Coming Back to Earth with Agroecology: Regenerating Our Soils and Our Communities Out of Agrochemical-Heavy Conventional Farming

By Ilinca Johnson

Agriculture could become one of the greatest mitigation forces of climate change, as well as remedy and prevent environmental justice issues in the American food system. Currently, the ability of the food system to meet food security needs is threatened by soil erosion, which is created by climate change, and conventional farming practices. An estimation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggests more than 57 billion tons of soil are eroded on Midwest farms due to conventional farming practice. These soil-negative circumstances are worsening already poor conditionsfor many farm workers and rural communities across America. Regenerating agricultural soils with agroecology through holistic system uplift goes together with making American farming a climate solution and addresses historic and present wrongs in rural and environmental justice communities.

Agroecology is distinctly and explicitly a systems theory similar to regenerative agriculture. However, agroecology goes further and approaches social and economic dimensions of localized, territorial food systems. When considering approaches to the systematically marginalized, agroecology “seeks to minimize external inputs and optimize sustainable interactions between plants, animals, humans and the broader environment.” Historically, agroecology originates from indigenous food practices before entering scientific literature in the past hundred years. Now, agroecology is promoted as a climate and social justice solution locally and globally.

Agroecology comprises both ecological and social principles. First, there is a link between the vitality of the soil microbiome and crops to be able to hold down higher carbon stocks, not erode, and maintain the health of civilization. If healthy soil bacteria and fungi are gone, then the soil degrades and cannot sustain plant-life. Humans depend on cropland for 99.7% of their food. With proper management from the agroecological regenerative farming techniques,the United States’ historical declines over the past two centuries of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) can be reversed. Boosting SOC means drawing carbon out of the atmosphere, leading to the revitalization of soils and microscopic soil life. That then revitalizes surrounding or integrated ecosystems and rural communities, as well as provides more nutrient-rich foods to people everywhere.

Second, the social and cultural principles of agroecology encompass the local and cultural-specifics of farmworkers and rural communities, respectively. Agroecology facilitates co-creating and sharing of knowledge within the context-specific agricultural lands, incorporating local culture and food traditions, and building capacities that improve livelihoods and the rights of locals. Further, agroecology recognizes that these communities heavily depend on terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity and services for both livelihood and sustenance, requiring community-level governance with stakeholders. Lastly, agroecology is an agricultural mechanism for just transition, necessitating a shift to a circular, non-extractive economy.

At this time, 80% of all global agricultural land is moderately to severely eroded—to the point of no longer being arable from conventional farming practices. Modern, industrial agriculture replaces multispecies ecosystems with monoculture crops and technologies like laser-guided tractors and agrochemicals. Agrochemicals include herbicides, fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics, and fungicides. Agrochemicals kill even beneficial soil microbes, causing soil fertility declines, and disrupting surrounding wild ecosystems by killing natural predators. More agrotechnological inputs are required to maintain crop yields as soil dies. Deteriorating soil fertility makes crops more vulnerable to insects. The negative repercussions extend to humans.

Rural agricultural communities living near farms or CAFOs are exposed to pesticides through their employment and pesticide drift. These pollutants can affect farmworkers and rural community members acutely in the short-term by causing headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and rashes. Over the long-term, pesticide and herbicide exposure can lead to cancer, asthma, suicide, autoimmune diseases, Parkinson’s disease, or sterility. Prenatal exposure has been associated with neurodevelopmental problems including lower IQ, and issues with brain function, reflexes, and ability to connect. Up to 300,000 farmworkers become ill each year because of pesticide exposure.

Significant consolidation of farming operations is leading to fewer protections for farmworkers and ruralcommunities. During the late 1940s, researchers investigated whether increasing the concentration of power in farming, as small independent farms decreased, has had an impact on communities’ overall wellbeing. Early researchdemonstrated that having greater numbers of small farms was related to community wellbeing, an outcome that received huge backlash by corporations. As a result, the USDA shut down its unit that commissioned this research. Later research, including much larger quantitative studies, showed similar findings to these early researches.

Runoff from crop fields and livestock releases large amounts of pollutants into neighboring bodies of water, accounting for “65 to 75 percent of all pollution in the most polluted waters of the United States.” Direct discharge of animal wastes, particularly Concentrated Animal Feeding Lots (“CAFOs”), lowers water quality and the standard of health within ecosystems. Waste spills from larger CAFO’s with poor sanitation are prone to waste spills and can cause public health emergencies, affecting nearby aquatic habitats and species. In North Carolina during the summer of 1995, there were seven major spills from waste lagoons, six related to hog feeding operations. Over more than 30 million gallons of hog waste poor into waterways, resulting in a “massive fish-kill” with over 15 million fish killed in their rivers.

A study from the California Institute for Rural Studies found that 45% of Fresno County farmworkers and 66%of Salinas Valley farmworkers are food insecure, despite living in two of the most agriculturally productive regions of the U.S. Farmworkers often live in substandard housing conditions that are overcrowded, whose conditions are unsanitary, where basic utilities are lacking, and in areas isolated for basic service needs including health clinics, grocery stores, and public transportation. Historically, big agriculture leaders and state law enforcement have met protests of farmworker treatment with violence and opposition.

The situation is not lost to the wind—soil is regenerative. So are people and surrounding communities given empowerment and resources. With the right practices, soil can be renewed, unlike fossil fuels in systems that also benefit small farmers and laborers, surrounding rural communities, and even the consumer too. In the first book ever published on American Agriculture, Connecticut Farmer Jared Eliot used the end of his introduction to consider what occurs when the best techniques are taken to the soil: “the progress that hath been made in So Short a Time is very wonderful.”