Regenerative Agriculture & Farm Justice Working Group

Overview

Regenerative Agriculture & Farm Justice Working Group

ASBC is building the business case for public policies and private-sector coordination to create a more regenerative, just, and equitable agricultural system. This ASBC campaign has two main pillars: Regenerative Agriculture & Food Systems, and Justice & Equity in Agriculture. 

Regenerative Agriculture & Food Systems  

Regenerative agriculture is an approach to farming that uses a combination of practices like managed grazing, no or minimal tillage, composting, cover crops, and crop rotations. These practices restore soil health and ecosystem functioning to agricultural lands, providing various benefits for the farmer, the environment, and businesses. 

Download: Principles to Inform Regenerative Agriculture Recommendations

For the farmer:  

Regenerative agriculture increases crop yields, profits per acre, and resilience to extreme weather events, while reducing input costs and providing multiple revenue streams.  

Quality products from regenerative farms can fetch higher prices in the market. 

For the environment:  

Regenerative agriculture is a key tool in combating climate change.  Farming practices that improve soil health sequester global warming-causing carbon dioxide (C02).  Some studies suggest that regenerative farming practices could sequester more than one hundred percent of annual C02 emissions.  

Regenerative agriculture can ensure clean waterways.  In the United States, agriculture is the main source of pollution in rivers and streams, but this does not need to be the case.  Agriculture can serve to protect, and even increase, clean water supplies through practices that decrease soil erosion and reliance on synthetic pesticides and fertilizers.  

For businesses: 

Regenerative agriculture can provide a distinct marketing advantage. Across business sectors, companies are driving the growth of regenerative agriculture to attract new customers and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability which consumers increasingly demand. 

Regenerative agriculture can improve businesses’ supply chain resilience; essential against the growing threats of climate change, disease, and other business-disrupting crises. 

Justice & Equity in Agriculture 

ASBC’s campaign directly addresses social inequities within the agricultural system.  In building more regenerative systems, we aim to ensure that: 

Family farmers receive fair prices that cover the price of production and provide them with a decent livelihood; 

All farmers, especially historically underserved Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and women farmers, receive equitable access to markets and government farming programs; 

Food and agricultural workers receive living wages and have safe working environments.  

ASBC’s Public Policy Working Group 

ASBC is developing a working group to guide this campaign and influence public policy. It brings together relevant sectors from the sustainable, socially responsible, and mission-driven business community with other important stakeholders working to build a regenerative agricultural system. 

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American Sustainable Business Network and Partners Increase Demand on Supreme Court to Protect Wetlands and America’s Clean Water Act 
2022.06.15 Sackett v EPA business amicus brief

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) June 21, 2022 — American Sustainable Business Network (ASBN), a movement builder organization committed to inform, connect, and mobilize the business and investor community toward a sustainable economy, joined partner organizations to file a friend-of-the-court brief before the Supreme Court on Friday afternoon in support of the Environmental Protection Agency and clean water protections in the case of Sackett v. EPA.