THE ROAD To Self-sufficiency

Julie Moore outlines the principles of regenerative agriculture and shows how these can be applied to your plot for more self-sufficient and sustainable growing

- Julie Moore

Imagine not having to buy a single vegetable, of relying on no one but yourself. Think of the feeling of worthiness as you prepare another nutritious home-grown meal in the knowledge that, despite recent global events, you have resiliency, growing your own food regeneratively and sustainably to feed your family.

Whilst this may be utopia, the truth is that for many of us, our addiction to consumerism makes true self-sufficiency impossible. Even so, with the worldly turmoil surrounding us our renewed interest in self-sufficiency is perhaps driven by our human instinct to know that we can rely on our own means to help us withstand not just one pandemic, but any other future shocks to our fragile food supply chain.

As we face an unprecedented global crisis with nature and climate change, the path to selfsufficiency is no longer about being sustainable, it’s about being regenerative.

Regenerative agriculture is a rapidly growing buzzword of a very specific food revolution, a revolution that aims to rebuild soil health and overall biodiversity with minimal inputs, resulting in nutrient-dense food grown in a truly sustainable way. Regenerative farmers avoid tilling so that they protect the community of soil micro-organisms, the water-storing pores they create underground and the carbon they’ve stashed there. They encourage plant diversity and plant cover that mimics nature in their fields while farm animals polish off the residue crops. Since these methods build soil, crowd out weeds and retain moisture, there’s no need for costly fertilisers or herbicides.

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