A regenerative design aims to create a synchronised and balanced system that produces healthy and resilient outcomes. The impact of production from this system should reinforce and stabilise the elements of that system through positive feedback loops.
To achieve a regenerative design in a farm context, we first look at the function of natural ecosystems and what patterns can be observed within them. We then look at how to find a compatible range of agricultural species that enable the healthy function of those agricultural ecosystems to occur. Lastly, we look at what design principles have been demonstrated by pioneers in regenerative farming - that can be applied to achieve successful results on the farm.
To achieve a regenerative design in a farm context, we first look at the function of natural ecosystems and what patterns can be observed within them. We then look at how to find a compatible range of agricultural species that enable the healthy function of those agricultural ecosystems to occur. Lastly, we look at what design principles have been demonstrated by pioneers in regenerative farming - that can be applied to achieve successful results on the farm.
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Challenges of Current Land Use
Although land-use practices vary greatly across the world, their ultimate outcome is generally the same: the acquisition of natural resources for immediate human needs, often at the expense of degrading environmental conditions. Ironically, just as our collective land-use practices are degrading ecological conditions across the globe, humanity has become dependent on an ever-increasing share of the biosphere's resources. Human activities now appropriate nearly one-third to one-half of global ecosystem production and as development and population pressures continue to mount, so could the pressures on the biosphere. As a result, the scientific community is increasingly concerned about the condition of global ecosystems and “ecosystem services.”
Land use thus presents us with a dilemma. On one hand, many land-use practices are absolutely essential for humanity, because they provide critical natural resources and ecosystem services, such as food, fiber, shelter, and freshwater. On the other hand, some forms of land use are degrading the ecosystems and services upon which we depend, so a natural question arises: Are land-use activities degrading the global environment in ways that may ultimately undermine ecosystem services, human welfare, and the long-term sustainability of human societies?
It has been well documented that the scale of change required over the next few decades requires profound changes in how we design, construct and inhabit our environments. We will not sustain the will needed to make and maintain these changes, day after day, without evoking the spirit of caring that comes from a deep connection to place.
Land use thus presents us with a dilemma. On one hand, many land-use practices are absolutely essential for humanity, because they provide critical natural resources and ecosystem services, such as food, fiber, shelter, and freshwater. On the other hand, some forms of land use are degrading the ecosystems and services upon which we depend, so a natural question arises: Are land-use activities degrading the global environment in ways that may ultimately undermine ecosystem services, human welfare, and the long-term sustainability of human societies?
It has been well documented that the scale of change required over the next few decades requires profound changes in how we design, construct and inhabit our environments. We will not sustain the will needed to make and maintain these changes, day after day, without evoking the spirit of caring that comes from a deep connection to place.
Regenerative Design
The design of a regenerative system requires guidance from a philosophy of design that harnesses characteristics of complex systems that emerge in nature. Such systems demonstrate the complexity of mutually supportive inter-relationships that create stability and resilience over time.
Regenerative design is where the output of a system improves the health and resiliency of that system over time. This is achieved by positive feedback loops linked to production that function to strengthen that system. The characteristics of a regenerative system are having a functional diversity of inter-connected elements in ways that mirror the communities of plants and animals in ecosystems.
Nature is the ultimate practitioner of developing complex self-sustaining systems over time - that move ecosystems towards more complex and stable states. The emergence of this stability even shifts (on a global scale) life sustaining conditions within the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), lithosphere (land) in ways that benefit life. Such processes have Terra-formed Earth into more climatically and atmospherically stable states - in the process of life evolving into complex self-organised assemblies.
Humans (as part of this great flourishing of life) have the innate design hard-wiring latent within our subconscious – which we can harness to continue this work of life on Earth – making our planet a more rich, diverse, productive and beautiful creation.
To achieve this outcome requires careful observations of what patterns within actions result in the most desired outcomes. These reliably reproduce actions that could be called design principles. Aligning our design-intention to these principles will provide a framework to reflect upon our outcomes and make guided-adjustments that we can refine over time.
Adopting principles is a way of guiding and orchestrating an approach to the design of a system. By analysis of patterns within outcomes, principles can be constructed that provide a predictable guide to expected outcomes based upon prior results. Over time these principles can be refined and simplified to provide benchmarks to guide actions to replicate those predictable outcomes. By combining outcomes, more assurances can be met and more precision in expected outcomes. Undertaking this formal process will also help crystallize ideas, allow for patterns to be more clearly identified and allow for better improvements to be made.
A regenerative system is characterised by its complexity and inter-connectivity that replicates the function of natural ecosystems. To understand a systems thinking processes requires suitable information from a system, a set of principles to base your logic framework upon and a suitable outcome that can be benchmarked for success against a value like resiliency. Two characteristics of applying these design principles are systems-thinking, synergy and resilience.
