Amongst the excitement of Agvention, hosted last month at the Farm Store*, the question was raised as to the production benefits of a regenerative farm over a “conventional” one (chemical farm). Now the dust has settled, and we’ve had time to reflect, this really is the million-dollar question! Why change unless regenerative is more productive?
Well after much number crunching and head scratching, I think the answer is NO – regenerative farms are not more productive – at least not initially and not in a conventional sense.
Production and Profitability, however, are two vastly different things. Production doesn’t pay the mortgage! You can have the highest production in the world but if that comes at a cost higher than the value of what you are producing, then why bother? Are we talking Productivity or Profitability? Are you happy to go broke but produce the highest yield? Do you even know your cost of production?
There are a number of complicating factors in addressing this seemingly basic question:
- Moving away from cyclical anti-parasitic chemical treatments (as an example in Livestock) to natural inputs reduces input costs. Natural products like DE Grainsave and Bos Bags for fly, Copper Sulphate and rotations for internal parasites, Sulphur and Allicin (Bos Lik) for Tick & biting insects, Homeopathics, free choice mineral feeding, controlled waters, dung beetles, cattle egrets, animal selection and natural resilience all cost comparatively little Vs Commercial Chemicals; but in learning how to work with these natural products and systems, and allowing animals to “detox”, sometimes there is a time of reduced yield, if not reduced profitability.
- A conventional livestock operation that switches from set-stocking to time-controlled grazing, may not be “regenerative” in any other way, but will always produce more kilograms of yield per hectare just by adopting that one change. How much of the change are we attributing to Regenerative when the rest of the operation is “conventional”.
- Is all production equal? Synthetic fertilisers in crop production, Genetic Modification and artificial growing conditions – having predators suppressed with poisons, may lead to a high yield, but is the food as healthy, residue free and as nutritious as Organic and Regenerative produce? Unfortunately in our Supermarket dominant system, consumers buy products more on their look and shelf life than their taste, diversity or nutritional qualities.
- We may have to change what we grow, buy and eat. Perhaps thousands of acres of Soybean, Nuts or Wheat in a monoculture, when costs and benefits are properly evaluated, is not what a production system should look like? To change a system requires a different approach – especially to harvesting. “Humans don’t do complexity well” is what we learnt from Brian Whelburg at Agvention. Are we utilising what is growing for free? If we learnt anything at Agvention it was that “Weeds” often have higher nutritional profiles than commercial crops. World-first information on the nutritional benefits to humans of GRT seed was released at the event (as an example). In a Regenerative system we look to capture these gifts from nature, in conventional – we kill them- or spend money trying to.
- And finally, the big one: are environmental outcomes simultaneously improving with production more in a Regenerative system or a “conventional” one? Measurement (and monetisation) of biodiversity and habitat improvements, soil & water improvement and land contamination that will have an intergenerational consequence are emerging as serious considerations in how our food is produced and our land is managed. Detrimental production techniques won’t be free forever.
So, in terms of how Production is measured we are perhaps comparing Apples with Pears (and I don’t mean literally)!
Which system is the most profitable? That is a much easier question. By reducing input costs and engaging natural cycles, the entire system becomes less reliant on a “good season” hence more climatically resilient and hence ultimately more profitable long term.
A side-benefit of a system focused on life rather than death is less exposure to poisons for farmers, neighbours and consumers.
* Kandanga Farm Store is the country’s first Rural Store specialising soley in non-chemical, regenerative food production systems, advice and products. Agvention, Australia’s Regenerative Agriculture
