According to the documentary "A Life On Our Planet" narrated by nature filmmaker Sir David Attenborough, "We can actually take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to rebuild the soil carbon that 50-plus years of continuous arable farming has removed. To do that, we need to switch to mixed farming systems that include a crop rotation with pastures grazed by cows or sheep."

Sir David Attenborough, and most of the elite of the scientific community, are now telling us that we only have 10 years to act if we are to avoid irreversible climate change. They are also saying that farming must play a leading role in helping us achieve net zero emissions.

According to the HuffPost article "Nature Wants Her Carbon Back" by Larry Kopald, "regenerative agriculture" is predicted to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Studies show that in a period of three years, with the widespread use of regenerative farming practices, more than 100% of the carbon emissions caused by industrial agriculture can be reabsorbed.

As I highlight in my book video, the only way to get rid of climate change is by transitioning to smart energy. This is the era of smart energy. Fewer emissions mean lower bills and increasing our energy dependency on our own countries' resources. Therefore, we need regenerative agriculture to lower carbon dioxide emissions.

So, how do we destroy the soil to such an extent that it releases more carbon dioxide? Subsequent studies reveal that "sustainable and regenerative farming systems" can protect the environment from carbon dioxide emissions. Firstly, it is important to ask this question: what is regenerative agriculture? According to World Resources Institute (WRI), regenerative agriculture, a term coined by organic farming researchers at the Rodale Institute in the 1980s, consists of holistic farming practices that aim to improve soil health and reverse climate change by expanding biodiversity, improving the water cycle, increasing organic matter in soil structure, and transferring carbon emissions from the atmosphere to the soil. The main target of "regenerative agriculture" avoids using chemical pesticides and advocates for methods like crop rotation, livestock rotation, composting, no-till farming, agroecology and agroforestry.

Regenerative agriculture increases the amount of arable topsoil, which results in a healthier, better food system.

The following regenerative agricultural practices aim to improve the well-being of our environment by increasing soil fertility, biodiversity, water retention and cleanliness, and soil carbon sequestration.

Maximizing biodiversity

Enthusiastic Turkish biologist Can Kayacılar describes regenerative agriculture as being "Like the wounds inflicted on bedridden patients, the soil of our country contains huge wounds. Our land needs to be cleaned. In order for us to farm, we need to move to regenerative agriculture and revitalize our soil."

We must regenerate our lands, that is, we must renew them. Instead of researching a handful of soils where we will carry out organic farming, we should regenerate the soils that we already have. The land gives us what we want if we take good care of it. We just have to take care of it. We need to enrich it microbially and increase the proportion of organic material. That is what composts are for, for example. We need to enrich our lands with compost.

Keeping soil covered

Nature always works to fill a vacuum, and bare soil is no different. Keeping it covered protects it from wind and water erosion while preventing moisture evaporation and weed seeds from germinating. According to Scotland’s Farm Advisory Service, most growers choose to keep soil covered by maintaining living roots in the soil as much as possible through the year – typically by growing cover crops in the gaps between cash crops. That also helps retain nutrients and food supply for the microorganisms in the soil.

Integrating livestock

More farmers are taking a second look at integrating livestock into the rotation for the additional benefits it can bring, for example, dung being incorporated into rotation increases organic manure in the soil, promotes species diversity, provides a continuous cover to protect the soil and spreads financial risk over different enterprises.

Grass and clover leys can help to manage weed problems in an arable rotation, such as bromegrass and can also build soil fertility. Ley selection is important to establishing grass, as some varieties perform better cut for silage than for grazing and vice versa. Selecting the correct ley can be significant to the financial return.

Minimizing soil disturbance

Soil typically is approximately 45% mineral (sand, silt and clay), 5% soil organic matter, 25% water and 25% air. Keeping soil at this level requires minimizing soil disturbance. This means avoiding farming practices that interrupt natural soil processes, including physical or chemical alterations.

Maintaining living roots

Having living roots means there is a plant above ground, which protects the soil from erosion and provides the potential for grazing and weed control for the following crops. It helps to reduce leaching of nutrients through the winter. Growing cover crops through the winter absorbs residual nutrients, nitrogen in particular, and retains them before making them available for the next crop as the catch crop decomposes.

In addition, in the United Kingdom, Minette Batters from the National Farmers’ Union has come up with a goal for U.K. farming on the 2040 Net Zero target. British businessperson Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy has now recommended that the government put aside up to 700 million pounds ($818 million) to pay farmers to create nature-rich, carbon sequestering landscapes. Food and farming – a key British sector – has a large carbon footprint, accounting for one-fifth of their emissions. That figure rises to about 30% if you factor in the emissions produced by all the food the U.K. imports. Agriculture accounts for about 10% of emissions, but in recent years there have been a number of commitments to reducing that.

It is quite wrong to think that regenerative agriculture is a fashion and popular motto. On the contrary, the rate of arable land in the world is rapidly decreasing day by day. In addition, regenerative farming is often confused with sustainable or organic farming, but it is not the same thing. In my next article, I will explain the difference between sustainable farming and regenerative agriculture.

To sum up, there could be a way to eat food that heals the planet. We can fix a lot of our climate issues by bringing carbon dioxide emissions down into living plants and putting them back into the soil where they belongs. Healthy soils lead to healthy plants, and healthy plants lead to healthy humans and a healthy climate.