Written by Julie Bobyock
Globally, agriculture is a major driver of climate change. In the United States, for example, producing crops and managing livestock like cows and poultry accounts for 10% of overall greenhouse gas emissions. Because of the scope of the contribution of agriculture to climate change, there is hope that changing how we grow food can be a part of the solution, by reducing emissions or even “sequestering” harmful emissions in agricultural working lands.
But that’s only part of the story. Our farms don’t just add or subtract carbon from the atmosphere. They are also deeply affected by climate change impacts like drought, flooding, and temperature shifts.
“Farmers in the Northeast and other parts of the country are contending with significant climate change impacts like periods of drought alternating with severe storm and precipitation events,” explained Ellen Griswold, Managing Director of Programs at Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment. “Dealing with these impacts increases costs and reduces yields and profits, which not only makes farming more challenging, but threatens food access and our food supply and security.”
Regenerative agriculture – a holistic, place-based approach to farming and food that prioritizes a healthy environment – builds resilient farms and farmers through practices that build soil health and minimize soil disruption. It has the potential to improve agricultural, ecological, social, health and economic outcomes of farming and offer hope in what often seems like a “zero-sum” battle between feeding our communities today and the viability of our food system in the future.
Agricultural impact: fertilizer, grazing, livestock
How does agriculture contribute to climate change?
Nitrogen-rich fertilizers help enhance crop growth, but when microbes process the additional nitrogen in the soil, they release nitrous oxides: long-lived, potent greenhouse gases. Nitrous oxide emissions account for over 90% of greenhouse gases produced from crop production.
Managing livestock produces methane, another potent greenhouse gas. These emissions come from the digestive processes of cattle and from manure stored for fertilizer.
Clearing land for crops and livestock releases carbon dioxide. By eliminating trees and plants that actively store carbon and absorb carbon dioxide, land-clearing turns carbon sinks into carbon dioxide sources.
In the past six decades, the total area of natural habitats cleared for agriculture globally is about the size of the continental United States. Most species cannot survive in agricultural land, resulting in population decreases for thousands of species around the world that also come with cascading negative effects to ecosystem health and function.
Paradoxically, the way we grow food can also degrade soil, the foundation of a sustainable farm. Excess rain or snowmelt can overflow open cropland and carry soil particles and nutrients (like nitrogen fertilizer) into nearby waterbodies, simultaneously damaging soil and contaminating surrounding ecosystems. Single-crop production also limits biodiversity and soil nutrients, making the ecosystem more vulnerable to heatwaves, flooding and other extremes.
Regenerative agriculture: healthy soils and carbon sinks
Agriculture affects the climate, but the relationship goes both ways. Climate change is leading to more frequent and intense weather extremes including floods, droughts and heat waves – all of which can harm farmland. Flooding can erode nutrients and deplete oxygen; drought can affect soil structure, nutrient availability and microbial activity; and heatwaves can decrease soil moisture and kill crops, beneficial microbes and insects. By focusing on soil health and avoiding “extractive” methods that leave the land depleted, regenerative agriculture helps to keep nutrients like carbon in the soil and build the resiliency of agroecosystems to these threats.
How? Closed-loop agriculture is a regenerative strategy that recycles nutrients, water and organic matter within the farm system, limiting waste that produces methane and external inputs that can place ecosystems under stress. A great example of this is integrating livestock into the management of pasture and cropland.
Planting cover crops is a regenerative agriculture practice that grows legumes or grasses instead of leaving soil bare during an off season. Cover crops help absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, increase carbon and nutrients in the soil with their roots and organic matter, and limit soil erosion and nutrient runoff.
Tilling is a common agriculture practice that prepares land for growing crops by breaking up and aerating soil. However, this can damage soil structure and increase nutrient runoff and soil erosion, degrading the health of soil and surrounding waterbodies. No- or low-till are regenerative strategies in which seeds are drilled directly into the ground, limiting disruption.
Given that forests make up about 90% of Maine’s land area and offset 90% of the state’s greenhouse gases, agroforestry–deliberately integrating trees and shrubs into farmland instead of clearing them–is of particular interest in Maine. Agroforestry can help improve water retention in the soil, prevent wind and water erosion, provide shade for livestock, and fix essential nutrients like nitrogen into the soil, all while increasing carbon sequestration.
Resilient agriculture in the Northeast
If regenerative agriculture is adopted globally, it may offer the potential to reduce or sequester emissions meaningfully. However, the impact regionally in the Northeast on that front will be minimal. In Maine, where Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment is located, agriculture only accounts for about 2% of emissions. But despite its relatively small contribution to greenhouse gases compared to other regions, the Northeast United States can benefit from regenerative practices to mitigate the very real local impacts of climate change.
The Northeast is warming 50% faster than the global average and experiencing more frequent and intense precipitation extremes, while Maine specifically could see two to four times more days over 90 degrees by the 2050s. This reality threatens the economic viability of Maine’s agriculture and food industries, which contribute more than $15 billion annually to the state’s economy and support thousands of family farms and tens of thousands of jobs.
Strengthening our regional food system is important because farms, communities, and ecosystems can become more resilient with a holistic approach to agricultural stewardship that accounts for regional variations and limitations in farmland.
To that end, Wolfe’s Neck Center has worked with Maine’s Climate Council on Maine Won’t Wait, Maine’s climate plan. Part of the recommendations focused on protecting the natural and working lands is to produce 30% of Maine’s food in-state by 2030. Regenerative agriculture practices that keep soil healthy and resilient are key to ensuring the state’s agroecosystems can persist sustainability into the future and create robust local food systems that are resilient to disruption from conflict or disaster.
“Practicing climate-friendly strategies that enhance soil health and increase access to food grown and harvested in Maine can ultimately strengthen the food system against climate change and supply chain disruptions,” says Griswold. “This also supports the farming, fishing and aquaculture industries in Maine, preserving and creating jobs. Wolfe’s Neck Center is engaged in the global conversation but laser-focused on our work at the regional level.”
If we want to protect and produce local food, we need tools that help farmers compete and networks that allow farmers to work together to better the environment.
Wolfe’s Neck Center: Regional food systems change
At Wolfe’s Neck Center for Agriculture & the Environment, our on-farm regenerative agriculture practices include keeping soil covered all year, minimizing tillage, avoiding chemical fertilizers, maximizing crop diversity and managing grazing and pasture health intensively. Our working research and education farm in Freeport demonstrates how regenerative practices can be integrated with conservation and community engagement. Our campus is home to 600 acres of regeneratively managed farmland as well as a campsite, summer camp, historic buildings, on-farm agricultural research trials and the Casco History Lab, telling the stories of how people have cared and stewarded this land over millennia.
We also support farmers across Maine and the Northeast who are working towards similar goals.
Through our Northeast Farmers Fund initiative, we work directly with farmers to fund implementation of regenerative farm practices and sample soil to support decision making, helping others find what practices sustain their farms across New England and New York. By providing tailored technical assistance and insights into soil health, we partner with farmers to increase the resilience of our regional food system.
Considering the impact of grazing and livestock, we train the next generation of pasture-based dairy farmers through our dairy grazing apprenticeship in partnership with the Dairy Grazing Alliance. By connecting apprentices with experienced mentors and hands-on training, our program helps to facilitate a sustainable future for dairy farming based on the health of the herd and the land they graze.
Wolfe’s Neck Center tackles the nuanced relationship of soils and climate with a holistic (and hopeful!) approach that integrates practice and partnership, demonstrating the potential of farming to serve as a powerful climate mitigation and resilience tool in a rapidly changing world.
To learn more about our approach to regenerative agriculture, click here.
← Back to Blog