No matter where you are in the world, one thing ties people together: We all gotta eat. But the ways people go about producing food can have disastrous consequences for the environment. With climate change already breathing down our necks, many are now pointing to sustainable methods of farming like regenerative agriculture as a blueprint for the future.
Modern agriculture has led to a number of issues worldwide. For example, monoculture farming — where you use a single plot of land to just grow one product, like corn — ruins soil fertility. And in 2018, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services reported that over 75% of the world's lands had been substantially degraded. Per National Geographic, the "rapid expansion and unsustainable management of croplands" are the biggest factors driving the issue.
Before modern agriculture, Indigenous communities across the globe practiced forms of regenerative agriculture — even if that wasn't necessarily the name they used. For example, the National Farmers Union pointed out that while diverse farming systems are central to regenerative agriculture, Indigenous Americans have long practiced intercropping — which is when two or more crops are planted together.
You don't have to look further than the "Three Sisters" to see Indigenous intercropping in practice. Often attributed to Northeastern communities, specifically the Iroquois, "Three Sisters" farming involved planting corn, beans, and squash all together. With this history in mind, A-dae Romero-Briones, the director of the agriculture and food systems program for the First Nations Development Institute, reminds people that all definitions of regenerative agriculture must include "a true history of land and the environment and people’s health that starts prior to [European colonization]".
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