Holistic Review of Regenerative Agriculture in the Intermountain West

Charter Summary:

The agriculture and food system face numerous challenges, including soil degradation, reduced productivity, and environmental impacts, making this system ripe for transformation. Farmers and producers in the Intermountain West are exploring and adopting regenerative agriculture, a nature-based approach that aims to reverse the degradation of soil ecosystem health to improve conventional agriculture’s negative impacts on the food system. However, this transformation poses challenges like a lack of research, a lack of a model to follow to adopt regenerative agricultural practices, and more.

This Charter brings together members of the Transformation Network from across the Intermountain West along with a team of community partners to explore the ways the transformation to regenerative agriculture requires systems-wide support. The team is organizing a collaborative research paper with community partners that will review the disruptions driving the transformation toward regenerative agriculture, offer an assessment of the challenges growers face in making this transition, and offer ways forward to shift into a new agricultural regime. This collaborative endeavor holds implications for the fields of agriculture and Extension, offering valuable insights into the food-energy-water system and regional research needs specific to the IMW.