Many large commercial farming practices take more from the land than they give. The goal certainly isn’t sustainability or improving naturally occurring ecological processes.
Regenerative agriculture, by contrast, emphasizes farming in harmony with nature and the community. Its practices strengthen the processes that support plant growth and can improve things like soil health, plant health and resistance, water and nutrient retention, and pollination.
- Key principles include:
- Build and protect soil health
- Support biodiversity
- Reduce biological and chemical inputs
- Increase soil organic matter
- Be community-minded
- Prioritize environmental sustainability and food sovereignty.
According to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Greater Sudbury has a total of 14,737 acres of farmland and 112 farms—of which 81.3 per cent are small farms (earning less than $100,000 per year in revenue).
Encouraging and supporting farmers who use regenerative agricultural practices is crucial to help sustain our food system for future generations. It is indeed possible to grow food in a way that is regenerative, not destructive and avoids depleting food sources.
The following four local farms are leading by example:
Verdant Fields Farm
Chelmsford, ON
This small-scale ecological farm operates on a little less than one acre of production, growing seasonal herbs and vegetables using regenerative agricultural practices. With over 40 different types of crops and several different cultivars, they also raise sheep and pigs, and have a small laying flock of chickens that produce colourful eggs. They promote community education through offering ecological camps, workshops and farm tours to various groups.
The farm is run by owners (and married couple) Misha and Jayeeta, along with their three young children.
Some of the practices they use include:
- They don’t use any synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides and protect their crops using row cover or insect netting, a very fine mesh installed over the beds.
- The farm is no-till or low-till, meaning they don’t till the land before planting.
- Non-root crops are cut at the soil level, allowing the roots to decompose and add more organic matter.
- Crop rotation is another practice they utilize to not deplete soil nutrients and maintain soil health
- The animals move around on the pasture to help revitalize the soil through their grazing and manure.
“Regenerative farming practices definitely makes you more sustainable and resilient, but the quality of the produce is almost a completely different product from the grocery store. It has a different texture and flavour profile. Our carrots are sweet—it’s like biting into candy—the same with our snap peas. Most people comment on the freshness of the vegetables,” says Misha. He has also noticed great improvements in their yield.
“Sometimes we talk about how we are in the field of preventative medicine. Something as intimate as food that you’re putting into your body and digesting, you want to know what’s in it. It’s a source of nourishment, interacting with your organs,” says the farmer. “Make sure the food you’re eating is clean, that it hasn’t been sprayed with harmful chemicals, and it is nutrient-rich, not empty calories.”
La Belle Vie Farm
St.-Charles, ON
“Haskaps are remarkable—they’re a fruit that’s like a blueberry and a raspberry had a baby,” says co-owner Tara Hamilton.
La Belle Vie Farm planted their first haskap berry bushes in 2012. Their farm is primarily an ecological haskap orchard, producing thousands of pounds of fruit each year. They offer pick-your-own haskap, fresh-picked and frozen haskap, as well as a full range of haskap products produced in their farm-to-table commercial kitchen. They are proud to help contribute towards improving our regional food system and local food security.
The farm also has a small market garden producing salad greens, herbs and some seasonal vegetables in both an indoor aquatic environment and in terrestrial gardens, including a small greenhouse.
Some of the practices they use include:
- Focus on nutrient-dense perennial fruit to minimize their ecological footprint and adopt a permaculture approach.
- As a perennial crop orchard, haskap berries do not require tilling of the soil every year.
- Slowly incorporating more native plant species to attract beneficial predatory insects to adopt a biodiversity approach to pest and disease control, encouraging beneficial insects, birds and microbial life in balance with the needs of their primary crop.
- Do not net their fields to exclude birds. They experimented with netting, but it resulted in bird mortality.
- Retained old netting fence posts as perches that attract larger birds, including a variety of birds of prey that help reduce numbers of berry-eating birds.
- Established an indoor vertical aquatic (aquaponic) garden, where they raise fish and plants together, growing salad greens and rainbow trout.
“I think it’s important to talk about how ‘regenerating’ an ecosystem can also be something that not only looks at traditionally ‘holistic’ approaches to agriculture but can also incorporate technologically-driven innovative approaches like indoor aquaponic vertical farming. As we find solutions to the rapid changes we are seeing, we need to work from multi-faceted and multi-pronged perspectives that build on trying to see the ‘whole’ in ways we may not have previously considered,” Tara explains.
