What is Regenerative Agriculture and Farming?

Regenerative Agriculture

White Leaf Provisions is proudly the first shelf-stable, regeneratively farmed family foods brand in the US. Since day one, we have been dedicated to bringing this level of purity and transparency to families with the highest sourcing standards that support healthy soil, healthy planet, and healthy food.

Learn more about regenerative farming and how important it is for our future below.

Regenerative Agriculture Conventional Farming Climate Change Regenerative Practices The White Leaf Difference

What is Regenerative Agriculture?

A regenerative farming model takes the way nature works as a baseline and then farmers work with nature to improve and repair the land, all while growing nutrient-rich crops.

Regenerative Agriculture

Conventional agriculture, which took hold in the 1920s to meet rising global food demand, was never built for longevity or health. By design, these practices deplete rather than regenerate, eroding the very foundations of soil, human health, and ecosystems. The consequences are staggering: nearly one quarter of the planet’s land is already degraded, and the FAO warns that up to 90% of soils could be degraded by 2050. As topsoil disappears, so does the vibrant soil food web—and with it the land’s ability to store carbon, cycle nutrients, and hold water.

There is an elegant solution rooted in nature: regenerative farming.

While conventional farming prioritizes yield at the expense of soil, ecosystems, and human well-being, regenerative agriculture treats soil as the foundation to healing the earth. By moving away from chemical use and monocrops, regenerative agriculture takes a holistic approach to heal our ecosystems and restore biodiversity, one farm at a time. The result? Healthy soils grow nutrient-rich crops that nourish both people and planet.

“The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.”

― Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture

The Problem with Conventional Farming

Conventional farming takes the thriving life inside of soil and depletes it. Practices like extensive use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and over-tilling (opening up the soil more than necessary) disrupt and kill the microorganisms in the soil. This destruction of soil has many downstream effects—from producing lower quality food to being a driver of climate change.

Farms in America lose 295 million tons of topsoil every year. Half the world’s topsoil was depleted in the past century, and future predictions aren’t much better. If current rates of farmland destruction continue, the earth will become critically short of fertile land within 60 years.

Mass Desertification

The majority of U.S. soils are extremely degraded (over 50%!) and we are losing healthy soil 10x faster than it is being replenished, leading to mass desertification—a disastrous situation in which people go hungry and must find other places to live.

Poor Food Quality

This also has an impact on the quality of our foods. The food we eat today contains less protein, calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin C than food produced just a half-century ago.

Toxic Chemicals

Conventional farming relies on chemical intervention to fight pests and weeds and provide plant nutrition. That means synthetic pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers on your family’s foods. A non-organic apple typically has over 30 different pesticides sprayed on it!

Greenhouse Gasses

The way we currently produce most of our food is making climate change and biodiversity loss worse—agriculture is currently responsible for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, 70% of freshwater use and 80% of habitat loss.

Agriculture & Climate Change

It is no secret that agriculture is a contributor to climate change. Agriculture, forestry and other land use account for 22% of global greenhouse emissions, making this sector one of the leaders in triggering global warming

However, it can also serve as a critical force for good and part of the solution. This is because organic regenerative farming involves carbon sequestration: a process wherein carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and stored deep within the earth alongside other greenhouse gases, like methane.

Research shows that if we switched to regenerative agricultural methods on a global scale, humanity could capture more than 100% of today’s yearly CO₂ emissions. These practices pull carbon from the air and store it safely in the soil, helping to reverse climate change.

Regenerative Practices

Regenerative agriculture is one of the most powerful tools we have to shape a thriving future.

There are over a billion microorganisms in a single teaspoon of healthy soil—these feed the plant the nutrients it needs to be healthy. Regenerative farming prioritizes the health of the soil microbiome—and in doing so, increases both the yield and the nutrient density of what grows in it. When soils are managed to foster diverse microbial life, they create the conditions for truly nourishing food for us + our communities.

This isn’t just about crops: it’s about the deep connection between land, animals, and people. Healthy soils support resilient ecosystems, nutrient-rich crops, and the well-being of every living thing that depends on them—including us.

Regenerative agriculture seeks to maximize health and vitality of the soil, ecosystem and crops, all at once. It restores and preserves soil health with cover-cropping, composting, crop rotation and diversification, and low or no-till farming. Some practices include:

Replacing Herbicides
Replacing chemical herbicides with farm produced herbal sprays to enhance and enliven crops
Crop Rotation
Growing different types of crops in the same area across seasons to naturally improve soil health, reduce pests & boost biodiversity
Composting
Composting converts organic scraps into rich soil, boosting its water retention, nourishing crops, and resisting pests
Mobile Grazing
Grazing animals, if managed properly, can bring pastures back to life, increasing biodiversity below and above ground. Restored pastures actually help draw down carbon, too!

1 4

The White Leaf Difference

Regeneration isn’t just how we farm—it’s who we are.

White Leaf Provisions was founded on these principles. Every crop, supplier, and certification is chosen to protect this virtuous circle of good health for people and planet.

Our founders Meghan and Keith Rowe began White Leaf Provisions after their son began to react adversely to even the organic baby food options on shelves. Familiar with biodynamic and regenerative farms abroad, they were inspired to bring the same level of purity, transparency, and vitality back home to the U.S.

Today, we hold ourselves to the highest possible standards—Certified Organic, Non-GMO, Glyphosate-Residue-Free, and Regeneratively Farmed. Our ingredients are cultivated in nutrient-dense soil—without synthetic chemicals, monocrops, or shortcuts—producing foods that nourish our bodies, taste better, and support the planet for future generations to come.

And we are continuously deepening our impact. Learn more about our sourcing, testing, and certifications here.

Our Standards