Did you know we’re losing the equivalent of a soccer field of soil every five seconds? Our current mainstream, or “conventional,” agricultural systems for growing food, fuel and fiber are simply not sustainable, and we don't have unlimited time to fix it.
Yet another depressing—even paralyzing—statistic in a rising sea of climate crisis predictions. But it doesn’t have to be, says Evan Harrison, CEO of Kiss the Ground, a nonprofit organization that promotes regenerative agriculture as a groundbreaking solution to our planet’s wellness, water and climate crisis. There is a fix, a relatively simple, low-cost one at that. A fix that’s as old as the soil itself.
First, however, some background: The way we cultivate most of our crops and livestock is decimating the planet’s ecosystem—in the form of topsoil and biodiversity loss, desertification, habitat destruction, and air and water pollution. This isn’t anything new, of course. Humans have been degrading soil for thousands of years, thanks to limited awareness of how soil works and its role in the ecosystem.
Adding fuel to the fire, says Harrison, is the fact that large-scale agriculture systems, the bulk of many nations’ farming and ranching supply chains, practice monocropping (think rows of corn plants stretching for miles along the highway), which hinders biological diversity. This approach also relies on fertilizer and pesticides, contributing to soil erosion, water waste and chemical runoff. “The current industrial agriculture system simply isn’t endurable,” says Harrison. “As soil becomes highly degraded, it turns into dirt. And nothing can grow in dirt.”
Farming in harmony with nature
Regenerative agriculture—a holistic, nature-based approach to farming and ranching, with healthy soil as its foundation—offers a better solution. Rebuilding the soil’s organic material and biodiversity increases a plant’s nutrient content, disease resistance and capacity to pull carbon from the atmosphere. Regenerative practices include minimal disturbance of soil to reduce erosion, cover crops to protect soil, crop rotation to boost nutrients and reduce the need for pesticides, and managed livestock grazing, which fertilizes the soil. Additionally, increasing soil organic matter boosts the amount of water the ground can hold.
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), regeneratively nurtured soil can draw down 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent greenhouse gasses annually. That’s a head-scratcher of a number, so consider this: Yale researchers recently determined that 170 bison reintroduced a decade ago to 20 square miles of a previously plowed region in Romania have thus far nullified the carbon emissions of 43,000 gas-powered cars.
“In building healthy soil,” says Harrison, “you have numerous benefits, including helping with climate change.”
Boosting awareness
The idea of carbon sequestration, water retention, increased biodiversity, more nutrient-dense foods, and improved health for humans and the planet is great, but Harrison knows regenerative agriculture also needs to make financial sense if it’s to see widespread adoption. Adoption, however, is the trickiest part of mainstreaming any new technology, even when what’s new is actually old.
Harrison isn’t a farmer, scientist or academic, but he’s always been an innovator. Although he began his career in music—playing a leading role in transitioning the industry from analog to digital as president of digital who oversaw Clear Channel Radio’s transformation to iHeart Radio—his love of the ocean and passion for surfing led him to join the board of Surfrider Foundation. That's when his eyes opened to the possibility of working full-time for environmental causes.
A few years ago, Harrison’s daughter asked him to help promote a film she’d recently watched and was fascinated by. The film, narrated by the actor Woody Harrelson, was “Kiss the Ground,” a 2020 documentary that illustrates how “by regenerating the world’s soils, we can completely and rapidly stabilize Earth’s climate, restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies.”
Harrison was blown away. “Having served on Surfrider's board, I thought I was on the cutting edge of environmental technologies and solutions. But here was this solution called ‘regeneration,’ and I didn't know a thing about it.”
He soon realized that not many others knew about it either. Although there was awareness of healthy soil as the missing-in-plain-sight climate link among indigenous populations and a subset of scientists and farmers, Harrison understood that the movement needed “a good promoter, a good leader and a good marketer to bring it to the mainstream.” It just so happened that Kiss the Ground, the organization that inspired the creation of the film, was looking for a CEO. “I threw my name in the hat,” he said, and the rest is history.