Three Forks Farms
Gore Bay, ON
Three Forks Farms is a certified organic vegetable, chicken and seed farm located on Manitoulin Island. For 10 years they have focused on delivering high quality, safe, organic foods to people in their community. They currently operate on 10 acres of in-use land on their 100-acre farm.
“Regenerative agriculture is a core principle of organic farming,” says co-owner Peggy Baillie. “Many of our practices are founded on the principles of making the land better than when we started.”
Some of the practices they use include:
- Rotational grazing of chickens
- Cover cropping
- Reduced tilling
- Maintaining riparian buffer areas around the farm
- Habitat support for a variety of species through wetland preservation water features and habitat creation.
Organic farming has always been important to Peggy and her husband, Eric Blondin. “We really believe in supporting the environment through natural processes. Organic farming aligns with our values of working with the land and limiting the use of petro-chemicals and synthetics that can have harmful impacts on the environment.”
“We have also seen significant improvements in the health of our soil and therefore the health and nutrient value of the products we are growing, all done without the use of synthetic inputs or fertilizers,” Peggy says.
“Regenerative agriculture is so important because it is fostering the land to thrive in the way that it’s naturally meant to. It supports the land to take care of itself and therefore takes care of the species and flora and fauna that exist on the land and within the environment,” says Peggy. “I don’t know another form of agriculture that allows for the land to repair and take care of itself in the same kind of way.”
Valley Growers
Blezard Valley, ON
Valley Growers is a family-run farm owned by Justin and Alicia Gaudet. They farm around 1,300 acres per year of different crops, including over 500 acres of potatoes. They also grow oats, rye, soybeans and cover crops.
“At Valley Growers, one of our main focuses is on soil health,” says Justin. “In order to grow great quality crops, we need great quality soils.”
Some of the practices they use include:
- Use full-season and post-harvest cover-cropping using a custom cover-crop blend consisting of six different plant species, all contributing their own benefits to the soils.
- Remove all fall tillage.
- Try to have a living plant for as long as they can.
- Work on balancing nutrient levels in their soils to make them the perfect ecosystem for microorganisms to live and reproduce.
“The main reason we transitioned our focus to soil health was that the old farming practices were shown to deteriorate our soils and were not sustainable. We want to produce great quality crops for years to come and therefore we need to make sure we are not only maintaining our soils but improving and building them year-after-year. Building soils is not something that happens in a year or two, it takes decades of improvements but can be done.”
“We believe regenerative agriculture is incredibly important. We have a growing population and therefore a growing requirement to produce more food. We cannot make more farmland, in fact, we are losing farmland each year,” says Justin.
“In order to compensate for that, we need to produce higher yields, which means asking and taking more from our soils. If we were to follow old farming practices, we know for a fact we would continue to deteriorate our soils. We needed to make changes using regenerative practices in order to ensure we can have healthy, high-producing soils for years to come.”
These farms have noticed significant improvements to the land they steward, including greater yields, better water holding capacity, higher quality produce and more diversity in birds, insects and plant species. Specifically:
- Reduced tilling helps maintain soil structure, reduce erosion and protect beneficial microbes beneath the soil surface.
- Without tractors or heavy equipment driving on the soil and compacting it, there are fewer drainage issues or stunted growth, even on clay soils.
- Perennial plants, like haskap berries, help with carbon sequestration and provide habitat for a variety of beneficial species.
- Indoor hydroponic or aquaponic systems have the potential to use significantly less water than field or even greenhouse-grown crops.
- Having balanced soils helps reduce disease pressure and produces better quality crops.
Regenerative agriculture practices also support climate change efforts and help reduce the amount of water use on farms.
To find more local farms and producers, visit the City’s Food Access Map.
Learn more about the City of Greater Sudbury and its commitment to reducing greenhouse gases and helping the community achieve its net-zero goal by 2050.
If you have a project you’d like the City to highlight, contact Jennifer Babin-Fenske at [email protected].
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- The possibilities of regeneration short animated film – An Indigenous perspective of regenerative agriculture following the release of the film Kiss the Ground.
- Regeneration Canada
- Canadian Organic Growers
- Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (EFAO)
- Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association (OSCIA)
- ClickFork.ca – Online resource to purchase from local farms
- Food Access Map – Find local farmers
- Sourcing local food (Coalition for a Liveable Sudbury)
- How to practise regenerative agriculture in your own yard or community garden
- Little Green Patch - Regenerative Urban Gardening