Seeking Regenerative Farming, Finding Poetry— How losing the definitions in agriculture gains yields & creativity

What’s in a name? 

In modern agriculture, we’re an industry focused on titles. Organic. Regenerative. Sustainable. We chase these words, attempting to define them as a set process to follow. The reward is an understandable label that announces, “I did all the steps to grow this crop correctly.” Along the way, we create a rigid ‘right way’ and ‘wrong way,’ erasing all opportunity for imagination, customization, and the chance to do it your way. 

But what if we thought about these terms not as restrictive guidelines, but as a creative movement? One that was measured not in nitrogen and phosphorus, but in emotion and effort?

Take the term ‘sustainable.’ To me, sustainability means your capacity, ability and passion to do good for the world. And it’s a spectrum. As you grow in financial sustainability throughout your career, you develop an ever-greater ability to do even more good. This is true for society as a whole, but it also translates more specifically to agriculture and farming. One of the measurements of the most successful farmer, therefore, should be sustainability.

When we are no longer boxed in by a process, each farmer can define these terms on their own, transitioning from a linear way of thinking about agriculture to a self-defined, abstract way that allows everyone to do it a little differently. 

For example, take the term “regenerative” when applied for farming. It has a hundred definitions, everyone is doing it differently, and every farmer thinks their way is the best. For example, one of the leaders in the farming movement has said he believes that if you want to be a regenerative farmer, you can’t use chemicals on your fields. For that farmer, the definition of “regenerative” is a box that only chemical-free farmers can check off. To think outside of that box now requires extra effort.

But what if there was never a box to begin with? Once you form a defined box, creativity gets stifled. But if we keep the idea of ‘regenerative’ as an abstract concept, any farmer has a chance to experiment. Really, it’s approaching farming as art or poetry, rather than science—where special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas. In this way, each farmer can come up with his or her own thought process and intensity in a free-flowing global creative movement that encourages innovation.

By seeing things like regenerative or sustainable farming as an approach, not a method, every farmer’s individual style might be different, with varying levels of intensity. The only fixed element is to start with a no-till canvas. In my case, my poetry is communicated through ecological farming—by bringing in birds and insects to my fields by planting flowering cover crops that bloom at different times, by monitoring wildlife and outflows of nitrogen and phosphorus. But another farmer might not be focused on pollinators, the farmer I mentioned earlier, might convey his agricultural poetry by avoiding the use of chemicals on his fields. 

All of this works under the concept of ‘regenerative farming’ if we allow each farmer the poetic, non-linear license to uniquely cultivate their land, inspired by their own creativity, their own environment, and their own goals. And by stepping away from a series of steps in a process to ‘the right way,’ we are able to better respond to the natural cycles around us. Inside the box, farming is a blank canvas where farmers rigidly control their environment. Outside the box, where farming is free-flowing, we can complement, rather than control our fields.

It’s a challenge for agricultural professionals to think this way. There’s so much pressure to emulate the experts that have sought to define what words like “regenerative” mean. And there’s some comfort and safety in the idea that by following the same steps every time, you can get the same result—especially in an industry like farming. But I believe that discomfort is the feeling we should be chasing, because discomfort leads to growth, new ideas, and innovation.

The outcome of a poetic, rather than methodical, approach to regenerative farming? It’s getting so many things we work hard following rigid steps to achieve in agriculture, but often, never quite accomplish—better balance in the soils, waking them up and making them alive. Along with that, farmers will see less nitrogen and phosphorus, runoff, better water infiltration, better stormwater management. And your fields become more aesthetically pleasing, with more ecological activity, with a closer mimicry of the natural world so it embraces more animals, plants and diversity. The result of creative, poetic regenerative farming is not just yield and productivity, but a balanced approach that also values beauty and life.

As farmers, our fields are expansive, our horizons are expansive—and our profession transforms when we approach it just as openly. Ditch the hard definitions, embrace the chance to figure out your own way to regenerative farming— the results will be a kind of poetry, alive, unique, and evolving. Just like the natural world we are lucky to cultivate.