Designing Regenerative Food Systems - Marina O'Connell

A toolkit of 6 regenerative food growing systems which have been tried and tested. These can help farmers and growers transform industrial food production systems into resilient, biodiverse, carbon negative, productive farms and bring about an agroecological revolution. Farms and garden design for growing healthy food from living soil in low input closed loop systems. The circular food economy. The four challenges of climate change mitigation, climate adaptation, offsetting biodiversity loss and producing enough healthy food for a growing population. The author’s case study of her Huxhams Cross Farm researches how depleted soil was transformed into a thriving living soil drawing on the toolkit of these 6 sustainable methods. She outlines the six main forms of sustainable food production : biodynamic, organic, permaculture, agroforestry, agroecology and regenerative farming methods. The principles and practices of each approach are explained concisely, with illustrative case studies of successful examples.There are follow up resources including articles, books, film references, and training available around the world. The book concludes with the Huxhams Cross Farm case study with hard research evidence, reviewing the extent to which the four challenges have been met and how a successful farm has been developed from bare land in 5 years. The conclusion addresses how farming can be transformed by tackling such barriers as land access for farmers, the psychology of scarcity and building farmer capacity. The key roles of food choices, policy, community supported agriculture are addressed.