Case Study

 This case study is in fulfilment of PhD research into

Transition Design practice—exploring what it means to

catalyse change in a real transition context.  When I first started my PhD in 2017, interest in Regenerative Agriculture (regen ag) was beginning to grow. Regen ag had been around in various forms for nearly 30 years, not counting millennia of Indigenous practices, and uptake was slow but gaining some momentum. I was pointed to the challenge and opportunity of enabling more and more farmers to transition to regenerative, resilient, and agroecological practices.

Research was conducted from 2017-2023 during some of the most challenging climate conditions on record in the state. Industry NSW reported that: “The 2017-2020 drought was the worst over the historical record from the 1890s until now”. Many farmers, seeking to minimize damage to the landscape, sold off stock. The 2019-2020 summer saw catastrophic bushfires across Australia. Multiple cycles of La Niña 2021-2023 delivered flooding. Some areas flooded catastrophically more than once, with the Lismore area flooding twice—and one time at 2 meters higher than previous records. The Varroa mite, a honeybee parasite, was discovered onshore in 2022, leading to the euthanization of more than 13,000 beehives in the state. In the midst of such challenging growing conditions, the global pandemic and war in Ukraine disrupted supply chains and economies around the world.

 There has been much contestation over the definition of Regenerative Agriculture. Some definitions focus on outcomes, some focus on practices. Because the definition is contested, I will use the description that came from the farmers participating in this research. Discussion of this contestation as well as risks to the transformative potential of Regenerative Agriculture can be found in my thesis and field guide. Participating farmers were all in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and mostly farmed livestock (cattle and sheep), with some mixed cropping.

According to participating farmers, Regenerative Agriculture works because they took a mindset of ‘farming with nature’. They described working with the self-healing, renewing, self-organizing properties e.g., regenerative, qualities inherent to life. Farmers argued that they were achieving ecological and human wellbeing, climate resilience, and production by working regeneratively. Rather than pitting production against conservation, the regenerative approach brings the two together. They described a congruence between means and ends: their approach to farming works with the capacity for renewal and so it yields regenerative outcomes.