Regenerative agriculture highlighted as a transformative approach to ecological farming and soil recovery
A new critical review, published in the journal CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, highlights the emergence and scientific basis of regenerative agriculture – proposing a working definition centred on ecological cycles and farm system outcomes.
CABI
A new critical review, published in the journal CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, highlights the emergence and scientific basis of regenerative agriculture – proposing a working definition centred on ecological cycles and farm system outcomes.
Dr Nicholas Bardsley, author of the paper from the Department of Agri-Food Economics and Marketing at the University of Reading, suggests that as global agriculture faces intensifying soil degradation, climate disruption, and ecological breakdown, there is a need for a deeper re-evaluation of how food is produced and what it means to farm regeneratively.
Drawing from peer-reviewed science, grey literature, practitioner perspectives, and the latest soil ecology, the review examines the rise of regenerative agriculture (RA) and its potential to transform farming systems from extractive to restorative.
The review offers a critical yet constructive assessment of RA’s practices, definitions, and evidence base, positioning it as a farmer-led, soil-cantered movement grounded in the principles of ecological restoration.
Redefining regenerative agriculture
While regenerative agriculture is gaining traction globally, its definition remains contested, Dr Bardsley in the review suggests. He posits that it is farming geared towards working with and enhancing natural nutrient, carbon, and hydrological cycles for agricultural benefit.
This is grounded in research with self-identified RA farmers, as well as soil science literature and agroecological theory. Rather than prescribing specific methods, it emphasizes observable outcomes – improved soil function, biological activity, and resilience – allowing flexibility across farming contexts.
Scientific foundations and soil as a living system
The review synthesizes emerging insights from soil science that challenge conventional models of soil formation and fertility. Whilst it is often assumed that soil degradation is irreversible, recent evidence shows that biological processes – particularly those driven by plant-microbe interactions – can rebuild soil organic matter and structure far more rapidly than once believed.
It is suggested that RA’s practices – such as cover cropping, zero or minimal tillage, livestock integration, and biological inputs – tap into these processes, enabling the regeneration of the “soil food web” and the reactivation of nutrient and water cycles.
Regenerative farmers are not just conserving what’s left—they’re striving to rebuild what’s been lost, the review highlights.
Ecological and societal co-benefits
Indeed, the review outlines a range of co-benefits associated with regenerative agriculture, including enhanced carbon sequestration and potential climate change mitigation; reduced reliance on synthetic inputs, lowering emissions and pollution; biodiversity restoration, both above and below ground; improved resilience to drought, disease, and economic volatility; and possible public health benefits via improved crop quality and soil microbiome exposure.
The review notes growing scientific interest in links between soil health, crop nutrient density, and human health outcomes – highlighting RA’s potential to contribute to broader public goals.
Challenges to adoption and policy blind spots
Despite its promise, the paper highlights systemic barriers to wider uptake of RA. These include the lack of long-term public research funding for systems-level trials, narrow conceptions of evidence-based practice, and policy frameworks – like the UK’s Environmental Land Management scheme – that fall short of incentivizing whole-system change.
Certification and market-based approaches are critiqued for the risk of greenwashing, with the review warning that co-option of the “regenerative” label could dilute its ecological integrity. It calls for place-based support and experimentation, prioritising farmer knowledge and ecological monitoring.
A New Paradigm?
The review suggests that regenerative agriculture is not a set of technical tweaks, but a new paradigm grounded in systems thinking and ecological reciprocity. By recognizing living processes as central to soil regeneration, RA challenges dominant assumptions in both science and policy.
The paper closes by urging funders, researchers, and institutions to invest in systems-level research that reflects the complexity of farming ecosystems—and to centre regenerative farmers as agents of ecological knowledge and innovation.
Additional information
Main image: As global agriculture faces intensifying soil degradation, climate disruption, and ecological breakdown, there is a need for a deeper re-evaluation of how food is produced and what it means to farm regeneratively (Credit: Pixabay).
Full paper reference
Bardsley, N, ‘Regenerative Agriculture: its Meaning, Rationale, Prospective Benefits and Relation to Policy,’ CABI Agriculture and Bioscience, 21 August 2025, DOI: 10.1079/ ab.2025.0062
The full review can be read here from 12:00 UK time 21 August 2025: https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/ab.2025.0062
Media contact
Dr Nicholas Bardsley – University of Reading, email: n.o.bardsley@reading.ac.uk
About CABI Agriculture and Bioscience
CABI Agriculture and Bioscience is an open access journal publishing high-quality, rigorously peer-reviewed multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary research focused on agriculture, food security, and the environment.