Systems-thinking is a process of understanding how things influence one another. In nature ecosystems provide a wonderful reference point, where the complex interactions between communities of plants and animals creates a complexity of interconnected relationships from which the health of that system and its stability over time arises. This complexity of interactions enables matter to be effectively recycled within an ecosystem and not only produce no waste, but improve the health of surrounding ecosystems with which they are connected (locally and globally). Biological interactions within ecosystems also acts to slow and dissipate energy moving through that system so that the energy has greater ability to be transferred between species and contribute to constructing stability within that system and resources that can be accessed.
Synergy describes the harmonious relationship between the elements of a system that create outcomes that are greater than the collection of the individual outputs of that system. This is achieved by collaboration between the elements of that system that mutually re-enforce each other in ways that creates a harmonic resonance that amplifies the observed outcomes. This is achieved by subtle alignments, enabling the parts of that system to integrate and benefit from the complexity of interactions with other elements of the system that modify the context in which that system operates. This enables resources to be utilised more effectively and energy passing through that system to be slowed and utilised more effectively in constructing stable states of organisation that further moderates the environment of the system and enables each part of that system to operate at increasingly more efficient and refined states.
Resiliency can be described as the ability of a system to resist being destabilised and the elasticity with which it returns to a steady state when disturbed. Resiliency is commonly bench marked within permaculture to determine the outcome of a systems thinking process. Resiliency can be objectively measured by soil carbon, nutrient density of food, diversity of species, or presence of indicator species. These measures could be performed within soil communities, plant communities, or within freshwater species in streams and rivers impacted by the surrounding land use of the catchment of which they are a part.
Regenerative design is where the output of a system improves the health and resiliency of that system over time. This is achieved by positive feedback loops linked to production that function to strengthen that system. The characteristics of a regenerative system are having a functional diversity of inter-connected elements in ways that mirror the communities of plants and animals in ecosystems.
Nature is the ultimate practitioner of developing complex self-sustaining systems over time - that move ecosystems towards more complex and stable states. The emergence of this stability even shifts (on a global scale) life sustaining conditions within the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), lithosphere (land) in ways that benefit life. Such processes have Terra-formed Earth into more climatically and atmospherically stable states - in the process of life evolving into complex self-organised assemblies.
Humans (as part of this great flourishing of life) have the innate design hard-wiring latent within our subconscious – which we can harness to continue this work of life on Earth – making our planet a more rich, diverse, productive and beautiful creation.
To achieve this outcome requires careful observations of what patterns within actions result in the most desired outcomes. These reliably reproduce actions that could be called design principles. Aligning our design-intention to these principles will provide a framework to reflect upon our outcomes and make guided-adjustments that we can refine over time.
Adopting principles is a way of guiding and orchestrating an approach to the design of a system. By analysis of patterns within outcomes, principles can be constructed that provide a predictable guide to expected outcomes based upon prior results. Over time these principles can be refined and simplified to provide benchmarks to guide actions to replicate those predictable outcomes. By combining outcomes, more assurances can be met and more precision in expected outcomes. Undertaking this formal process will also help crystallize ideas, allow for patterns to be more clearly identified and allow for better improvements to be made.
A regenerative system is characterised by its complexity and inter-connectivity that replicates the function of natural ecosystems. To understand a systems thinking processes requires suitable information from a system, a set of principles to base your logic framework upon and a suitable outcome that can be benchmarked for success against a value like resiliency. Two characteristics of applying these design principles are systems-thinking, synergy and resilience.
Systems-thinking is a process of understanding how things influence one another. In nature ecosystems provide a wonderful reference point, where the complex interactions between communities of plants and animals creates a complexity of interconnected relationships from which the health of that system and its stability over time arises. This complexity of interactions enables matter to be effectively recycled within an ecosystem and not only produce no waste, but improve the health of surrounding ecosystems with which they are connected (locally and globally). Biological interactions within ecosystems also acts to slow and dissipate energy moving through that system so that the energy has greater ability to be transferred between species and contribute to constructing stability within that system and resources that can be accessed.
Synergy describes the harmonious relationship between the elements of a system that create outcomes that are greater than the collection of the individual outputs of that system. This is achieved by collaboration between the elements of that system that mutually re-enforce each other in ways that creates a harmonic resonance that amplifies the observed outcomes. This is achieved by subtle alignments, enabling the parts of that system to integrate and benefit from the complexity of interactions with other elements of the system that modify the context in which that system operates. This enables resources to be utilised more effectively and energy passing through that system to be slowed and utilised more effectively in constructing stable states of organisation that further moderates the environment of the system and enables each part of that system to operate at increasingly more efficient and refined states.
Resiliency can be described as the ability of a system to resist being destabilised and the elasticity with which it returns to a steady state when disturbed. Resiliency is commonly bench marked within permaculture to determine the outcome of a systems thinking process. Resiliency can be objectively measured by soil carbon, nutrient density of food, diversity of species, or presence of indicator species. These measures could be performed within soil communities, plant communities, or within freshwater species in streams and rivers impacted by the surrounding land use of the catchment of which they are a part.