The tipping point
Four years after the premiere of “Kiss the Ground,” which Harrison says kickstarted the regenerative movement, public awareness of the practice is at 4%. Even so, since the documentary’s release, the organization has seen 34 million acres transition under the management of Understanding Ag, a regenerative agricultural consulting firm—an astonishing number when you consider the USDA logged a total of just 4.9 million certified organic acres in 2021.
Kiss the Ground’s goal for the next few years is to inspire and catalyze the addition of 100 million regenerated acres and to triple public awareness to 12%, which Harrison says is the tipping point for driving advocacy, corporate support and policy reform. (Policy changes typically come only after educated consumers consistently demand specific products—in this case, those that support regenerative practices.) “Along the way, our health and the health of our environment will begin to show tangible signs of improvement.”
Harrison emphasizes that getting to 12% awareness doesn’t require only appealing to those concerned about the environment. He notes that while studies show only half the U.S. adult population feels a responsibility to do something about climate change, 70% care deeply about their wellness. And with close to 90% of Americans suffering from poor metabolic health, it all comes down to the food system. “We're not well. The planet is not well. And we can reverse that by eating real foods,” he says. “But to eat real foods, we must change the agriculture system.”
Listen, learn and lead
To that end, Kiss the Ground promotes on-demand education and storytelling for those who want to learn about and advocate for the movement. Its website features dozens of mini-documentaries, shorts and bite-size Q&As that detail farmers’ and ranchers’ “Stories of Regeneration” and other experiences. Also available are 90-second “edutainment” shorts, which Harrison says do well on TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn. And those who wish to dig deeper can access a 90-minute on-demand course, “Regenerative Essentials,” along with other courses (“Soil Advocate Training,” “Introduction to Regenerative Gardening”), information on how to find regenerative farms, and resources to guide consumers in purchasing decisions and navigating food labels. Whatever people’s appetite or capacity for information, says Harrison, “we’re meeting them where they are.”
Obstacles to overcome
On the farming and ranching side of the equation, where awareness of the regenerative movement is greater than among the general population, money is the biggest barrier to adoption. Transition requires upfront capital: money for new equipment, money to hire consultants to help determine strategy (e.g., what cover crops to invest in) and money for testing. All of this is daunting for an industry in which profit margins are slim and securing loans is challenging. On the flip side, farmers see savings on input costs, like pesticides and fertilizers, on transitioned acreage from day one, not to mention the additional revenue that comes from planting different crops throughout the year.
Another barrier comes in bucking tradition. “When you’ve been doing the same thing the same way for a long time, it’s hard to consider doing anything different,” says Harrison. “And if you don't have the support of your community, change is even harder”—particularly when change means giving up government subsidies and facing down naysayers “trying to convince you that you're making the wrong move, that you're risking your livelihood.”
Partners in transition
To ensure this movement grows in a real and tangible way, more organizations need to get involved. To broaden awareness and provide concrete support for the transition to regenerative practices, Kiss the Ground established a partnership program. The goal is for earnest companies to enter the regenerative movement humbly through internal team education and then share the message with their audiences. Current partners are using their funds to support the regenerative movement through Kiss the Ground's mission of educating, storytelling and direct impact on the transition of land by way of on-the-ground consultants alongside farmer grants.
Grants are especially welcome, given that regenerative farmers predominantly target local communities directly or through regional distributors to limit how far their products must travel. Achieving price premiums in the early market stage, however, particularly in the absence of government subsidies, can be difficult. As a result, Harrison says, “we’re starting to see more direct-to-consumer regenerative brands emerging nationwide.”
Emerging technology
Another push for regenerative agriculture comes with increasing awareness of what automation and artificial intelligence can do. “I’m a data junkie,” says Harrison, as are a lot of farmers, so it was fun to “geek out” with them over a data dashboard demo that offers dozens of data points on crop nutrient density, soil health metrics and more. “The hard part is figuring out how to distill all those points down to the 12 that matter most.”
While drones have played a mapping role for farmers and ranchers for some time, Harrison says that two of the coolest technologies on the horizon are automated tractors and (very accurate) farm robots.
With artificial intelligence still in its infancy, he adds, “These technologies are just the tip of the iceberg.”
