with the principle of cooperation among cooperatives. My impression is that the big ag farmers generally aren’t interested in “environmental causes” and many big farmers are climate skeptics, nonetheless, big farmers are losing top soil and may be open to things that could change that.

There is a multi-sector coop organization Mid America Cooperative Council that has interested me but I haven’t been quite sure if connecting with it made sense.  Now, thinking about regenerative agriculture I think we should be at that table. As Rod Kelsey from MACC said to me “We really need a more diverse coop sectors represented.  You all will find strength in diverse thought. “Clearly a small food coop representative can’t show up and try to tell big Ag how to do business, but we could ask questions, “is top soil loss a problem for your members?” “Do you know anything about regenerative agriculture?” “What are your best practices?”  This kind of soft advocacy is advocacy for our members and an opportunity for us to learn.  And completing the loop our members should know that when they shop at our store they are supporting us in having those conversations.

The French Initiative http://4p1000.org/understand  

Regeneration International is an advocacy organization http://regenerationinternational.org/

Mid America Cooperative Council  http://macc.coop/