Journal
CABI Agriculture and Bioscience
Method of Research
Literature review
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Regenerative Agriculture: its Meaning, Rationale, Prospective Benefits and Relation to Policy
Article Publication Date
21-Aug-2025
MSU scientist partners on biofuel policy for a carbon-neutral agricultural future
Michigan State University
Why this matters:
- Biofuels have long been regarded as a key tool for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, but current policies often overlook the carbon benefits of sustainable farming practices. Therefore, farmers could be rewarded for adopting practices such as no-till farming, crop rotation, cover cropping, variable rate input, precision conservation and emerging climate-smart technologies like biochar and enhanced rock weathering.
- Climate-smart biofuel policies can reduce emissions in many key industries, such as aviation and travel.
- The study highlights the potential to extend such policies beyond biofuels to include food, animal feed and fiber crops, providing larger benefits to the agriculture industry.
EAST LANSING, Mich. – As global carbon emissions continue to hit all-time highs, strategies for achieving net-zero emissions have only become more important. Specifically, bioenergy has an important role in displacing fossil fuels and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
Therefore, a team of economists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Madhu Khanna and Gal Hochman), the University of California-Berkeley (David Zilberman) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Jeffrey O’Hara), including Michigan State University environmental scientist Bruno Basso, came together to propose a groundbreaking “climate-smart” biofuel policy that could revolutionize the agricultural sector’s role in mitigating climate change and improving ecosystems services.
The policy, informed by a recent study published in Science, aims to promote low-carbon biofuels for transportation and aviation, among other industries.
The study highlights how farm-specific carbon intensity, or CI, scores can incentivize climate-smart agricultural practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance soil carbon sequestration.
“This policy is about turning farms into drivers of rural prosperity and stewards of our natural resources. By rewarding practices that store carbon in the soil, we can cut emissions, improve soil health and create new revenue streams for farmers and rural communities,” said Basso, study co-author and sustainable agriculture scientist in MSU’s Colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Natural Sciences.
Leveraging carbon benefits
Biofuels, which are fuels produced from renewable sources such as plants or organic waste, have long been recognized as a key tool for reducing reliance on fossil fuels, but current policies often overlook the climate benefits of sustainable farming practices. The policy
proposes to reward farmers for adopting management practices such as no-till farming, crop rotation, cover cropping, precision agriculture and emerging technologies like biochar and enhanced rock weathering. The environmental benefits from these practices lead to a lower carbon footprint of the bioenergy feedstocks then transformed to biofuels.
“By aligning biofuel policies with climate-smart agricultural practices, we can create a win-win scenario for farmers, the environment and the biofuel industry,” said lead author Khanna.
The policy would leverage existing biofuel markets, such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, or LCFS, to provide financial incentives for farmers. Unlike traditional conservation programs, which are limited by budgets, this market-driven approach would scale based on policy targets. Farmers would benefit from premium prices for low-carbon feedstocks, while biorefineries could reduce their supply-chain emissions.
The benefits of the policy
Key components of the proposed policy include farm-specific carbon footprints, which incorporate soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions into biofuel CI calculations. Using multimodel ensembles, or MMEs, recently developed by Basso et al., 2025, soil carbon changes, greenhouse gas emission of climate-smart practices could be more easily and accurately assessed.
The policy also proposes long-term contracts between farmers and biorefineries to ensure sustained adoption of climate-smart practices and cost-effective systems like mass-balance or book-and-claim approaches to trace CI reductions.
The researchers acknowledge challenges, such as the reversibility of soil carbon sequestration and potential off-farm emissions leakage. However, they emphasize that even temporary carbon storage has climate benefits and that advancements in digital technology, predictive modeling and policy design can address these issues.
“Delaying action while waiting for perfect solutions will be costly. We need evidence-based policies that can adapt and evolve as we learn more,” Basso said. “Advances in modeling and digital technologies now make it possible to track carbon intensity score, support farmers economically, and help communities reduce their overall environmental footprint. These tools can also enhance other positive ecosystem services from management practices that improve farm profitability and environmental health, added Basso
The study highlights the potential to extend such policies beyond biofuels to include food, animal feed and fiber crops,paving the way for a larger transformation of agriculture.
Basso is a John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in the colleges of Natural Science, and Agriculture and Natural Resources. His research at MSU is supported by the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center; U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research Program (DE-SC0018409); National Science Foundation, Long-term Ecological Research Program (DEB 2224712) at the Kellogg Biological Station; U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, award 2020-67021-32799; Office of the Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and Michigan State University AgBioResearch.
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Journal
Science
Article Title
Climate-smart biofuel policy as a pathway to decarbonize agriculture
Article Publication Date
20-Aug-2025
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